Caliabria

Foundation

Before becoming a diocese, Caliabria was a parish of the Diocese of Viseu, which was then part of the kingdom of the Suebi or Suevi. It is mentioned as such in a document of the time of that kingdom drawn up between 572 and 589, to which was later added the annotation "quae apud Gotos postea sedes fuit" (which later, under the Goths, was a diocese). The exact date of its erection as a diocese under the Visigoths is disputed, one scholar placing it after 621, while another thinks it occurred in the reign of Witteric (603-610).

Situation

Although Enrique Flórez, writing in 1755, said that the location of what had been the town that gave its name to the see was then unknown, scholars generally accept the statements made by several sources, some of them earlier than Flórez, that the site of Caliabria was on a high hill by the river Douro, near Almendra, Vila Nova de Foz Côa, Portugal. The ruins are now officially signposted as "Ruínas de Calábria". However, Coura, near Viseu, and Fermoselle near Zamora each have a champion, as do Vilanova de Foz Côa and Castelho Melhor, places closer to the generally accepted location.

Early bishops

The names of four Bishops of Caliabria are recorded among the participants in councils held at Toledo and Mérida between 633 and 693:

1. Servus Dei (633-646)
2. Celedonius (653-660?)
3. Aloarius (666-670?)
4. Ervígius (688-693)

Extinction and replacement

The Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula put an end to the life of the Diocese of Caliabria. In 1161, King Ferdinand II of León founded the Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo, claiming, because of opposition raised by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Salamanca that the new diocese was a revival of that of Caliabria, a title generally used by the first bishop, but not by his successors, by whose time agreement had been reached with Salamanca.

Today the see of Caliabria is considered extinct and is used as a title for titular bishops.