TAURIANO. - Ancient episcopal see of Calabria, aggregated to Mileto in 1086.
It was a maritime city, situated between Medma and Palmi, near present-day Gioia Tauro. Most probably it took its name from the nearby river Metauro, now called Petrace. It does not appear among the colonies of Magna Graecia, but is mentioned in the Roman period, recorded by Pliny, Mela, and Stephanus of Byzantium. However, inscriptions discovered recently show that in the imperial age the population of T. was mixed, Greek and Latin.
The Christian faith was preached early in T.; an inscription from the Constantinian period records a bishop Leucosius, a name that is Greek but Latinized. In the 5FAUNO (v.) dwelt there; over his tomb a Basilian monastery arose, mentioned by Nilus Doxapatrius about 1140. His life was written by Bishop Peter in the 8th century.
The Regestum of St Gregory the Great mentions T. In 591 the Pope recommends to its bishop Paulinus that he gather his monks at Messina, dispersed by a barbarian raid, perhaps Lombard. They were not monks, however, as some think, but clergy living in community, on the model of those who lived near St Eusebius, St Martin, St Augustine, etc. A bishop named Lozenzius took part in the Synod of St Martin in 649. This is the last Latin name to appear in the catalogue of bishops of T. In 680 Bishop George signs in Greek, as do all his successors. During the Byzantine domination, T. became a notable monastic centre: St Elias of Enna, the Speleote, and Philaret dwelt there. The last bishop whose name is authentically recorded is Paul, who attended the Ecumenical Council of 870. However, from the Life of St Elias the Speleote it emerges that in 960, at the point of death, he was assisted by Bishop Vitalis. At that time, then, the episcopal see still existed, perhaps transferred to Seminara, since the city seems to have been destroyed by the Saracen raids of Hasan ibn ‘Ali in 950-951. Count Roger the Norman, who in 1073 had founded the see of Mileto from the spoils of Vibona, in 1086 also aggregated the territory of T., for which he obtained the canonical sanction of Urban II in 1093.