Archdiocese of Palermo


The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palermo is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church. It was founded, according to a dubious hagiographical tale, in the first century, though evidence suggests that it was a fifth century creation. The diocese was raised to the status of archdiocese in the 11th century. The archbishop is Corrado Lorefice.

History

is just south of a major active seismic zone, and is subject to frequent earthquakes and occasional inundations. The events of 1693, 1726 and 1823 were particularly destructive.
In the 8th century, a monk produced a tale called "The Life of St. Philip of Agyrium," claiming Philip as the first Christianizer of Palermo. He is said to have lived in the reign of the Emperor Arcadius. Rescued from a shipwreck by an apparition of St. Peter the Apostle, he went to Rome, was ordained a priest by the pope, and sent to Sicily to exorcise the demon of Mount Etna. In another "Life of St. Philip", revised after the Norman conquest of Sicily, Philip is made to live in the time of Nero, to be consecrated by Saint Peter personally, and to be sent to Sicily as the first bishop of Palermo.
Pope Gregory I personally founded six monasteries in Sicily, including the monastery of S. Hermes at Palermo, according to Ugo Benigni. He also founded the monastery of S. Hadrian and the Praetoritanum. In the confusion following the death of Bishop Victor, in November 602 Pope Gregory appointed Bishop Barbarus of Carini as apostolic visitor of the diocese of Palermo. Carini may have been one of Palermo's suffragans.
In 718 the Emperor Leo III the Isaurian suppressed a revolt in Sicily, and then detached southern Italy and Sicily from the metropolitan jurisdiction of the pope in Rome. In the ninth century, the patriarch of Constantinople raised the See of Palermo to the rank of metropolitan of all of Sicily. A protest against these actions was entered by Pope Nicholas I, in a letter of 25 September 860 to the Emperor Michael III.

Arab control over Palermo and its church

Arab invasions of Sicily had begun at the beginning of the eighth century with the capture of the island of Cossura. Raids were launched in 730–731, 734–735, 740 and 752–753. Palermo was temporarily captured in 820, but the Arabs were driven out by pirates. The serious conquest of the island began in 827, from the Tunisian port of Susa, led by Asad Ibn Al-Furàt. Palermo fell in 831, Messina in 843, Leontini in 847, and Syracuse in 878. Taormina was captured in 902, completing the conquest of the entire island. From then until 1061, when the Norman conquests began, Sicily was an Arab land.
Ugo Benigni states, "Concerning the state of the Sicilian Church during the Saracen domination we have no information: not the name of a single bishop is known."
After the famine of 940, the Arabs deliberately drove Christians out of the western part of the island.

Norman control over the church of Palermo

On 10 January 1072, following negotiations and the surrender of the Muslims of Palermo, the brothers Robert Guiscard and Roger de Hauteville entered the city of Palermo in triumph. They immediately ordered the cathedral of the Greek Christian community to be reconsecrated, and attended a Mass of thanksgiving. In 1077, the city of Trapani fell to the Normans.
On 16 April 1083, Pope Gregory VII wrote a letter to Archbishop Alcherius of Palermo, confirming his diocese's possessions and privileges, including all his suffragan dioceses, or, if any of them has been destroyed, whatever is established in their place.
Bishop Peter of Squillace was appointed archbishop of Palermo in the winter of 1123. He attended the Lateran Council of Pope Calixtus II in March 1123.
On Christmas Day, 1130, Count Roger II was crowned King of Sicily in the Cathedral in Palermo. It is uncertain who crowned the king. One source names Count Roger of Capua, another Archbishop Peter of Palermo. The cathedral was rebuilt by Archbishop Walter between 1170 and 1190.
The Archdiocese of Palermo was united with the Archdiocese of Monreale on 7 July 1775. The union was dissolved on 12 March 1802. Monreale lost its metropolitan status in 2000, however, and it is now a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Palermo.
The Cathedral of Palermo is dedicated to the Bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven. The Chapter of the cathedral had three dignities in 1677, and two dignities in 1775. In 1211 there were eighteen canons, but the number grew to twenty-four in 1431, when Pope Eugenius IV ordered their reduction to eighteen again. In 1523 the Emperor Charles V added six more canons, bringing the number back up to twenty-four. There were again twenty-four canons in 1677 and twenty-six canons in 1775. The chapter had the right to elect the archbishop.

