historyThe origins of the Diocesan Historical Archives of Reggio Calabria – Bova sink into the same roots of the Reggina Church. His presence is quoted by St. Jerome (IV century), which is associated with the adoption of the Syrian liturgy that characterized the rituals used in the city for a long time.

The archives were the depositary of the Byzantine Metropolia of Rhegion, preserving the documents that decreed the passage of the southern dioceses to Constantinople’s obedience and their return under the authority of the Roman papacy.

archbishop Mgr. Gaspare dal Fosso
Msgr. Gaspare dal Fosso

However, the Arab invasion which, from September 2 to 7, 1594, devastated Reggio, caused fires and fires to the Mother Church and the adjacent factories. On that occasion archival patrimony went missing, like the bones of the great Archbishop Msgr. Gaspare Ricciullo dal Fosso (1560-1592), former secretary of the Council of Trent. At that time, some of the documents of the Presley’s last years, retained in the oldest funds, remain.

archbishop Msgr. Mariano Ricciardi
Msgr. Mariano Ricciardi

The reorganization of the Archives is due to Msgr. Mariano Ricciardi, who in 1859 dispatched the acts of the Archbishop’s Mensa and the Seminary “to the archives of Curia”.

In 1873 “the archivist”, Fr. Vincenzo Tommasini reported on the state of the Institute. It is home to “the upper and extreme part of the Archbishop’s Palace”, contained in six distinct shelves for materials. However, there is a lack of inventory, regulation and complain about the abandonment of documents in adjoining premises, so that “many ecclesiastical property lost”. A depair that continued with various moves even after 1926, when the new Archbishop was built.

With the outbreak of World War II, the archive papers were partially transferred to the ground floor of the Palace and part of the Underground Temple of Victory.

archbishop Mgr. Antonio Lanza
Msgr. Antonio Lanza

The reorganization began with Archbishop Msgr. Antonio Lanza in the eighteenth-century surviving wing of the Archbishop’s Palace. They had strong impulses in 1956 when, under Msgr. Giovanni Ferro, priest Don Rocco Bevacqua was able to collect archives in 580 folders, placed in 18 metal cabinets.

Msgr. Nicola Ferrante
Msgr. Nicola Ferrante

 

From 1980 to 2010, the archive was directed by Msgr. Nicola Ferrante, from 2011 to 2022 by Dr. Maria Pia Mazzitelli. Current director is Padre Pasquale Triulcio

 

 

 

 


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