The former Italian Catholic Diocese of San Severino, in the Province of Macerata, Marche in Central Italy, existed until 1986. In that year it was united into the Archdiocese of Camerino to form the Archdiocese of Camerino-San Severino Marche.[1]
Contents |
San Severino stands on the site of the ancient Septempeda, a city of Picenum. The saint from whom the city takes its name is commonly believed to have been Bishop of Septempeda, but his date is unknown.
In the eighth century it was a fortress of the Duchy of Spoleto. The Church of San Severino gave its name later to a new town that grew up around it. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was at constant war with the neighbouring cities, especially with Camerino, and always supported the cause of the emperors, particularly of Emperor Frederick II. Louis the Bavarian named as vicar of San Severino Smeduccio della Scala, who, passing into the service of the Holy See, gave great help to the expedition of Cardinal Albornoz and became feudal lord of San Severino, a post held later by his son Onofrio.
His nephew Antonio paid with his life for attempting to resist the arms of Pietro Colonna, the representative of Pope Martin V; his sons tried in vain to recapture the city (1434), which remained immediately subject to the Holy See.
In the Middle Ages San Severino was part of the Archdiocese of Camerino; the old cathedral was then a collegiate church. In 1566 it had a seminary. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V made it an episcopal see, the first bishop being Orazio Marzari. Among his successors were: Angelo Maldacchini, O. P. (1646); Alessandro Calai Organi (1702), the restorer of the seminary; Angelo Antonio Anselmi (1792), exiled in 1809. The diocese became a suffragan of the archdiocese of Fermo.[2]
In 1920 the Diocese of Treia was united into the diocese of San Severino. In the reorganisation of 1985-6 it passed to the Diocese of Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia.[1]