The Archdiocese of Agrigento (Latin: Archidioecesis Agrigentina) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Sicily, Italy.[1][2][3] The historic diocese of Agrigento was also known as the Diocese of Girgenti, and Diocese of Agrigentum. It used to be a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Monreale. A metropolitan see, the Archdiocese of Agrigento has two suffragan dioceses in its ecclesiastical province.
Archdiocese of Agrigento Archidioecesis Agrigentina | |
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Location | |
Country | Italy |
Ecclesiastical province | Agrigento |
Statistics | |
Area | 3,041 km2 (1,174 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2015) 448,830 (est.) 428,670 (est.) (95.5%) |
Parishes | 194 |
Information | |
Denomination | Catholic Church |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Cathedral | Cattedrale di S. Gerlando |
Secular priests | 228 (diocesan) 41 (Religious Orders) 44 Deacons |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Archbishop | Alessandro Damiano |
Vicar General | Giuseppe Cumbo |
Bishops emeritus |
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Map | |
Website | |
www.diocesiag.it |
Girgenti (the Greek Acragas, Roman Agrigentum) considers Saint Libertinus as its earliest proselytizer; he is said to have been sent by Saint Peter. Local enthusiasm for an Apostolic connection even led someone to forge a bull of investiture, an instrument which was not created for centuries.[4]
Gregory of Agrigento, said to have been martyred in 262, never existed. His name occurs in the hagiographical work, "The Life of St. Agrippina", but the author of that work, a person of the eighth or ninth century, placed the sixth century Bishop Gregory of Agrigento in the wrong context.[5]
The earliest bishop of certain date is Potamius, who was believed to be a contemporary of Pope Agapetus I (535–36).[6] Other scholars place him in the seventh century, in which case he would not be the earliest Bishop of Agrigento.[5]
The succession of bishops, interrupted by the Saracen invasion (879–1038),[7] began again in 1093 with Gerland of Agrigento.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Cappelletti, XXI, p. 606.
37°19′N 13°35′E / 37.317°N 13.583°E