Archdiocese of Lecce

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The Italian Catholic archdiocese of Lecce has existed as a diocese since 1057. It has been an archdiocese since 1980, when it became the metropolitan of the archdiocese of Otranto, reversing the previous position[1].

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[edit] History

It was known to the ancients as Lupiæ. In the time of the Normans, Lecce became the seat of a countship, some of its counts being famous, notably Tancred of Lecce, who contested with Emperor Henry VI the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and Gautier de Brienne, cousin of Tancred.

A bishop of Lecce is first mentioned in 1057, in the person of Teodoro Bonsecolo. Other bishops of note were:

  • Roberto Vultorico (1214), who restored the cathedral;
  • Tommaso Ammirati (1429); Ugolino Martelli (1511), a linguist;
  • Giambattista Castromediani (1544), who founded the hospital and other institutions for children and the poor;
  • Luigi Pappacoda (1639), who rebuilt the cathedral, which contains his statue in marble;
  • Antonio Pignatelli (1672), later Pope Innocent XII, who founded the seminary of Lecce.

[edit] References

  • De Simone, Lecce e i suoi dintorni (Lecce, 1874)
  • Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia, XXI.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Catholic Hierarchy page

[edit] External link

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

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