Diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa

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The Italian Catholic diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa is in Basilicata, southern Italy. In 1986 the historic diocese of Melfi-Rapolla was united with the diocese of Venosa. The diocese is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo.[1]

[edit] History

Pope Nicholas II made the diocese of Melfi immediately dependent on the Holy See; its first bishop was Baldwin. Its beautiful cathedral, a work of Roger Borsa[2], son of Robert Guiscard (1155), was destroyed by the earthquake of 1851.

Among its bishops was the theologian Alessandro de San Elpidio, a former general of the Augustinians (1328). In 1528, Clement VII, in view of the scarcity of its revenues, united the Diocese of Rapolla to that of Melfi, "aeque principaliter".[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Catholic Hierarchy page
  2. ^ MELFI - Online Information article about MELFI
  3. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia article

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

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