The Archdiocese of Crotone-Santa Severina is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Calabria in southern Italy, created in 1986 when it was combined with the Diocese of Santa Severina. It is now a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Catanzaro-Squillace. In 2013 there was one priest for every 1,841 Catholics. The original Diocese of Cortone (also Cotrone, now Crotone) had existed from the 6th century. It was a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Reggio.

History

According to local legend the Gospel was preached there by Peter the Apostle, or by Dionysius the Areopagite, a follower of Paul of Tarsus, and it is claimed that Dionysius was the first bishop. Cotrone (ancient Croton) was besieged by Totila, King of the Goths, in the 540s, without success. At a later date Croton became a part of the Byzantine Empire. About 870 it was taken and sacked by the Saracens, who put to death the bishop and many people who had taken refuge in the cathedral. Later on it was conquered by Normans, and thenceforth shared the fate of the Kingdom of Naples. The first known bishop of Cotrone, according to local tradition, was Flavianus, during whose episcopate occurred the siege of the city by Totila, according to Fernando Ughelli. There is no documentary evidence of his existence.

Cathedral and Chapter

The cathedral of Crotone was dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, and to Dionysius the Areopagite. The cathedral was administered and staffed by a corporation called the Chapter, which was composed of four dignities (Archdeacon, Dean, Cantor and Archpriest) and sixteen canons. In 1690, and again in 1793, there were six dignities and eighteen canons. The diocesan seminary was established by Bishop Girolamo Carafa (1664–1683).

Diocesan synods

A diocesan synod was an irregularly held, but important, meeting of the bishop of a diocese and his clergy. Its purpose was: Bishop Marco de Rama (1690–1709) presided over a diocesan synod in Crotone on 9 July 1693. A diocesan synod was held by Bishop Gaetano Costa (1723–1753) in the cathedral of Crotone on 5–7 June 1729. Bishop Giuseppe Capocchiani (1774–1788) held a diocesan synod in the cathedral of Cortone on 18 December 1785. On 20 December 1795, Bishop Ludovico Ludovici (1792–1797) held a diocesan synod, whose decrees were published in Naples in 1796. Bishop Leonardo Todisco Grande (1834–1849) began a general visitation of the institutions of his diocese in 1842, and then presided over a diocesan synod which was held at Crotone on 1–3 June 1845; its constitutions and decrees were published.

Reorganization of 1818

Following the extinction of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the Congress of Vienna authorized the restoration of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Since the French occupation had seen the abolition of many Church institutions in the kingdom, as well as the confiscation of most Church property and resources, it was imperative that Pope Pius VII and King Ferdinand IV reach agreement on restoration and restitution. Ferdinand, however, was not prepared to accept the pre-Napoleonic situation, in which Naples was a feudal subject of the papacy. Lengthy, detailed, and acrimonious negotiations ensued. In 1818, a new concordat with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies committed the pope to the suppression of more than fifty small dioceses in the kingdom. In the ecclesiastical province of Reggio, to which the diocese of Cotrone belonged, Pope Pius VII, in the bull De Utiliori of 27 June 1818, chose to suppress the diocese of Isola completely, and assigned its people and territory to the diocese of Cotrone. In the same concordat, the King was confirmed in the right to nominate candidates for vacant bishoprics, subject to the approval of the pope. That situation persisted down until the final overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in 1860.

Temporary union of three dioceses under one bishop

Changing patterns of settlement and distribution of wealth following World War II had an impact on dioceses which were mostly rural in character. In 1970, the entire diocese of Santa Severina had a Catholic population estimated at 62,000, and was served by 44 priests (1:2000). The diocese of Cariati had some 72,000 Catholics, and 37 priests (1:1945). The diocese of Crotone had an estimated 61,000 Catholics and 37 priests (1:1648). Bishop Orazio Semeraro of Cariata had been transferred to Brindisi in April 1967; Bishop Raimondi of Crotone had died in June 1971. Archbishop Michele Federici of Santa Severina was transferred to Veroli-Frosinone on 23 December 1973, which cleared the way to a reorganization of diocesan resources in Calabria. On 21 December 1973, Pope Paul VI appointed Giuseppe Agostino, who had been the Vicar General of the diocese of Reggio Calabria, Archbishop of Santa Severina and at the same time Bishop of Crotone and Bishop of Cariati, aeque pariter. Cariati was united to the archdiocese of Rossano in 1979, and Santa Severina was united to the archdiocese of Crotone in 1986.

Union of Santa Severina with Crotone

On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. Instead, the Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese. On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Crotone and Santa Severina be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Archidioecesis Crotonensis-Sanctae Severinae. The diocese was to be subject to the metropolitan of Reggio-Bova. The seat of the diocese was to be in Crotone, and the cathedral of Crotone was to serve as the cathedral of the merged diocese. The cathedral in Santa Severina was to become a co-cathedral, and the cathedral Chapter was to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan tribunal, in Crotone, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the former dioceses of Crotone and Santa Severina.

Change of metropolitan

Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the Council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, major changes were made in the ecclesiastical administrative structure of southern Italy. The provinces of Calabria were addressed by Pope John Paul II in the bull Maiori Christifidelium of 30 January 2001. The dioceses of Cosentina-Bisignano and Catanzaro-Squillace were raised to metropolitan status. Catanzaro-Squillace was assigned the dioceses of Nicastro and Crotone-Santa Severina, which had been suffragan dioceses of the metropolitanate of Reggio-Bova, as its suffragans.

Bishops of Crotone

to 1400

1400 to 1700

1700 to 1986

Archdiocese of Crotone-Santa Severina

Books

Reference works

Studies

Acknowledgment