Diocese of Pistoia

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The Italian Catholic diocese of Pistoia is located in the Province of Florence. It has existed since the third century. From 1653 to 1954, the historic diocese was the diocese of Pistoia and Prato. The diocese of Prato has been separate from 1954^[1].

The diocese is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Florence.

1 History
2 Bishops
3 References
4 Notes

[edit] History

The name of Pistoia appears for the first time in history in connexion with the conspiracy of Catiline (62 BC), but it was only after the sixth century that it became important; it was governed, first, by its bishops, later by stewards of the Marquis of Tuscany. It was the first to establish its independence, after the death of Countess Matilda, and its municipal statutes were the most ancient of their kind in Italy.

In 1653, Prato was made a diocese, and united, œque principaliter, with Pistoia; as early as 1409, Florence asked for the creation of a diocese at Prato, on account of the dissensions of the collegiate church of Prato with the Bishops of Pistoia; and in 1460, it had been made a prelatura nullius, and given, as a rule, to some cardinal, in commendam.

[edit] Bishops

Pistoia claims to have received the Gospel from St. Romulus, the first Bishop of Fiesole. The first mention of a Bishop of Pistoia is in 492, though the name of this prelate, like that of another Bishop of Pistoia, referred to in 516, is unknown.

The first historically known bishop is Joannes (700). Others were:

Leo (1067), important in the schism of Emperor Henry IV;
Jacobus (1118-41);
Atto (1135-53);
Bonus (1189), author of De cohabitatione clericorum et mulierum;
Giovanni Vivenzi (1370);
Matteo Diamanti (1400);
Donato de' Medici (1436)
Nicolò Pandolfini (1475), who later became a cardinal;
Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci (1516);
Cardinal Antonio Pucci (1519);
Roberto Pucci (1541);
Alessandro de' Medici (1573), who became Pope Leo XI.
Gerardo Gerardi (1679-90), under whom Prato founded its seminary;
Leone Strozza (1690), Abbot of Vallombrosa, who founded the seminary of Pistoia;
Michele C. Visdomini (1702);
Scipione Ricci (1780), famous on account of the Synod of Pistoia which he convened in 1786, and which Pope Pius VI afterwards condemned.