The Italian Catholic Diocese of Adria-Rovigo, in the Triveneto, has existed under this name since 1986. It is suffragan to the patriarchate of Venice.[1]
Its territory comprises roughly the northeastern Italian Province of Rovigo (Rovigo itself is not an episcopal see), and a part of one town in the Province of Padua.
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Tradition dates the preaching of the Gospel in Adria from the days of Saint Apollinaris, himself consecrated bishop by Saint Peter. The figure of this Bishop of Ravenna has a singular importance in the hagiographical legends of the northeast of Italy. Even if Emilia, Romagna and the territory around Venice were Christianized and had bishops (the two facts are concomitant) before Piedmont, for example, their conversion does not go back beyond the end of the second century.
The first known bishop of Adria is Gallonistus, who was present at a synod in Rome (649) under Pope Martin I (Mansi, XII). The Venerable Bede's Martyrology mentions a Saint Colianus, Bishop of Adria, but nothing is known about him. Amongst the bishops of Adria is the [[Blessed Aldobrandinus of Este (1248-1352).