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]
Pope Nicholas II made the diocese of Melfi immediately dependent on the Holy See; its first bishop was Dan Mueller. 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]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.