SICILY

Ancient Tinacria, the largest island in the Mediterranean, to the south and west of Italy, having an area of 9,926 square miles.

History. The physical partition into western and eastern Sicily is reproduced in its history. Greek writers of the 5th century b.c. speak of two nuclei of inhabitants: the Siculi in the east and Sicani in the west. Its position in the Mediterranean basin subjected Sicily to invasion by all the seafaring nations, and it was frequently the object of wars between different peoples. Phoenicians founded their first commercial base in Sicily in the 8th century b.c.; and with the consolidation of the Greek colonies in the 7th century, two zones of interest and cultures formed: Semitic to the west and Greek to the east. The Greek colonies reached an advanced culture; and though not generally given to colonial imperialism, they concentrated on founding autonomous city-states having close ties with the mother country. The rise of vast personal holdings (the Tirraneans) modified this situation. Gelonus, ruler of Syracuse (485 b.c.), held hegemony over Magna Graecia until a democratic revolution by municipal opponents was sustained by demands for liberty on the part of the mercantile classes. With the first Punic War (264–241) Sicily became a Roman colony. It was the theater for the Slave War (135–100), and after the Battle of Actium (31 b.c.) Augustus made it a senatorial province governed by a Proconsul.

Christianity. No precise evidence exists for the penetration of Christianity into Sicily. St. Paul stopped at Syracuse on his journey to Rome (Acts 28.12); but it was only when the Church possessed a solid organization that it thought of tracing its origins to the Apostles. A late legend suggests evangelization from Antioch, which may explain the Oriental derivation of Sicily's Christianity; this is supported by epigraphic and monumental artifacts. Its links with Rome are indicated in the letter of Pope in nocent i to the bishop of Gubbio (Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne 20:552). Several episcopal sees existed in 251, as is signified in a letter of the Roman clergy to St. cyprian (Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum 3.2:553), and the Church of Sicily took an active part in the 4th-century Donatist and Arian disputes and in the 5th-and 6th-century Christological troubles.

It was disturbed by the barbarian movements when the Vandals took control in 455, and the Church was subject to the vexations of their intolerance. In 491 Theodoric the Goth (493–526) conquered the island; it fell into the hands of Belisarius and the Byzantines (535) and remained under their control for three centuries. During this period the Church in Sicily attempted to rebuild and it entered into close relations with Rome, which held vast possessions there: under Gregory I (590–604) there were two papal patrimonies with more than 400 properties. As a result, the cults of St. agatha and St. lucy were extended to Rome, and in the 7th century several popes were Sicilians.

Political Vicissitudes. The ecclesiastical institutions changed under Leo the Isaurian, who desired to break

papal resistance by sequestrating the Church's patrimony in 732; he subjected the bishops of Sicily to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. But Greek penetration into Sicily was of long standing. The fall of Syria to the Arabs in 636 and of Egypt in 640 forced many Greeks, particularly monks, to emigrate to the island of Sicily. The Arabs took control after a war that endured from 827 to 902; sad conditions of the Church under Islam were made worse by Byzantine attempts at reconquest.

Despite a wide culture the Arabs did not have deep roots there, and the Normans seized a propitious moment in 1061 to initiate the conquest at Messina, which they completed in 1091 at Noto. In the plan for the reorganization of the island they favored Greco-Italian monasticism, which under the Normans reached its golden age. Roger I obtained the right of apostolic legate for himself and successors from Pope Urban II (July 5, 1098), This privilege caused great conflict between the papal and political powers and was finally abrogated with the bull Suprema (Jan. 28, 1864; published Nov. 10, 1867).

With William II (d. 1189) the Norman dynasty was extinguished and the Hohenstaufens took control under Emperor Henry VI. The Hohenstaufens were ousted by Charles I of Anjou (1266). The Sicilian Vespers (1282) began a general anti-Frankish revolt on the island and resulted in a federation of cities under popular control (Communitas Sicilae ), which eventually offered the crown to Peter III of Aragon.

In 1415 Viceroy governments were introduced by Aragon, then by Spain. Here the story of the island virtually ends; and its destiny forms part of the history of Spain and Italy. There was no lack of uprisings due to the loss of autonomy. To forestall centrifugal tendencies, the absentee sovereigns reserved ecclesiastical offices for their relatives and fellow nationals. Only with Charles V did the Sicilians obtain equality with the Spaniards: for every vacancy in a benefice, a Spaniard and a Sicilian were named alternately. But this system did not last long. In the end Charles III of Bourbon reserved the bishoprics, abbacies, and canonicates for Sicilians (1738).

Sicily passed to Savoy in 1713; to Austria in 1720; and at the end of the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738) to the Bourbons of Naples, who held it until it was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia following the legendary campaign of Garibaldi's One Thousand.

Archeology. Of notable importance are the archeological remains, and particularly the complex of cemeteries, found in Syracuse (pre-Constantinian), Agrigento, Palermo, Selinute, Noto, and Termini Imerese, which stem from at least the 4th and 5th centuries. Inscriptional discoveries abound particularly in Syracuse and Catania and form the most consistent nuclei for Christian epigraphy outside Rome; they are of considerable importance for hagiography and ecclesiastical history, going back to the 3d century. Ruins of 4th-and 5th-century churches are found in Palermo, Priolo, Palagonia, Catania, Malvagna, and Syracuse.

Bibliography: j. berard, La Colonisation grecque … de la Sicile (Paris 1941). i. scaturro, Storia di Sicilia, 2 v. (Rome 1950). g. agnello, Gli studi di archeologia cristiana in Sicília (Catania 1950). s. l. agnello, Silloge di iscrizioni paleocristiane della Sicilia (Rome 1953). a. ferrua, "Epigrafia sicula pagana e cristiana," (Revista di archeologica Cristiana ) 18 (1941) 151–243. f. milone, Sicilia: La natura e l'uomo (Turin 1960). o. garana, Le catacombe sicilane e i loro martiri (Turin 1963). Encyclopedia of World Art (New York 1959–) 8:736–738.

[g. orlandi]