Archdiocese of Vercelli

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This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Vercelli (in Latin, Archidioecesis Vercellensis) is one of the two archdioceses which form the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont. The dioceses suffragan to Vercelli are: Alessandria (della Paglia), Biella, Casale Monferrato and Novara.

According to an ancient lectionary the Gospel was first preached in Vercelli in the second half of the third century by Saints Sabinianus and Martialis, bishops from Gaul, when they were returning to their dioceses. The episcopal see was not established till after the Peace of Constantine. The first bishop was St. Eusebius, a Sardinian, a lector of the Roman Church and a strenuous opponent of Arianism. From Vercelli the Gospel spread through the valley of the Po and its environs; towards the end of the fourth century, perhaps even during the episcopate of St. Eusebius, new dioceses were erected. From Eusebius to Nottingo (830) there were forty bishops, whose images were preserved in the Eusebian basilica (or Basilica Cattedrale S. Eusebio), so called because St. Eusebius, who dedicated it to the martyr St. Theonestus, was interred in it. He introduced the common and monastic life among his clergy, from whom bishops for the surrounding territory were often selected.

Among his successors were: St. Simenus (370), who baptized and consecrated St. Ambrose; St. Honoratus (396), who administered the Viaticum to St. Ambrose; St. Justinianus (living in 451); St. AEmilianus (about 500) built an aqueduct for the city at his own expense; St. Flavianus (541); St. Celsus (665); Norgaudus (844) restored common life among the canons; Liutuardus (880), who had been archchancellor of Charles the Fat (deposed later) and was slain during the invasion of the Huns (899), like Regenbertus (904- 24); Atto of Vercelli, (d. 960), reformer of ecclesiastical discipline; Petrus (978), imprisoned in the Holy Land by the Egyptian Muslims; Leo (999), chancellor of Holy Roman Emperors Otto III and Henry II; Gisulfus (1133) re-established common life among the canons in 1144; St. Albertus (1185-1204), founder of the chair of theology, later Patriarch of Jerusalem; Renerio Avogadro (1296) opposed the partisans of the heretic Fra Dolcino; Guglielmo Didier (1437), an elector of the antipope Felix V; Giuliano della Rovere (1502), later Pope Julius II (1503); Cardinal Guido Ferrerio (1562), founder of the seminary, embellished the cathedral and introduced the Tridentine reform; Gianfrancesco Bonomo (1572) continued the reform and replaced (1573) the Eusebian Rite by the Roman. In 1817 the Diocese of Vercelli, then suffragan of the archbishopric of Turin (but previously of the archbishopric of Milan) was made an archdiocese, the first archbishop being Giuseppe di Grimaldi.

In the early 20th century the Catholic Encyclopedia reported that the archdiocese contained 136 parishes; 250,000 inhabitants; 447 secular and 33 regular priests; 7 houses of religious (men) and 4 of nuns; 4 educational institutes for boys and 8 for girls. The religious periodicals were "L'unione" (weekly) and "La santa infanzia" (monthly).