The Diocese of Squillace (Lat.: Scyllatium) was a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in Calabria, Italy. The diocese was established in the 5th century, and suppressed in 1986. In that year, it was combined into the Archdiocese of Catanzaro-Squillace. It was a suffragan of the archdiocese of Reggio in Calabria.
History
The territory of Squillace contains Stilo, the ancient Consilinum, three bishops of which are known, Sabinus (495) being the earliest. The creation of a diocese at Stilo in the 11th century is a matter of controversy.
The first known Bishop of Squillace is Gaudentius (465), who attended the Roman council of Pope Hilarius on 18 November 465. His two immediate successors, whose names are not preserved, were both murdered by priests of Squillace; the archdeacon Asello was deposed from his office for his part in the crimes. Bishop Zachæus accompanied Pope Vigilius to Constantinople (551). Joannes, previously Bishop of Lissa in Dalmatia, having been driven out by the barbarians, was transferred to Squillace by Gregory the Great (591).
Greek occupation
In 732, following the condemnation of Iconoclasm by both Pope Gregory II and Pope Gregory III, the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian launched a punitive campaign against the papacy and its supporters. Among other territories, he conquered a third of the island of Sicily and all of Calabria, including Squillace. In 740, he declared that all of his conquered territories were subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and were obligated to adopt the Greek liturgical rite. Squillace was declared a suffragan of Reggio.
Bishop Demetrius of Squillace attended the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 869–870. The Diatyposis of Leo the Wise (c. 900) registers Squillace as a suffragan of the metropolitan of Reggio.
After Bishop Demetrius, no bishops are mentioned until the Norman conquest.
The Norman church
Both Reggio and Squillace were conquered by the Normans in 1060.
In 1096, Count Roger I of Sicily, with the advice and consent of numerous bishops in his domain, erected the cathedral, into which the Roman Rite was introduced, though the use of the Byzantine Rite continued much longer in the diocese. The cathedral was administered and served by a corporation called the Chapter, which was composed of five dignities (the Dean, the Cantor, the Archdeacon, the Treasurer and the Archpriest) and fifteen canons. Joannes de Nicephoro (1096–1098) was the first Latin Church bishop of Squillace.
Between 1091 and 1101, St. Bruno established two Carthusian monasteries within the limits of the diocese, S. Maria dell' Eremo and S. Stefano in Nemore, the latter having the less rigorous discipline. Bishop Theodorus of Squillace participated in the consecration of S. Maria on 15 August 1094. The monastery of S. Maria was destroyed in the great earthquake of 1783.
On 5 April 1110, Pope Paschal II confirmed the privileges and property of the diocese of Squillace, just as Pope Urban II had done in 1096, recollecting the favor of Pope Gregory which Squillace had enjoyed. Pope Paschal also granted the privilege that bishop Petrus and all his successors would be consecrated by the pope personally; this was one of the privileges granted by Pope Gregory I to Bishop Joannes in 592. Squillace was confirmed as being directly subordinate to the papacy.
When Pope Alexander III confirmed the privileges and possessions of the archdiocese of Reggio on 19 November 1165, the diocese of Squillace was included among its suffragans. The Liber censuum of Cencius Camerarius (1192) also lists the diocese of Squillace as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Reggio.
In his bull "De Utiliori" of 27 June 1818, which reorganized the diocesan structure of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in consequence of the new Concordat of February 16, 1818, Pope Pius VII included Squillace among the suffragans of the metropolitan archdiocese of Reggio.
Invasions of Saracens in the ninth and tenth centuries, a landing of the Turks in 1595, and the earthquake of 1783 caused the ruin of Squillace. The cathedral had to be rebuilt.