Reorganization of Sicilian ecclesiastical structure

In 2000, after extensive consultation with the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Congregation of Bishops, Pope John Paul II ordered a reorganization of the dioceses in Sicily. In the Apostolic Constitution "Ad maiori consulendum" of 2 December 2000. The metropolitan status of the archdiocese of Monreale was suppressed, and it was declared a suffragan of the archdiocese of Palermo. The diocese of Cefalù was transferred from the ecclesiastical provincw of Messina to that of Palermo.
The archdiocese has the following suffragans in the ecclesiastical Province of Palermo:

Bishops and Archbishops of Palermo

to 1200

During the Greek occupation of Sicily the only metropolitan bishop on the island was the metropolitan of Syracuse.
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Gratianus
  • Agatho
  • Victor
  • Ioannes
  • Felix
  • Theodorus
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous
  • Humbertus
  • Nicodemus
  • Alcherius
  • Gualterius
  • Pietro
  • Rogerius Frescra
  • Hugh
  • Stephen du Perche
  • Walterius Ophamil
  • Bartholomeus

    from 1200 to 1400

  • Parisius
  • Berardus de Castacca
  • Guilelmus
  • Leonardus
  • Giovanni Misnelli
  • Petrus de Santafede
  • Licius
  • Bartolommeo
  • Franciscus
  • Giovanni Orsini
  • Cardinal Matteo Orsini, O.P.
  • Theobaldus
  • Roger de Palheriis, O.Min.
  • Arnaldus Caprarii, O.Min.
  • Octavianus de Labro
  • Melchiore Bevilacqua
  • Martinus de Aretio
  • Matthaeus de Cumis
  • Nicolaus de Agrigento, O.Min.
  • Ludovico Bonito
  • Gilfortus Riccobono

    from 1400 to 1600

  • Joannes de Procida
  • Cardinal Rinaldo Brancaccio Administrator
  • Ubertinus de Marinis
  • Niccolò Tedeschi, O.S.B.
  • Marino Orsini
  • Simone Beccatelli
  • Nicolaus Pujades
  • Giovanni Burgio
  • Paolo Visconti, O.Carm.
  • Philip of Viana
  • Cardinal Pierre de Foix
  • Giovanni Paternò, O.S.B.
  • Cardinal Francisco de Remolins
  • Cardinal Tommaso De Vio, O.P. Administrator
  • Giovanni Carondelet
  • Cardinal Pietro Tagliavia d’Aragonia
  • Francisco Orozco de Arce
  • Ottaviano Preconio, O.F.M. Conv.
  • Juan Segría
  • Giacomo Lomellino del Canto
  • Cesare Marullo

    from 1600 to 1800

  • Diego Haëdo
  • Cardinal Giovanni Doria
  • Fernando Andrade Castro
  • Martín de León Cárdenas, O.S.A.
  • Pietro Jerónimo Martínez y Rubio
  • Juan Lozano, O.S.A.
  • Ferdinando Bazan y Manriquez
  • José Gasch, O.M.
  • Giovanni Maurizio Gustavo
  • Paolo Basile, O.F.M. Obs.
  • Domenico Rossi, O.S.B.
  • José Alfonso Meléndez, O.F.M. Disc.
  • Marcello Papiniano-Cusani
  • Serafino Filangeri, O.S.B.
  • Francesco Ferdinando Sanseverino, C.P.O.
  • Filippo López y Rojo, C.R.

    since 1800

  • Cardinal Domenico Pignatelli di Belmonte, C.R.
  • Raffaele Mormile, C.R.
  • Cardinal Pietro Gravina
  • Cardinal Gaetano Trigona e Parisi
  • Cardinal Ferdinando Maria Pignatelli, C.R.
  • Giovanni Battista Naselli, C.O.
  • Cardinal Michelangelo Celesia, O.S.B.
  • Cardinal Alessandro Lualdi
  • Cardinal Luigi Lavitrano
  • Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini
  • Cardinal Francesco Carpino
  • Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo
  • Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi
  • Cardinal Paolo Romeo
  • Corrado Lorefice

    Books

Studies

  • De Ciocchis, Giovanni. Edited by Vincenzo Mortillaro.. Volume 1. Palermo: Typographi Diarii Litterariae 1836.
  • Kamp, Norbert. Kirche und Monarchie im staufischen Königreich Sizilien: München: Wilhelm Fink 1975, pp. 1109–1145.
  • Kehr, Paul Fridolin. Italia Pontificia, Vol. X: Calabria – Insulae.
  • Loud, G. A.. The Latin Church in Norman Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Savagnone, F. Guglielmo. "Concili e sinodi di Sicilia,", in: Atti della reale Accademia di scienze, lettere e belle arti di Palermo terza serie, Vol. 9. Palermo: Impresa generale d'Affissione e Publicità, 1912. .