Rite
Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
Byzantine tradition · Church sui iuris
A Byzantine-rite Church sui iuris in southern Italy, never separated from Rome, comprising the eparchies of Lungro and Piana degli Albanesi and the abbey of Grottaferrata.
History
This Church has never been separated from Rome. It gathers the ancient Greek-rite communities of southern Italy together with the Arbëresh — Albanians who fled the Ottoman conquest from the fifteenth century onward and settled in Calabria and Sicily, bringing their Byzantine liturgy with them. The monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata, founded in 1004 by Saint Nilus of Rossano, has kept Greek monastic life alive in Italy without interruption ever since.
Background
Three jurisdictions make up the Church: the Eparchy of Lungro in Calabria (erected in 1919), the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi in Sicily (erected in 1937) and the Territorial Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated in Greek, Albanian and Italian.
Summary
A Byzantine-rite Church sui iuris in southern Italy, never separated from Rome, comprising the eparchies of Lungro and Piana degli Albanesi and the abbey of Grottaferrata.
Family
byzantine
Region
Calabria and Sicily in southern Italy, with the abbey of Grottaferrata near Rome
Entry kind
church_sui_iuris
Content subtype
church_sui_iuris
Faithful estimate
Roughly sixty thousand faithful