Roman Catholic Diocese of Civita

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Civita(-Tempio) was a Latin Catholic bishopric in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia (Tyrrhenian Sea, southwestern Italy).

It was heir to the Ancient diocese of P(h))ausania (Italian Fausania) (6th to 8th? century), when restored in 1070 as Diocese of Gallura, in 1113 renamed after its see as Diocese of Civita, in 1839 renamed as Diocese of Civita–Tempio, until its 1986 formal suppression, merged into the Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias (effectively absorbing the Diocese of Ampurias, which it had been held in personal union with since 1506).

Ancient diocese of Fausania

No later then the sixth century, a Roman bishopric was established ad a place called P(h)ausania, which may be Olbia, Tempio Pausania or even Posada (50 km south of Olbia).[1]

While local Saint Simplicius is traditionally revered as its 4th century founding first bishop, a historical thesis [2] holds it may have been (re?)founded by Catholic bishop(s) exiled by king Huneric of the Vandal Kingdom after his council of Carthage replaced them with Donatist heretic counterparts, only to be abandoned again due to the 552 invasion of the Ostrogoths under king Totila.

Its first historical mention is in 594, when Pope Gregory the Great invites its Metropolitan, the Archdiocese of Cagliari, to nominate a candidate for the vacant see. Its first documented incumbent, bishop Victor, was mentioned in a papal letter in 599, recalling his work to evanglize the pagan locals, and attended a synod in Rome in 600.

The see of Phausania is still listed in the Byzantine Notitia Episcopatuum until circa 1000; but this may well have been a refusal to canonically acknowledge the diocese being effectively wiped much earlier, plausibly in the 8th century by Arab invaders.

Diocese of Civita(-Tempio)

The Basilica of San Simplicio in Olbia (former cathedral of Civita)

The bishopric was only restored probably in 1070, as Diocese of Gallura, named after the Giudicato of Gallura, one of the four autonomous temporal jurisdictions into which Pope Alexander II (1061-1073) divided the island, but is first recorded on a map dated 1095.

In the 11th century, the Basilica of San Simplicio was erected (in Olbia, then called Civita) as diocesan cathedral.

The see was exempt, i.e. directly dependent on the Holy See (not part of any ecclesiastical province, just as the region's second bishopric, the Diocese of Galtellì, which may have been founded as late as 1113, when the (remainder?) bishopric of Gallura was renamed after its see as Diocese of Civita. In 1138, the papal bulla Tunc apostolicae sedis, from Pope Innocent II, made both suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Pisa on the Italian peninsula (and capital of the dogal state which colonized part of the island), but it seems both were rendered exempt again later in that century, unlike the other three giudicati, where Metropolitans of their own were established.

It has had some uncanonical incumbents, not obedient to the canonical Popes of Rome, two rather to the Antipopes in Avignon.

From 1506.06.05, the see was held in personal union ('United aeque principaliter ') with the neighboring Diocese of Ampurias until they were formally merged on 1986.09.30 and renamed as the present Roman Catholic Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias). Meanwhile on 1839.08.26, the see of Civita had been renamed as Diocese of Civita–Tempio. After the merger, the former cathedral at Olbia (the former Civita) remained only a minor basilica, while the cathedral see is the Cattedrale di S. Pietro Apostolo, at Tempio-Pausania.

Episcopal Ordinaries

(all Roman Rite)

Suffragan Bishops of Civita
first centuries unavailable
Suffragan Bishops of Civita (and of Ampurias)
from 1506 all incumbents of Civita are simultaneously Bishop of Ampurias (Italy) aeque principaliter
Suffragan Bishops of Civita–Tempio; all still also Bishop of Ampurias aeque principaliter

See also

References

  1. ↑ S. I. Deledda, La cristianizzazione della Barbagia e della Gallura. La diocesi di Phausania tra urbanitas e rusticitas, Mogoro 2005
  2. ↑ Raimondo Turtas, La Riforma tridentina nelle diocesi di Ampurias e Civita: dalle relazioni «ad limina» dei vescovi Giovanni Sanna, Filippo de Marymon e Giacomo Passamar (1586-1622), in Studi in onore di Pietro Meloni, Sassari 1988, pp. 233–259
Bibliography - Fausania
Bibliography - Civita

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