Archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio

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The Italian Catholic archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio has existed since 1986, when the diocese of Comacchio was combined with the historical archdiocese of Ferrara. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bologna. Ferrara became an archdiocese, though without suffragans, in 1735. It was for a long period directly subject to the Holy See.^[1]

[edit] History

The earliest bishop of certain date is Constantine, present at Rome in 861; St. Maurelius (patron of the city) must have lived before this time. Some think that the bishops of Ferrara are the successors to those of Vigonza (the ancient Vicuhabentia).

Other bishops were

Filippo Fontana (1243), to whom Pope Innocent IV entrusted the task of inducing the German princes to depose Emperor Frederick II;
Alberto Pandoni (1261)
Giovanni di Tossignano (1431);
Ippolito I d'Este (1520), Ippolito II d'Este (1550), and Luigi d'Este (1553), patrons of learning and the arts;
Alfonso Rossetti (1563), Paolo Leoni (1579), Giovanni Fontana (1590), and Lorenzo Magalotti (1628), reformers after the Council of Trent;
Carlo Odescalchi (1823).

Up to 1717 the Archbishop of Ravenna claimed metropolitan rights over Ferrara; in 1735 Pope Clement XII raised the see to archiepiscopal rank, without suffragans.