Diocese of Vicenza
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This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
The Diocese of Vicenza is a Roman Catholic diocese in Italy.
Among its patron saints the city venerates St. Lontius, bishop and martyr, and St. Theodore and St. Apollonius, bishops and confessors in the fourth century. The Christian cemetery discovered near the Church of Sts. Felix and Fortunatus, dates from the earlier half of the fourth century, and these two saints were probably martyred under Diocletian.
The first bishop of whom there is any certain record is Horontius (590), a partisan of the Schism of the Three Chapters. Other bishops were: Vitalis (901), high chancellor of King Berengar of Ivrea; Girolamo (1000), deposed by Emperor Henry II for political sedition; Torengo, in whose episcopate a number of bishops rebelled against the episcopal authority. Uberto was deposed by Pope Innocent III as a despoiler of church property, but the canons put off until 1219 the election of his successor, Gilberto, who was forced by the tyranny of Ezzelino to live in exile.
Under Bishop Emiliani (1409) took place the apparition of the Blessed Virgin on Monte Berico which led to the foundation of the famous sanctuary. Pietro Barbo (1451) was afterwards elected Pope Paul II.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Zeno (1468) was distinguished for his sanctity and learning. Matteo Priuli (1563) founded the seminary and made efforts for reform. Alvise M. Ganrielli (1779) restored many churches and the seminary.
The See of Vicenza was suffragan of Aquileia, then of Udine, and since 1818 of Venice. The diocese had circa 1900: 219 parishes, with 477,000 souls; 699 secular and 39 regular priests; 10 houses of male religious and 52 sisters; 4 schools for boys, and 52 for girls. The Catholic Press comprised "Il Berico" (tri- weekly, Vicenza), "La Riscossa" (tri-weekly, Breganze), and six other periodicals.
