Virgilio Canio Corbo (1918, inAvigliano – December 6, 1991 inCapernaum) was an ItalianFranciscanFriar and professor of archaeology at theStudium Biblicum Franciscanum inJerusalem.
Virgilio Canio Corbo was born in Avigliano, Italy on July 8, 1918. At the age of ten, he entered the minor seminary FranciscanCustody of Terra Santa (CTS). He was ordained a priest in Bethlehem in 1942. From 1946 to 1949 he studied at thePontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in Oriental Science. (His thesis,The excavations of Kh. Siyar El-Ghanam (Shepherd's Field) and the surrounding monasteries, was published in 1955.)[1]
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Corbo began teaching, first at the Franciscan minor seminary inAl-Qubeiba, and from 1950 to 1968 at the major Franciscan seminary in Jerusalem. While at Al-Qubeiba, he became interested in the work of archaeologist and fellow FranciscanBellarmino Bagatti, and made some experimental excavations in the village. In expanding his investigations to other monastic ruins, and through literary sources was able to identify the monastery of St. Theodore at Bir el Qutt. Here he discovered theoldest extant Georgian inscriptions yet found.[2] These give an important look into the everyday life of the early monks. In October 1987, on a visit to Jerusalem,Ilia II of Georgia,Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia presented Corbo with a commemorative coin celebrating 1500 years of the Evangelization of Georgia for helping to increase awareness of the Georgian monastic tradition in the Holy Land.
He will be remembered for excavating many important holy places. Father Corbo was responsible for organizing the Terra Sancta pavilion at the exhibition of missionary art for the 1950Holy Year. This resulted in the publication ofSacred art in the Holy Places.[1] From 1950 to 1955, Corbo was director of the magazineLa Terra Santa, and in 1951 was put in charge of the restoration of a number of shrines administered by CTS. In this he worked with architectAntonio Barluzzi. One of the buildings restored was theChapel of the Shepherd's Field, another was theChurch of Saint John the Baptist, Ein Karem. From 1956 to 1959, he wascustos of the friary at Gethsemane.[1]
In 1962 Corbo andStanislao Loffreda, from theStudium Biblicum Franciscanum ofJerusalem, began archaeological excavation of theHerodium. Work continued until 1967: they discovered the upper citadel, at the top of the hill.[3]
Corbo also excavated the interior of the Byzantine basilica onMount Nebo. In 1963, he was put in charge of restoring the original pavements for exhibition.[4] In the modern chapelpresbytery, built to protect the site and provide worship space, remnants of mosaic floors from different periods can be seen.
In 1968 Corbo and Loffreda began work atCapharnaum. Between 1971 and 1977 they began work atMagdala.[5] From 1978 to 1981, they carried out excavations were carried out atMachaerus. Corbo's group was the first to prove that the castle of Machaerus was definitely one of the mosaic-decorated fortified palaces of KingHerod the Great.[6]
His name will be especially tied to two sacred places: the Holy Sepulcher and Capharnaum, the "city of Jesus".[7]
He is remembered for the excavations of many religious sites:
Corbo died inCapharnaum on December 6, 1991.
