The Italian Catholic archdiocese of Agrigento, in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, was elevated to archiepiscopal status in 2000. The historic diocese of Agrigento was also known as the diocese of Grigenti, and diocese of Agrigentum. It used to be a suffragan of the archdiocese of Monreale.

History

Girgenti

Agrigento

Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...

 (the Greek Acragas, Roman Agrigentum) venerates Saint Libertinus as its earliest apostle; he is said to have been sent by Saint Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

. The earliest bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of certain date is Saint Potamius, a contemporary of Pope Agapetus I

Pope Agapetus I

Pope Saint Agapetus I reigned as pope from May 13, 535, to April 22, 536. He is not to be confused with another Saint Agapetus, an Early Christian martyr with the feast day of August 6th.-Family:...

 (535-36).

Saint Gregory I, Bishop of Agrigentum, said to have been martyred in 262, is probably only a double of the homonymous bishop who was a contemporary of Gregory the Great. The list of bishops, interrupted by the Saracen invasion, began again in 1093 with Saint Gerlando

Gerland of Agrigento

Saint Gerland of Agrigento , also known as Gerland of Besançon was a bishop of Agrigento in Sicily.-History:Believed to have been a native of Besançon, he was a relative of the Norman Roger I of Sicily...

.

Other bishops are:

• Rinaldo di Acquaviva (1244), who restored the cathedral and crowned King Manfred, for which latter action he was excommunicated by Pope Alexander IV
  Pope Alexander IV
  Pope Alexander IV was Pope from 1254 until his death.Born as Rinaldo di Jenne, in Jenne , he was, on his mother's side, a member of the de' Conti di Segni family, the counts of Segni, like Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX...
  
  ;
• Matteo Gimmara (1442–1445)
• John IV (Giovanni, Juan) de Castro (Valencia, 1431–1506, Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
  ), Bishop of Girgenti (1479–1506), Cardinal Priest of Santa Prisca
  Santa Prisca
  Santa Prisca is a basilica church in Rome, devoted to Saint Prisca, a 1st century martyr, on the Aventine hill. It was built in the 4th or 5th century over a temple of Mithras, and is recorded as the Titulus Priscae in the acts of the 499 synod....
  
   (1496–1506), Administrator Apostolic of the Diocese of Schleswig (1499–1502), later also Bishop of Malta (1504–1506).