The Metropolis of Corfu, Paxoi and the Diapontian Islands () is a

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ...

of the

Church of Greece The Church of Greece (, ), part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Its canonical territory is confined to the borders of Greece prior to th ...

. Its seat is the town of

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

on the island of

in northwestern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It encompasses the entire

Corfu Prefecture Corfu () is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of the Ionian Islands. The capital of the regional unit is the town of Corfu. The regional unit consists of the islands of Corfu, Paxoi, Othonoi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki and s ...

, i.e. not only the island of Corfu, but also the two small island groups of

Paxoi Paxos () is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, lying just south of Corfu. As a group with the nearby island of Antipaxos and adjoining islets, it is also called by the plural form Paxi or Paxoi (, pronounced in English and in Greek). The main t ...

and the

Diapontian Islands The Diapontian Islands or Diapontia Islands (, also known as Othonoi Islands () are a Greek island group in the Ionian Sea. They are located northwest of Corfu. The main and the only inhabited islands of the archipelago are Othoni, Ereikoussa an ...

History

The foundation of the see of Corfu exists is attributed to the establishment of a shrine to

Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

there by two disciples of

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

Jason of Tarsus Jason of Thessalonica (Greek: Ίάσων ό Θεσσαλονικεύς), also known as Jason of Tarsus, was a Jewish convert and early Christian believer mentioned in the New Testament in and . Jason is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox and ...

and Sosipatrus of Achaea. Its bishops are attested as participating in

ecumenical councils An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote are ...

from 325 to 787, originally as

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

s of

Nicopolis Nicopolis () or Actia Nicopolis was the capital city of the Roman province of Epirus (Roman province), Epirus. Its site, near Preveza, Greece, still contains impressive ruins. The city was founded in 29 BC by Octavian in commemoration of his ...

and later of

Cephallenia Kefalonia or Cephalonia (), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallonia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th-largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It is also a separate regi ...

. As with the other sees of the Illyricum, it was transferred from the

See of Rome See or SEE may refer to: * Visual perception Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Televisio ...

to the overall jurisdiction of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

in the 8th century. It was raised to the status of an

archbishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

in the second half of the 10th century, and finally became a

sometime in the third quarter of the 11th century. Following the conquest of the island by Western powers (the

Genoese Genoese, Genovese, or Genoan may refer to: * a person from modern Genoa * a person from the Republic of Genoa (–1805), a former state in Liguria * Genoese dialect, a dialect of the Ligurian language * Ligurian language, a Romance language of whi ...

, Venetians, and Angevins) from the turn of the 13th century, a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

archbishopric was established on the island, first attested in 1228. Under Catholic rule, the local Orthodox Christian population was served by a head priest ('' protopapas''). The Orthodox bishopric was not restored until 1800, after the

fall of the Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice was dissolved and dismembered by the French general Napoleon Bonaparte and the Habsburg monarchy on 12 May 1797, ending approximately 1,100 years of its existence. It was the final action of Napoleon's Italian campaign ...

and the establishment of the

Septinsular Republic The Septinsular Republic (; ), also known as the Republic of the Seven United Islands, was an oligarchic republic that existed from 1800 to 1807 under nominal Russian and Ottoman sovereignty in the Ionian Islands (Corfu, Paxoi, Lefkada, Cephalon ...

References

Sources

* *

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Corfu (regional unit)

History of Corfu