Curium

Curium

A titular see of Cyprus, suppressed in 1222 by the papal legate, Pelagius. Koureus, son of Kinyras, is said to have founded Kourion on the southwest coast of Cyprus, west of Cape Kourias (now Gata), and to have settled a colony of Argives there in 1595 B.C. The city became the capital of one of the kingdoms in the island. On the site of the ruins is the modern village of Episkopi (Epischope), near the sea, on the right bank of the Lykos; it was here that Cesnola discovered the many precious antiquities now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City. In the Middle Ages Episkopi belonged first to the Ibelin family, counts of Jaffa, and later to the Venetian family of Cornaro, who owned valuable sugar-cane plantations there. It is still the centre of a very fertile district. The tomb of St. Hermogenes and his relics are preserved in the church. Only two bishops of Curium are recorded: Zeno, present at the Council of Ephesus (431), and Michael, in 1051. Ricaut (The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, London, 1679, p.94) mentions a Bishop Cosmas who resided there, who was, however, probably a titular or a superannuated bishop.

LEQUIEN, Or. Christ., II, 1057; HACKET, A History of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, 312, 456; MAS-LATRIE, Histoire de Chypre, passim; IDEM, L'île de Chypre, 22; DI CESNOLA, Cyprus.

S. PÉTRIDÈS