Diocese of Bisignano
The former Italian Catholic diocese of Bisignano, in Calabria, existed from the eighth century until 1818. In that year it was united with the diocese of [San Marco], to create the diocese of [San Marco e Bisignano]. More recently, Bisignano passed to the archdiocese of Cosenza-Bisignano.
History
Bisignano is the ancient Besidias, or Besidianum, which in the eleventh century became the residence of a Norman count and later a fief of the Orsini. In 1467 Skanderbeg's daughter, wife of the Prince of Bisignano, invited there many Albanian families who established various colonies, spoke their own language, and used the Greek Rite.The first mention of a bishop is in 1179. Bisignano certainly had bishops in the tenth century, when mention is made of Ulutto in the life of St. Uilo di Rossano; Bishop Federico was killed in 1339.
Ordinaries
Diocese of Bisignano
Erected: 7th CenturyLatin Name: Bisinianensis
- Nicola Piscicelli
- Giovanni Frangipane (bishop)
- Bernardino Ferrari de Achrio
- Francesco Piccolomini
- Fabio Arcella
- Niccolò Caetani di Sermoneta
- Domenico Somma
- Sante Sacco
- Luigi Cavalcanti
- Martino Terracina
- Filippo Spinola
- Prospero Vitelliano
- Giovanni Andrea Signati
- Pompeo Belli
- Domenico Petrucci
- Bernardo del Nero, OP
- Gian Giacomo Amati
- Mario Orsini
- Alderano Bellati
- Giovanni Battista de Paola
- Carlo Filippo Mei, B.
- Paolo Piromalli, OP
- Giuseppe Maria Sebastiani, OCD
- Onofrio Manesi
- Giuseppe Consoli
- Pompilio Berlingieri
- Orazio Capalbi
- Felix Solazzo Castriotta
- Bonaventura Sculco
- Lorenzo Maria Varano, OP