VIBONA. - The ancient diocese of V., called "Hipponium" by the Latins, at the southern end of the Gulf of St. Euphemia, was destroyed by the Saracens in the second half of the 10th century. In its place Monteleone di Calabria arose, which recently has reassumed the ancient name of Vibo Valentia.
It was first a Greek colony and then a Roman municipium; it was surrounded by powerful walls, of which eloquent remains still survive. Christianity gained a foothold there early, and an episcopal see was established there which is among the oldest in Calabria and whose existence is certain for the 5th century. Nevertheless, it does not seem that the Romano "Bubonensis episcopus" who took part in the Council of Chalcedon in 451 can be assigned to it. It seems, on the other hand, very probable that John, bishop of V., was one of the three bishops of Bruttium to whom Pope Gelasius addressed a decretal in 496. In fact, in 499 a John, bishop of V., took part in the Roman Synod of Pope Symmachus. St. Gregory the Great mentions two bishops of V.: Rufinus, who died in 599, and Venerius, last mentioned in 603. Other prelates follow: Papinius at the Synod of Martin I in 649; Crescens at the Synod of St. Agatho in 679; and Stephen at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. After that, the most absolute silence ensues. Throughout the 9th and 10th centuries it appears in the Greek Diatiposi as a suffragan of Reggio, but no titular is mentioned. The frequent Saracen incursions of the 10th century ended by destroying it, forcing the few surviving inhabitants to take refuge in a safer place, far from the coast, where they gave rise to the settlement of Monteleone, which was later fortified by the emperor Frederick II and became one of the most important centers of Calabria. The Normans, however, found nothing there but desolation, and for this reason, around 1080, they erected the diocese of Mileto with the territory of the two ancient and neighboring dioceses of V. and Tauriana.
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Francesco Russo