Motta Montecorvino

Motta Montecorvino
Comune
Comune di Motta Montecorvino
Motta Montecorvino Location of Motta Montecorvino in Italy
Coordinates: 41°30′N 15°7′E / 41.500°N 15.117°E / 41.500; 15.117Coordinates: 41°30′N 15°7′E / 41.500°N 15.117°E / 41.500; 15.117
Country	Italy
Region	Apulia
Province / Metropolitan city	Foggia (FG)
Area
• Total	19.70 km2 (7.61 sq mi)
Elevation	662 m (2,172 ft)
Population (31 December 2003)[1]
• Total	918
• Density	47/km2 (120/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Mottesi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	71030
Dialing code	0881
Patron saint	John the Baptist

Motta Montecorvino is a town, comune (municipality), former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see in the province of Foggia in the Puglia (Apulia) region of southeast Italy.

The city was losing its population in the early fifteenth century, and was reduced to rubble and ruins, including the cathedral, apart from a guard tower, by the earthquake of 5 December 1456 ^[2].

Ecclesiastical history

• Established in 1059 as Diocese of Montecorvino (Italiano) / Montis Corbini (Latin), as a result of the First Council of Melfi (also in Apulia; called in August 1059 by Pope Nicholas, reshuffling southern Italy's ecclesiastical map after the Great Eastern Schism). It was made a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Benevento, with see on a now archaeological site between the present villages of Motta Montecorvino and Pietramontecorvino
• Its ruined cathedral is said to have been built grandly by Saint bishop Alberto (patron saint of city and diocese) -according to his Vita ^[3]- on the site of an small, ninth century chapel, and rebuilt by bishop Rao, with a chapel for Alberto's tomb.
• Its (?) most famous cleric by far was the Franciscan missionary Giovanni da Montecorvino (might however have been born at Montecorvino Rovella, in 1247), who after a warm welcome by Great Khan of China Kublai Khan returned to Rome to obtain a papal mandate and back to the Mongol empire's capital, where he founded and was the first (?) incumbent of the Archdiocese of Khanbalik (precursor of the present Metropolitan see of Peking)
• From 1433 united aeque principaliter (in personal union) with the Diocese of Vulturara until their 1818 suppression, the latter becoming de factor see due to Montecorvino's decay and wreck in the 1456 earthquake.
• Suppressed on 1818.06.27 by Pope Pius VII's papal bulla De utiliori , as part of a reorganization of the dioceses within and agreed by Concordat with the Neapolitan Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, together with the united see of Vulturara, both their territories being merged into the Diocese of Lucera

Episcopal Ordinaries

Suffragan Bishops of Montecorvino

incomplete notably the first centuries

• Beato - according to St. Alberto's vita present when city and modest first cathedral were built
• Ermanno (mentioned in 1049) (disputed)
• Adeodato (in 1059) (disputed)
• Saint Alberto (1081 - death 5 April 1127)
• Riccardo I ? (in 1115)[7]
• Ruggero I (Pietro) (circa 1129)
• Pietro I (in 1142) ^[4]
• Riccardo II
• Roffredo (il 1179)
• anonymous (in 1182) ^[5]
• Ramfredo (in 1202) ^[6]
• anonymous (in 1215)
• Orso (in 1218 & 1220) ^[7]
• Rao (in 1221 & 1223) ^[8]
• Bartolomeo (in 1290) ^[9]
• Bartolomeo (1304? – ?)
• Ruggero (1310? – ?)
• Roberto (? – death ?)
• Pietro, Augustinians (O.E.S.A.) (1353.04.22 – death ?)
• Giacomo (1358.05.23 – ?)
• Brizio (? – death ?)
• Bonometto, Dominican Order (O.P.) (1364.12.13 – ?)
• Costantino da Termoli, O.E.S.A. (1368.11.03 – ?), previously Bishop of Bisaccia (Italy) (1365.03.26 – 1368.11.03) ^[10]
• Nicola de Edio, O.P. (1400.04.10 – ?) ^[11]
• Matteo da Campobasso (1409.09.06 – ?)
• Antonio (4 February 1432 - ?), 18 September 1433 or 9 April 1434 also nominated Bishop of Vulturara - first in personal union Montecorvino)

Suffragan Bishops of Montecorvino and Suffragan Bishops of Vulturara

From 1433 in personal union ('united aeque principaliter ') with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vulturara - see there for incumbents

Titular see

The diocese was nominally restored in 1968 [simultaneously with former united see Diocese of Vulturara] as Titular bishopric of Montecorvino (Italian) / Montis Corbini (Latin adjective).

It has had the following incumbents, of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank with an Archiepiscopal exception

• Francisco Ricardo Oves Fernández (1969.04.25 – 1970.01.26) as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Cienfuegos (Cuba) (1969.04.25 – 1970.01.26); next Metropolitan Archbishop of La Habana (Havana, Cuba) (1970.01.26 – 1981.03.28), President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Cuba (1970 – 1973 & 1976 – 1979)
• Antonio Ravagli (1970.04.30 – death 1981.12.14) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Firenze (Florence, Italy) (1970.04.30 – 1981.12.14); previously Titular Bishop of Philippopolis in Arabia (1955.07.04 – 1960.08.30) as Coadjutor Bishop of Larino (Italy) (1955.07.04 – 1959) and as Coadjutor Bishop of Modigliana (Italy) (1959 – 1960.08.30), succeeding as Bishop of Modigliana (1960.08.30 – 1970.04.30), Auxiliary Bishop of Faenza (Italy) (1967 – 1970.04.30)
• Edward Eugeniusz Samsel (1982.05.17 – 2000.11.16), first as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Łomża (Poland) (1982.05.17 – 1992.03.25) and then as Auxiliary Bishop of Diocese of Ełk (Poland) (1992.03.25 – 2000.11.16); later succeeded as Bishop of Ełk (2000.11.16 – death 2003.01.17)
• Titular Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana (易福霖) (2001.12.13 – ...) as papal diplomat : Apostolic Nuncio (ambassador) to Papua New Guinea (2001.12.13 – 2006.03.31), Apostolic Nuncio to Solomon Islands (2002.02.05 – 2006.03.31), Apostolic Nuncio to Pakistan (2006.03.31 – 2010.11.20), Apostolic Nuncio to Democratic Republic of Congo (2010.11.20 – 2015.02.17) Apostolic Nuncio to Australia; previously Chargé d’affaires in PR China (1999.09.20 – 2001.12.13).

See also

• List of Catholic dioceses in Italy

Notes and references

Sources and external links

• GCatholic - former & titular see

Bibliography

• Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni, Venice 1864, vol. XIX, pp. 281–292
• Jean-Marie Martin, Ghislaine Noyé, La cité de Montecorvo en Capitanate et sa cathédrale, in Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Moyen-Age, Temps modernes, vol. 94, 2 (1982), pp. 513–549
• Hans-Walter Klewitz, Zur geschichte der bistumsorganisation Campaniens und Apuliens im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert, in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen archiven und bibliotheken, XXIV (1932-33), p. 50
• Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 942
• Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, pp. 347–348; vol. 2, pp. XXXI e 195
• Norbert Kamp, Kirche und Monarchie im staufischen Königreich Sizilien, vol. 4, Prosopographische Grundlegung: Bistümer und Bischöfe des Königreichs 1194 - 1266; Nachträge und Berichtigungen, Register und Verzeichnisse, Münich 1982, pages 1370, 1471, 1506, 1544.