Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Matera-Irsina

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Matera-Irsina (Latin: Archidioecesis Materanensis-Montis Pelusii) in Basilicata, Italy, has existed under this name since 1986. The archbishop is seated at Matera Cathedral. (Irsina Cathedral is a co-cathedral). It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo.

Archdiocese of Matera-Irsina

Archidioecesis Materanensis-Montis Pelusii
Location
CountryItaly
Ecclesiastical provincePotenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo
Statistics
Area2,020 km2 (780 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		(as of 2013)
144,644
140,000 (96.8%)
Parishes55
Information
DenominationCatholic Church
RiteRoman Rite
Established2 July 1954 (65 years ago)
CathedralBasilica Cattedrale di S. Maria Assunta della Bruna (Matera)
Co-cathedralConcattedrale di S. Maria Assunta (Irsina)
Secular priests98
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
ArchbishopAntonio Giuseppe Caiazzo
Website
www.webdiocesi.chiesacattolica.it

The Archbishop, since 2004, had been Archbishop Salvatore Ligorio; but on Monday, October 5, 2015, he was elevated by Pope Francis to be Metropolitan Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo (in Potenza, Italy), to whose province the Archdiocese of Matera-Irsina (in Matera, Italy, and Irsina, Italy) belongs. It is not the norm, but by no means irregular (especially in historically very Catholic countries like Italy) to have a non-metropolitan archdiocese either under a metropolitan archdiocese, as is the case here, or to have non-metropolitan archdioceses be subject directly to the Pope (though the latter is increasingly more rare, since the former is now the preferred method of governance).

History

The Diocese of Matera was originally a separate diocese. Its origins are not well documented. Apart from an unreliable reference to a bishop at Matera in 482, the first evidence of the bishops here dates from 968, when the Patriarch of Constantinople ordered the diocese of Matera, with several other dioceses of the region, to be subordinated to the Archdiocese of Otranto and the Byzantine Rite.

The diocese of Matera[1] was combined by a papal bull of Pope Innocent III of 4 May 1203 with the Archdiocese of Acerenza to form the Archdiocese of Acerenza and Matera, and the building of the present Matera Cathedral on the site of the church of Saint Eustace began in the same year.

By a papal bull of 2 July 1954 the Archdiocese of Acerenza and Matera was split into two, forming the Archdiocese of Acerenza and the Archdiocese of Matera, which by a further bull of 21 August 1976 lost their status as archiepiscopal sees. Matera was united on 11 October 1976 with the Diocese of Gravina-Irsina to form the Diocese of Matera e Irsina. On 3 December 1977 however this was elevated to an archdiocese. The name was changed to its present form - "Matera-Irsina" rather than "Matera e Irsina" - on 30 September 1986.[2]

Archbishops

Archbishops of Acerenza and Matera

From 1203 to 1954 see Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Acerenza#Archbishops of Acerenza and Matera

Archbishops of Matera

Bishop of Matera
  • Michele Giordano (21 Aug – 11 Oct 1976)

Bishop of Matera e Irsina
  • Michele Giordano (11 Oct 1976 – 3 Dec 1977)

Archbishop of Matera e Irsina
  • Michele Giordano (3 Dec 1977 – 30 Dec 1986)

Archbishops of Matera-Irsina
  • Michele Giordano (30 Sep 1986 – 9 May 1987, when he became Archbishop of Naples)
  • Ennio Appignanesi (21 Jan 1988 – 19 Jan 1993, when he became Archbishop of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo)
  • Antonio Ciliberti (6 May 1993 – 31 Jan 2003, when he became Archbishop of Catanzaro-Squillace)
  • Salvatore Ligorio, from 20 March 2004

References
  1. it is sometimes maintained that Matera was elevated to an archdiocese in the 11th century, before the union with Acerenza in 1203
  2. Website of the Diocese

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