Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "IONIAN ISLANDS Island complex GREECE".
A group of seven islands (whence the name Heptanesus, by which they
are also designated) and a number of islets scattered over the Ionian
Sea to the west of Greece.
The seven islands are: Corfu
(Kerkyra, Corcyra), Paxos,
Leucadia or Santa Maura, Ithaca
or Thiaki, Cephalonia, Zante
or Zacynthus, and Cerigo or Cythera.
Of the islets the most important are: Antipaxos,
Othronos, and Anticythera
or Cerigotto. The Ionian Isles have a total area of about 1095 square miles.
The climate of the islands is in general very mild and salubrious,
and, in spite of the mountainous character of the land, there is a fairly extensive
output of cotton, wine, oil, and raisins. The Ionian Isles are frequently mentioned
or described by the ancient Greek and Latin authors, for whom they had many mythological
associations. Many remains of antiquity are even today found on these islands.
They all remained under Byzantine rule until about the end of the
eleventh century, when the Normans of the Two Sicilies obtained possession of
Corfu. In 1386 Venice
took the islands, and retained them until the end of the eighteenth century. The
Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797 gave them to France,
which formed them into the three provinces of Ithaca,
Corfu, and the Aegean
Sea. In 1799 the Russian fleet seized the Ionian Isles, and they were constituted
a small state tributary to Turkey,
but in 1802 the Treaty of Amiens declared them free under the protectorate of
Russia. In 1807 the Peace
of Tilsit gave them back to France.
The Second Treaty of Paris
(November 1815) placed them under English protection. An aristocratic government
was then once more organized; the legislative functions were vested in a chamber
of seventy deputies, eleven nominated by the Government and fifty-nine elected
by the people; the executive power belonged to a Senate consisting of a president,
appointed by the protecting power, and five senators elected for five years by
the deputies from their own body. An English lord commissioner controlled foreign
relations and the police. England enjoyed the right of garrisoning the forts and
of military administration.
After the French Revolution of 1848, an insurrection broke out in
Cephalonia with the object
of uniting the islands to Greece,
but was rigorously repressed by England
in 1849. From that time, however, the first vote of the Chamber, whenever it assembled,
was in favour of the union with Greece,
after which vote it was immediately dissolved. The English Government at last
decided to surrender the islands to Greece.
King George I, upon ascending the throne at Athens,
in 1863, consented to succeed Otho I only upon England's undertaking to cede the
Ionian Archipelago to the Hellenic Kingdom. This cession was effected between
21 May and 2 June, 1864. The Ionian Isles have since then formed the three nomarchies,
or departments, of Corfu,
Cephalonia, and Zante.
Cerigo alone has been incorporated
in the continental nomarchy of Messenia.
The Ionian Isles must have received the Gospel at a comparatively
early date. The first known Bishop of Corfu
is Apollodorus, or Alethodorus, who assisted at the Council of Nicaea
in 325. Until 1260 the archipelago of the seven islands counted scarcely any Catholics.
In the thirteenth century Zante
and Cephalonia were made Latin
bishoprics, suffragan to Corinth
until 1386. These two dioceses (Zante
and Cephalonia) were then
made one and suffragan to Corfu,
which was then raised to the status of an archbishopric.
At the time of the cession of the islands to Greece in 1864, the Hellenic
Government promised to secure to the three Latin bishoprics their former rights
and privileges. The Orthodox hierarchy until 1900 consisted of seven dioceses,
one for each of the principal islands of the Ionian Archipelago. Formerly dependent
on the Phanar of Constantinople,
the ecclesiastical eparchies of the ancient septinsular republic became connected
in 1866 with the Holy Synod of Athens.
S. Salaville, ed.
Transcribed by: John Fobian
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
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