History
According to a local legend, the first Bishop of Brindisi was St. Leucius, about 165, who later underwent martyrdom. There is no historical proof for early beginnings of Christianity, except the account given by Arnobius of the fall of Simon Magus, who according to him withdrew to Brindisi and cast himself from a high rock into the sea.
The Diocese of Brindisi at first embraced the territory comprised within the present diocese of Oria. In the tenth century, after Brindisi had been destroyed by the Saracens, the bishops took up their abode at Oria, on account of its greater security.
From 1572-1591, during the tenure of the Spanish Bishop Bernardino de Figueroa movements were made to separate Oria as seat of a new diocese. This occurred in 1591, with Vincenzo del Tufo being appointed the first bishop of Oria in 1596. In the reorganization of the dioceses of the Kingdom of Naples in 1818 Brindisi was combined with the Diocese of Ostuni, formerly its suffragan.
Brindisi has been an archiepiscopal see since the tenth century. The ancient cathedral was located outside the city, but in 1140 Roger II, King of Sicily and Naples, built the present cathedral in the centre of the city.
Among the bishops of Brindisi were:
- St. Aproculus (Proculus), who died in 352 at Ardea, when returning from Rome, and was buried at Anzio;
- St. Cyprian, who died in 364;
- Andrea, murdered by the Saracens in 979;
- Eustachio (1060), the first to bear the title of archbishop;
- Guglielmo (1173), author of a life of St. Leucius;
- Girolamo Aleandro (1524), humanist, and papal nuncio in Germany in connection with Luther's Reformation, and later Cardinal;
- Pietro Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti, and afterwards Pope Paul IV, for some time the Apostolic administrator of this diocese;
- Francesco Aleandro (1542);
- Giovanni Carlo Bovio (1564–1572) from Bologna, who translated the works of Gregory of Nyssa, and was at the Council of Trent;
- Bernardino de Figueroa (1571–1591) former choirmaster of the Royal Chapel of Granada;
- Paolo de Vilanaperlas (1716);
- Andrea Maddalena (1724), who restored the cathedral after it had been damaged by the earthquake of 1743.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholic Archdiocese Of Brindisi-Ostuni
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