Italy’s Byzantine Catholics
by Msgr. Eleuterio F. Fortino
The Byzantine Catholic Church in Italy is characterized by a unique phenomenon. Although Byzantine, this church has been under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, the pope, since the sixth century except for a period of 400 years beginning in 731.
This Byzantine presence in southern Italy knows two phases: Italo-Greek and Italo-Albanian. These phases are clearly distinct for historical, cultural, ethnic and linguistic reasons, reflecting the general consciousness of the nations Byzantine Catholics.
The Italo-Greek Phase. The byzantinization of southern Italy began during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) with a military campaign launched by General Belisarius in 535. In time a Greek Church developed that had, at the peak of its power and influence in the 10th century, a number of dioceses and two metropolitan seats.
The Greek Church had a substantial religious influence on southern Italy. The most recent studies of Italo-Greek saints, history, music and liturgy verify this influence with abundant documentation. Studies have also revealed that Greek monasticism, rivaling the monastic centers of the Byzantine East, thrived in 10th-century Calabria.
The confluence in Italy of people from all over the empire especially at the time of the seventh century Arab invasions brought to Italy a variety of eastern, Byzantine traditions. Since provinces tend to be more conservative than city centers, southern Italy may be a true archive of ancient Byzantine traditions.
Byzantinists have rescued exceptional documentation from oblivion. Recently, Enrica Follieri of the University of Rome published The Life of St. Fantino the Younger, which is now an obligatory resource for those who want to pursue the study of Italo-Greek monasticism. This study is of interest to Catholics, but above all to the Orthodox. This was demonstrated when the Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Studies in Thessaloniki published a monograph on the monasticism and spirituality of the Italo-Greeks. In addition, The Life of St. Nilus of Rossano, a medieval biography of the founder of the monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata which was written in Italy, although in Greek was translated into modem Greek and published by an Orthodox monastery with a preface by a superior of a Mount Athos monastery.
Another fertile field is liturgy. For some time the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Rome has been promoting the study of the liturgical manuscript sources contained in the typica (monastic codes) and euchologion (liturgical prayer books) of the Byzantine Church. This year two young researchers from the Oriental Institute printed the most important Italo-Greek Byzantine prayer book, Euchologio Barberini Gr. 336, first copied in Byzantine Calabria in the eighth century. This codex is believed to be the oldest remaining manuscript of the Byzantine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
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Tags: Church history Albania Italy Italo-Byzantine Catholic Church