What today constitutes the ecclesiastical region of Basilicata represents not only religious but also civil, social and economic profiles, a significant territory with respect to the lack of a homogeneous ethnography, with respect to the complexity of influences, the articulation of migratory flows, the multiplicity political-administrative polarizations, the plurality of experiences of civilization and cultural seasons. A significant paradigm is the presence of the two Lucania-Basilicata geotoponyms which, in the ambivalence of the denominations, seem to deny the identity principle of this region itself. The term Lucania, with the appendix of Bruttium (today's Calabria), appears in the administrative division of Italy carried out by Augustus as III Regio. Lucania is bounded to the south by Lao and Crati, to the west by the sea, to the east by Bradano and the Gulf of Taranto;
to the north from the Sele and the natural border of the Vulture, a border that defines the border between the third and fourth region, namely the Samnium. After various territorial reforms and despite the events that took place in the late ancient age, following the fall of the Roman Empire, Lucania was once again included among the Augustan provinces, as it remained a province at the time of the Lombard invasion, but disappeared with the arrival of the Normans. The Norman-Swabian monarchy will institute two executed, that of Salerno and that of Basilicata, a name that appears for the first time in the "Catalog of Norman barons" of 1154, a district that only partially includes the territories of ancient Lucania. The latter denomination, after many centuries and after various and complex changes of the territory, returned by the will of the fascist regime which on 27 December 1932 officially recovered the name of Lucania. But with article 131 of the republican constitution, on December 27, 1947 the region was renamed Basilicata.

 

HISTORY

I - Evangelization and institutional arrangements from the ancient age to the late Middle Ages

 

The process of Christianization in the territories of the ancient Lucanian province follows the same rhythm and knows the same characteristics of the other areas of southern Italy.