Ecclesia carinensis. Una sede episcopale alle origini del cristianesimo fra Palermo e Lilibeo; La catacomba paleocristiana di Villagrazia di Carini

Abstract

The Early Christian cemetery discovered by chance in Villagrazia di Carini in 1899, then forgotten and negletted, has been brought to light from the year 2000 to today thanks to the systematic teamwork of the University of Palermo and the Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra (PCAS). The unexpected dimension of the site, the largest underground cemetery of Early Christianity so far known in western Sicily, has finally allowed the historiographical debate to find a meeting point on the age-old problem of the existence of ecclesia carinensis, an Early Byzantine diocese attested by the written sources up to the eighth century and disappeared after the centuries of the Islamic domination in Sicily. The archaeological data, the iconographic study and the analysis of the architectural structures indicate that the site was used for funerary purposes from the 4th to the end of the 7th century, giving us the image of a strong and numerous Christian community, well informed about the theological debate of the time.