Nicastro

(NEOCASTRENSIS).

A city of the Province of Catanzaro, in Calabria, southern Italy, situated on a promontory that commands the Gulf of St. Euphemia; above it is an ancient castle. The commerce of the port of Nicastro consists of the exportation of acid, herbs, and wine. The cathedral, an ancient temple, with the episcopal palace, was outside the city; having been pillaged by the Saracens, it was restored in the year 1100, but it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1638, with the episcopal palace, under the ruins of which most valuable archives were lost. For a long time, the Greek Rite was in use at Nicastro. The first bishop of this city of whom there is any record was Henry (1090); Bishop Tancredo da Monte Foscolo (1279) was deposed by Honorius IV for having consecrated John of Aragon, King of Sicily, but he was reinstated by Boniface VIII ; Bishop Paolo Capisucco (1533) was one of the judges in the case of the marriage of Henry VIII of England ; Marcello Cervino (1539) became Pope Marcellus II ; Giovanni Tommaso Perrone (1639) built the new cathedral. In 1818 the ancient See of Martorano, the former Mamertum (the first bishop of which was Domnus, in 761), was united to the Diocese of Nicastro. The diocese is a suffragan of Reggio in Calabria ; it has 52 parishes, with 110,100 inhabitants; 71 churches and chapels, 2 convents of the Capuchins, and one orphan asylum and boarding-school, directed by the Sisters of Charity.