Its first bishop known to history was Evandrus, who assisted at the
Council of Rome in 313. In 1077,
Pope Gregory VII granted the sovereignty of the island of Corsica to Pisa. In 1347, Pisa was forced to cede its control over the island of Corsica to Genoa. Pope Eugene IV tried to reestablish papal sovereignty, but he failed. The Byzantine ruins at
Mariana perpetuate the memory of the church built by the
Pisans in the 12th century. At the end of the sixteenth century, the Cathedral of Ajaccio had only two dignities, the Archpriest and the Archdeacon, and three Canons with three prebends.
Pope Sixtus V added five Canons, making a total of ten members of the body. In 1695, there were two dignities and twelve Canons. In 1759, Ajaccio had a population of around 5,000, under the political control of the Republic of Genoa, though the diocese was suffragan to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Pisa. The Cathedral had one dignity and thirteen canons, there was one monastery of monks. By this time, Corsica contained five other dioceses: •
Diocese of Accia (vacant since 1563, and merged with the diocese of Mariana; both suppressed in 1790); •
Diocese of Aléria, an ancient city of the
Phocians, whose bishop resided at
Corte; •
Diocese of Sagone, a vanished city whose bishop resided at
Calvi, while the Chapter was at
Vico; •
Diocese of Mariana, also a vanished city, whose bishop resided at
Bastia; •
Diocese of Nebbio (whose bishop resided in the port of Saint-Florent). This ecclesiastical organization endured when Corsica passed to French control in 1768. Following the French Revolution, the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1791) suppressed all these bishoprics in favor of one diocese for the entire island, called the Diocese de Corse, inside the province of the Côtes de la Méditerranée.
Cathedral There is a legend that the bishops banished from Africa to Corsica in 484 by
Hunneric,
Arian King of the Vandals, built with their own hands the primitive cathedral of Ajaccio. The present cathedral, dating from 1554 to 1593, owes its construction to the initiative of Gregory XIII, who while still
Ugo Buoncompagni, spent some time at Ajaccio as
papal legate. The see was left vacant for five years, during which time the diocesan revenues were applied to the building of the cathedral. It was finished by Bishop Giustiniani after his nomination. It is said that the cathedral was designed by Giacomo della Porta, but a guidebook remarks, "Se è vero, non era molto in forma."
Napoleon Bonaparte's uncle
Lucien (Luciano) was Archdeacon of the Church of Ajaccio. Napoleon was baptized in the Cathedral on 21 July 1771. Liturgical services are held according to the
Greek Byzantine rite in the village of
Cargèse, founded in 1676 by the descendants of the Greek aristocrat
Stephen Comnenus (Stephanos Comnenos), whom the
Ottoman Turks had expelled from the
Peloponnesus. ==Bishops==