Sicilian Greeks

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Hello, I was wondering, being that my paternal family is descended from eastern Sicily,particularly around the Siracuse area, if anyone has materials on Eastern Christianity in Sicily and the Italo Greek Catholic Church. Thanks you and Many Years!
 
There is an Italo Greek Byzantine Catholic Church in Las Vegas, Nevada named Our Lady of Wisdom. There is an office of some kind for the Italo Greeks on Staten Island, New York. There are also histories of the Italo Greeks on line.Our Lady of Wisdom was authorized by John Paul II in a Papal Bull and was raised to a parish by the Ruthenian Eparchy of Phoenix. This Church derives its ancestory from the ancient Greeks in Sicily. It is the only Italo Greek Church in the United States. There is a monastary outside Rome. In Southern Italy there are two Italo Albanian Bishops. As stated above, the Normans replaced the Greek Bishops with Latin Bishops… Below is material previously submitted by Vico:

Italo-Greek:
The byzantinization of southern Italy began during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565).
Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741) took Illyria, Calabria and Sicily from Papal jurisdiction and placed these areas under the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople.
Nilus of Rossano, founded the monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata (near Rome) in 1004.

Norman Conquest:
Conquest of the Abruzzo, 1053–1105
Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091
Conquest of Amalfi and Salerno, 1073–1077
Byzantine-Norman wars, 1059–1085
Conquest of Naples, 1077–1139
The Italo-Greeks remained under Constantinople’s jurisdiction until the Normans re-established the jurisdiction of the pope in the 11th century. Papal treaties: Treaty of Treaty of Melfi 1059. Treaty of Ceprano 1080.
 
russialover said:
Hello, I was wondering, being that my paternal family is descended from eastern Sicily,particularly around the Siracuse area, if anyone has materials on Eastern Christianity in Sicily and the Italo Greek Catholic Church. Thanks you and Many Years!
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My maternal family is Sicilian from Palermo. They all claimed to be from Greek heritage bc they all had jet black hair, dark dark skin, but they all had husky blue eyes…apparently Greeks have that?? Idk.
From my understanding, the Abereshe are the ones in Sicily who worship in the Byzantine liturgy, most Sicilians are RC’s, although, I’ve been told by family that there is a huge influence of Byzantine architecture in the RC churches on the island

This is some information I thought was good.

bestofsicily.com/mag/art165.htm
 
NorthTexan88 said:
My maternal family is Sicilian from Palermo. They all claimed to be from Greek heritage bc they all had jet black hair, dark dark skin, but they all had husky blue eyes…apparently Greeks have that??
Click to expand...
Those certainly sound like typically Greek features. Seeing how for millenia Greeks lived on Sicily it makes sense.
 
russialover said:
Hello, I was wondering, being that my paternal family is descended from eastern Sicily,particularly around the Siracuse area, if anyone has materials on Eastern Christianity in Sicily and the Italo Greek Catholic Church. Thanks you and Many Years!
Click to expand...
Actually, the ‘Italo-Greek’ Catholic church is not Greek, I think it is officially called the Italo-Albanian church.

It exists because Albanians fled there after the death of Skanderbeg. The ‘Greek’ dioceses were all converted to Latin dioceses long before, first by appointment of Latin bishops and then the reduction of priests trained in Byzantine spirituality and liturgy by those Latin bishops. The Greek monasteries (there were many) were suppressed and the Benedictines came in as well as the mendicant orders.

By the time the Albanian Orthodox showed up they really stuck out, the locals were Latin rite Christians. My guess is the Albanian refugees were granted the use of some old abandoned or underutilized church buildings which may have still had a suitable style of architecture or floor plan. Then the process of assimilation began anew and that little church has been in decline.

Italy does not have overlapping dioceses for other rites, as the USA and some other countries do. In order to give the Albanians in Italy bishops, a Pope separated out some rural hamlets and towns from the prevailing dioceses and created two new territorial dioceses. AFAIK, neither one has been given a bishop recently, they are currently administered by neighboring Latin rite bishops.
 
The two traditions, Italo-Greek and Albanian in Italy, were combined into one Church sui iuris today. Historically there was “almost total absorption of the Byzantine faithful into the Latin Church.” (cnewa)

There are parishes which use Albanian and those that do not, in Italy today.**

cnewa.org/default.aspx?ID=57&pagetypeID=9&sitecode=HQ&pageno=1

Italo-Greek:**
The byzantinization of southern Italy began during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565).
Leo the Isaurian (reigned 717-741) took Illyria, Calabria and Sicily from Papal jurisdiction and placed these areas under the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople.
Nilus of Rossano, founded the monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata (near Rome) in 1004.

Norman Conquest:
Conquest of the Abruzzo, 1053–1105
Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091
Conquest of Amalfi and Salerno, 1073–1077
Byzantine-Norman wars, 1059–1085
Conquest of Naples, 1077–1139
The Italo-Greeks remained under Constantinople’s jurisdiction until the Normans re-established the jurisdiction of the pope in the 11th century. Papal treaties: Treaty of Treaty of Melfi 1059. Treaty of Ceprano 1080.

Italo-Albanian:
The Albanians migrated to Italy after the Council of Florence (1439).
The liturgy is now in Albanian.
Santa Maria di Grottaferrata remains (Italo-Greek).
 
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