NAXOS. - Greek island, whose bishopric was probably erected in the 5th century; its bishop George took part in the Sixth Ecumenical Council. Under the emperor Leo VI (886-911) the bishopric of N. was subject to the metropolis of Rhodes. In May 1803 it was united with Paros into a single metropolis, Paronaxia. Under Latin rule from the 13th century the Latin bishopric was erected, which after the fall of Rhodes became a metropolis in the 16th century, preserved under Turkish rule (1537-1829) and in the new Greece down to the present day; only in 1919, on account of the few Catholics, was it united with the bishopric of Tinos-Mykonos under the title of archbishopric of Naxos-Tinos (and Mykonos).
Catholicism had its last flowering at N. in the 17th century; at that time the separated Greeks showed a great inclination toward the Catholic Church, and the work of the new religious who came to this island, Jesuits and Capuchins, met with a favorable reception. The French Ursulines continued from the 19th century down to the present day the apostolate of educating the young women of the native "at home" Ursulines (or Ursulines in the world), with vigor and breadth, so that their college at Tinos became a center for the formation of the girls of the best families of Greece, for the most part "Orthodox." At N. the memory has been preserved of the stay of Pope St. Martin I in the summer of 635, during his journey as a prisoner of the Byzantine emperor Constans II, a supporter of Monotheletism.
Bibliography5 works
Giorgio Hofmann