The Diocese of Lipari was a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church located in the town of Lipari in the Aeolian Islands of Sicily, Italy. The diocese consisted of the entire island of Lipari as well as seven smaller adjacent islands. In 1986, it was suppressed, and its territory incorporated into the Archdiocese of Messina-Lipari-Santa Lucia del Mela.Gabriel Chow, GCatholic.org, "Diocese of Lipari"; retrieved 15 February 2016. David M. Cheney, Catholic-Hierarchy.org, "Diocese of Lipari"; retrieved 15 February 2016.
History
Geology Lipari is a volcanic island, and as a result often suffers earthquakes, occasionally of considerable but local force.Mario Baratta, I terremoti d'Italia (Torino: Bocca 1901), pp. 217, 391, 824. A major eruption took place in 729, leaving a high pumice cone which is 476m (1570 feet) high; the population must have fled, at least temporarily. Another major eruption took place on the north end of Lipari at Rocche Rosse in 1220.F. Forni, et al., "Stratigraphy and geological evolution of the Lipari volcanic complex (Central Aeolian complex)," in: F. Lucchi, A. Peccerillo, J. Keller, C.A. Tranne, P.L. Rossi, The Aeolian Islands Volcanoes (London:Geological Society of London, 2013), p. 248.
One crater, called Monte Pilato, is mined for pumice and has numerous caves. Anachronistically, Monte Pilato figures in the romance of Agatho, the purported first bishop of the island in the 260's. There are still hot springs and fumaroles.Rosaly M. C. Lopes, p. 211. See also: Cappelletti, p. 574.
Pre-Saracen diocese The diocese of Lipari was already in existence by the 5th century. The names of several early bishops are attested, the earliest of whom is Augustus. Bishop Augustus attended the Roman synods of 501 and 502."Augustus episcopus ecclesiae Liparitanae subscripsi." Lanzoni, pp. 654-655. Kehr, p. 355. On 29 February 592, Pope Gregory I ordered Paulinus, the exiled bishop of Tauriana (Abruzzi), to take charge of Lipari, with was without a priest, and that he should reside there; he ordered Bishop Paulinus to be obedient to the bishop of Syracuse, and that he should visit Tauriana as often as the opportunity presented itself.Kehr, p. 357, nos. 1-2.
The Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717–741) removed the dioceses of Sicily, including Lipari, from Roman control and made them suffragans of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and immediately subject to the metropolitan of Syracuse.Kehr, p. 362. In the mid-9th (or 10th) century, Basil of IalimbanaAndreas Kuelzer, in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and its Many Heirs, (ed. Paul T. Keyser; Georgia L. Irby-Massie) (New York: Routledge 2008), s. v. "Georgios of Cyprus (600–620)". Ernest Honigmann, "Die Notitia des Basileios von Ialimbana," Byzantion 9 (1934), 205-222. revised the geography of George of Cyprus with the addition of a Notitia episcopuum, in which the diocese appears as a suffragan of Syracuse.H. Gelzer, Georgius Cyprius (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner 1890), p. 30. Bishop Basilius of Lipari therefore attended the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.
The Norman diocese
The Benedictine monastery of Saint Bartholomew de Lipara was founded by Roger d'Hautville and his brother Robert Guiscard before 1085.Kehr, pp. 358-359. In an evident response to a petition, Pope Urban II wrote to Abbot Ambrosius on 3 June 1091. In the letter, the pope acknowledged that an Emperor Constantine had granted the Papacy control over all the bishops of the island, as Pope Gregory I had recognized, but that Christianity had been wiped out by the Saracens."...a Sarracenis vero capta christiani nominis gloriam amisit...." But now the small population did not now merit a bishopric, while the pope was willing to grant the monastery the control of the entire island of Lipari. He took the monastery under papal protection, and granted the monks the right to elect their abbot, who was to be consecrated by the pope, all this in consideration of an annual payment of an ounce of gold.Kehr, p. 359, no. 1. In 1094, the abbey of Saint Bartholomew was united with the abbey of Patti, which Roger had also established.Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica Vol. 38 (Venice: Emiliana 1846), p. 300. On 14 September 1131, at the request of King Roger II, Pope Anacletus II established the monastery of Lipara as a diocese, and assigned it as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Messana. In October, Archbishop Hugo of Messana carried out the necessary ceremonies of erection.Kehr, p. 357-358, no. 4. He also established the monastery of S. Salvator in Patti as a bishopric. Neither creation was approved by Pope Innocent II.Kehr, p. 356.
The union of Lipari and Patti under a single bishop is found by 1154, when "Gilbertus ven. electus Pactensis mon." and "Gillibertus Lupariae et Pactarum electus" are found. Pope Alexander III recognized the union by 1166. The union was dissolved by Pope Boniface IX on 16 April 1399.Kehr, p. 356: "the venerable Gilbert bishop-elect of Patti; Gillibertus elect of Lipari and Patti." La Manti, p. xcviii.
Bishop Stephanus (attested 1180 – 1199) attended the consecration of the church of Saint Peter di Bagnara in Palermo in 1199.Pirro II, p. 953, col. 2. Rodriquez, p. 282.
