Strongoli


Strongoli is a comune and town with a population of over 6000 people in the province of Crotone, in Calabria, southernmost Italy.

History

In Antiquity, Strongoli was the site of Petelia, said to have been founded by Philoctetes.
It is the birthplace of Italian baroque composer Leonardo Vinci.

Ecclesiastical History

Some historians claim that Ancient Petelia already was a bishopric, established perhaps in 546 or then adopting the city's new medieval name Strongoli, but without solid evidence, and the see in never mentioned in the Byzantine imperial Notitia Episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which most dioceses in Calabria belonged to in the 9th till 11th centuries, so its foundation may rather date from the Normans, probably late 12th century.
The first historical record of the Diocese of Strongoli / Strongulen is a papal bulla from Pope Lucius III in 1183, naming it among the suffragans of the Archdiocese of Santa Severina.
The tiny bishopric, comprising solely the municipality of Strongoli, was confined by the Ionian Sea, Diocese of Crotone, the Diocese of Umbriatico and its Metropolitan, the Archdiocese of Santa Severina.
Its Cathedral was the Church of Peter and Paul, the episcopal city's only parish.
Yet between the 14th and 16th centuries, the diocese harbored a monastery of the Conventual Friars Minor, an Augustinian convent, a Capuchin monastery and some fifteen churches and chapels.
On 1818.06.27 the see was suppressed, its territory being merged into the then Diocese of Cariati.

Residential Ordinaries

;Suffragan Bishops of Strongoli
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Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1969 as Titular bishopric of Strongoli / Strongulen.
It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal rank :

Economy

Strongoli relies on the production of oil, wine, cereals, citruses and intensive cattle breeding.