Cathedral of Saint James and Saint Christopher

Cathedral of Saint Jacob and Saint Christopher
Cathedral of Saint James and Saint Christopher, Corfu
Location	Corfu
Country	Greece
Administration
Diocese	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Corfu, Zakynthos and Cephalonia (since 1553)

Cathedral of Saint Jacob and Saint Christopher is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Corfu, Zakynthos and Cephalonia.

The old cathedral was located in the Old Fortress of Corfu and was dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul. This temple was one of the oldest monuments of the old fortress and was originally an Orthodox Cathedral which from the 13th to the 17th century was the cathedral of the city's Catholics. Originally the church was a basilica and beside it was a chapel dedicated to Saint Arsenius, first bishop of Corfu (876-952) who came from Bithynia of Judea. The temple was destroyed in 1718 by a fire caused by an explosion of gunpowder and the place was built a smaller temple whom was no longer belonging to the Catholic Diocese. The Greek Orthodox Church also built a small chapel inside the fortress dedicated to Saint Arsenius. Today there is no trace of these temples.

Regarding the founding date of the new cathedral the information is not clear. In the place where today the church of the 15th century there was a ruined church and between 1431 and 1454 members of the brotherhood of the Saints James and Christopher asked permission from the then archbishop Martinus Bernardini to build there a guesthouse - a hospital for the needy, the sick and travelers members from brotherhood. The act of the Archdiocese was approved by papal bull on July 7, 1466 which required the fraternity to recruit priest and administrator at the same time offered the archbishop each year on February 2 liters a candle to commemorate the transfer of images of Saints James and Christopher on that day the church of St. Francis where they were in the new temple. In another version it was built only two chapels dedicated to Saint Jason and Sosipater. On December 31, 1533 the Latin Archbishop Jacobus Cocco consecrated the temple.

During the second Turkish siege in 1571 the church suffered damages. The Historical Archive of Venice saved draft of the 1622 proposal showing extension of the building because it was too small for the needs of a cathedral. In 1658 it was renovated fundamentally from the Latin Archbishop Carclus Labia at his own expense. During his days Labia added as archbishop of Corfu the official celebration of Saint Spyridon's memory. After the reconstruction of this temple it was declared a Catholic Cathedral in August 1632. By order of the provveditore generale Philip Pasqualligo to the then Latin Bishop Benodictus Bragadinus (1620-1623) it was transferred to the Diocese bones of St. Arsenius and which remained until 1944 when he returned to the Orthodox Church.