Aragonese Sicily
After the Sicilian Vespers (1282), Lipari remained under the control of the Angevan kings of Naples, while Patti became subject to the Aragonese kings of Sicily. Pope Martin IV, considering the disorders in Sicily, reserved to the Papacy the right to appoint bishops there.Maurice Prou, Les Registres d'Honorius IV Vol. 1 (Paris: Thorin 1888), p. 244, no. 323, appointing the papal chaplain Pandulf bishop of Patti and Lipari. Bishop Pandulf's successor, Canon Ioannes, was also appointed by Benedict XI, on 31 January 1304, employing the same reservation.Charles Grandjean, Les registres de Benoît XI (Paris: Thorin 1883), pp. 298-300: "Dudum ... tam Martinus IIII quam Honorius IIII Romani pontifices, predecessores nostri, provisiones omnium ecclesiarum cathedralium, que a preterite turbationis seu rebellionis initio in insula Sicilie vacaverant et vacarent ibidem quandiu turbatio eadem perduraret, ordini et dispositioni Sedis Apostolice reservarunt...."
The "Customs of the city of Patti" were granted by King Frederick III of Sicily on 11 July 1312.La Mantia, p. xcviii, xcix. "Urbis Magnanimae et Nobilissimae Tyndaridis et Pactarum Ius Municipale".
In 1544 the pirate Barbarossa completely depopulated the island. It was at the direction of the Emperor Charles V, who noted the island's strategic position, that it was repopulated., by a colony of Spaniards. Bishop Baldo Ferratini (1534–1558) was given the position of papal legate, so that he could bestow indulgences on persons contributing to the building of a new cathedral. Rodriquez, pp. 296-297.
In the bull "Romanus Pontifex," dated 29 November 1627, Pope Urban VIII removed the diocese of Lipari from the ecclesiastical province of Messina, and made it directly subject to the Papacy.Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum, Taurensis editio Vol. 13 (Turin: Seb. Franco 1868), pp. 618-621. Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica Vol. 30 (Venice: Emiliana 1846), p. 300. The privilege was revoked in the 19th century, and Lipari again became a suffragan of Messina.Kehr, p. 356.
In 1692, the city of Lipari had a population of 10,000 persons. It was under the civil government of the king of Spain, and the direct spiritual rule of the pope, who alone had the right to consecrate its bishop.Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica, V, p. 245 note 1.
Bourbon Sicily
Because of the various treaty arrangements that fortified the Peace of Utrecht, Sicily found itself removed from the control of King Philip V of Spain, and assigned to the House of Savoy under King Victor Amadeus II. This arrangement lasted from 1713 to 1720, when an exchange of Sicily for Sardinia was made with the Hapsburg Charles VI / IV in the Treaty of The Hague (1720). The bishop of Lipari during this period was the Catanian Nicola Maria Tedeschi, O.S.B. (1710–1722), who was appointed by Pope Clement XI, but who was kept in Rome as Secretary of the Congregation of Rites and member of the Congregation of Bishops.Rodriquez, p. 42. In 1711, the bishop's agent's in Lipari sold a consignment of legumes, and the government immediately imposed a tax on the transaction. The bishop reacted by excommunicating the tax collectors and imposing an interdict in Lipari. The tax collectors appealed to the civil tribunal of the Monarchy, and were absolved. Bishop Tedeschi immediately appealed to the Congregation of Immunity in Rome, that civil officials had no right to remove censures imposed by a bishop, and was immediately followed by a similar appeal by the bishops of Sicily. The congregation ruled in their favor, stating that no one but the pope had the right to remove such episcopal censures. The stubborn bishop continued, until Clement XI revoked the censures on 2 September 1719.D'Avino, pp. 299-300.
In 1743, the city of Lipari had about 13,000 inhabitants, under the temporal authority of the King of Naples. The diocese was directly subject to the authority of the Pope, that is, Lipari had no regional Metropolitan. The cathedral had a Chapter which contained four dignities (Archdeacon, Deacon, Cantor, Treasurer) and fifteen Canons.Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica, VI, p. 263 note 1. Rodriquez, p. 36.
Bishop Vincenzo Maria de Francisco e Galletti died of cancer on 19 July 1769, and left the diocese of Lipari 25,000 scudi for the purpose of establishing a seminary, and to augment the prebends of the cathedral Chapter.Rodriquez, Giornale di scienze, letteratura ed arti per la Sicilia 19 (Palermo 1841), p. 49.
In 1789, a dispute arose between King Ferdinand and Pope Pius VI over the patronage of the diocese of Lipari, which was directly dependent on the Holy See. Ferdinand nominated Gaetano Garrasi, O.E.S.A., a native of Catania, whom the pope refused to consecrate; he was bishop-elect until the pope named him archbishop of Messenia on 18 June 1792, having been nominated by the king on 20 January.Rodriquez, pp. 51-52. Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica VI, p. 287. The king then nominated the Theatine Saverio Granata of Messina, whom the pope also rejected, and who was therefoer only bishop-elect until he was nominated bishop of Agrigento by the king on 12 May 1795.Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica VI, p. 71. The diocese was being administered by the abbot of Santa Lucia di Mela, Bishop Carlo Santacolombo, titular bishop of Anemurium, who died in 1801.Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica VI, p. 83. Pius VI had been deposed in February 1798 and taken as a prisoner to France, where he died in Valence on 29 August 1799. A new pope was not elected until 14 March 1800.J.N.D. Kelly & M.J. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes 2nd edition (Oxford: OUP 2010), p. 306.
On 9 August 1802, Pope Pius VII appointed Domenico Spoto bishop of Lipari.Rodriquez, p. 291. Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica p. 241.