Archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola

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The Italian Catholic archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola existed as the diocese of Modena in central Italy from the third century. In 1820 it incorporated the territory of Nonantola Abbey, and took its current name in 1986.^[1]

Its suffragans are the diocese of Carpi, diocese of Fidenza, diocese of Parma, diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, and diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla.

[edit] History

Modena was Roman Mutina. During the Empire Modena was one of the most prosperous cities in Italy, but in the war between Constantine and Maxentius, the city was besieged and damaged. In 698 it was revived by King Cunibert.

Charlemagne made it the capital of a line counts, whose authority, however, was before long eclipsed by that of the bishops, one of whom, St. Lodoinus, in 897 surrounded the city with walls, to protect it against Hungarian incursions, while Bishop Ingone was formally invested with the title of count by Emperor Conrad I. Later, Modena was a possession of the Countess Matilda, after whose death (1115) the city became a free commune, and in time joined the Lombard League. Modena was Ghibelline, and in conflict with the Guelph cities.

The city submitted to Pope Julius II in 1510, but was restored to the Duke of Parma in 1530 by Emperor Charles V at the death of Alfonso II; however, in 1597 Ferrara returned to immediate dependency upon the Holy See, but Modena, with Reggio and its other lands, as a fief of the Empire, passed to Cesare, cousin of Alfonso II. The son of Cesare, Alfonso III, after a reign of only one year (1529), became a Capuchin monk in the convent of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, founded by him, and died in 1614. Alfonso IV, in 1662, was succeeded by the young Francesco II, whose regents were his mother Laura and his great-uncle Cardinal Rinaldo. He built the Ducal Palace and the citadel and added Coreggio to his territory. As Francesco II died without progeny (1658), Modena came into the possession of his uncle Rinaldo, a cardinal also, who married Carlotta of Brunswick, and after a reign frequently troubled by French incursions, left the ducal throne to his son Francesco III in 1737, when the latter was fighting against the Turks in Hungary.

The Romanesque cathedral, begun in 1099, consecrated by Lucius III in 1184, bears on its interior façade scenes from the Old and from the New Testament sculptured in white marble, and the high altar possesses a Purification by Guido Reni; the inlaid work of the choir, by the Lendinara brothers (1465), is very beautiful; in the belfry, called the Ghirlandina, is kept the famous wooden pail taken from the Bolognese after the battle of Zappolino (1325); this pail is the subject of the heroic-comic epic of Tassoni, "La Secchia Rapita"; the pulpit is a noteworthy work of Arrigo del Campione.

Notable churches of Modena are San Agostino, which contains the tombs of the historians Sigonius and Muratori; San Pietro, with its beautiful specimens of the art of Giambellini, Dossi, and Francia; San Stefano della Pomposa, of which Muratori was provost, and others, all rich in works of art.