Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Agrigento


The Italian Catholic Archdiocese of Agrigento, in Sicily, 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

considers Saint Libertinus as its earliest proselytizer; he is said to have been sent by Saint Peter. Local enthusiasm for an Apostolic connection even led someone to forge a bull of investiture, an instrument which was not created for centuries.
Gregory of Agrigento, said to have been martyred in 262, never existed. His name occurs in the hagiographical work, "The Life of St. Agrippina", but the author of that work, a person of the eighth or ninth century, placed the sixth century Bishop Gregory of Agrigento in the wrong context.
The earliest bishop of certain date is Potamius, who was believed to be a contemporary of Pope Agapetus I. Other scholars place him in the seventh century, in which case he would not be the earliest Bishop of Agrigento.
The succession of bishops, interrupted by the Saracen invasion, began again in 1093 with Gerland of Agrigento.

Bishops

to 1300

Studies