• Source: Roman Catholic Diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa

The Diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa (Latin: Dioecesis Melphiensis-Rapollensis-Venusina, Italian: Diocesi di Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church 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. The Abbey of the Santissima Trinità at Venosa comes under the Diocese.




History



On 23 August 1059, Pope Nicholas II (1059–1061) held a council in Melphi, with more than one hundred bishops in attendance. In the council, he deposed the bishop of Montepeloso for simony and adultery; the bishop of Tricarico for being underage; Bishop Johannes of Trani; and the Bishop of Ascoli Puglia. He also invested Robert Guiscard as duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.
The pope made the diocese of Melfi immediately dependent on the Holy See; its first bishop was Baldwin. Its cathedral, a work of Roger Borsa, son of Robert Guiscard (1155), was destroyed by the earthquake of 1851.
The second council to be held at Melfi was presided over by Pope Alexander II (1067–1073) in 1067, during the episcopacy of Bishop Balduinus. Guillaume, the son of Tancred, was excommunicated, along with his soldiers, for having conquered Salerno. Bishop Balduinus was later suspended from his episcopal office by Pope Alexander, but was restored in March 1076, after due penance for his excesses, by Pope Gregory VII.
In September 1089, Pope Urban II (1088–1099) held his first council at Melfi. It legislated against simony and against clerical marriage. The Norman Roger Borsa took an oath of fealty to Pope Urban, who invested him with the duchy of Apulia and Salerno.
Pope Paschal II confirmed, in a bull of 29 September 1101 (Per Apostoli Petri), the privilege granted to the bishops of Melfi of being consecrated by the Roman pontiff.
In 1528, Clement VII, in view of the scarcity of its revenues, united the Diocese of Rapolla to that of Melfi, "aeque principaliter".
Bishop Lazzaro Carafino (1622–1626) held a diocesan synod in Melfi in 1624. Bishop Deodato Scaglia (1626–1644) presided over a diocesan synod of Melfi and Rapolla in 1635. A diocesan synod was held in Melfi on 11–13 October 1725 by Bishop Mondilio Orsini (1724 –1728).




= Diocesan reorganization

=
The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), in order to ensure that all Catholics received proper spiritual attention, decreed the reorganization of the diocesan structure of Italy and the consolidation of small and struggling dioceses. It also recommended the abolition of anomalous units such as exempt territorial prelatures. These considerations applied to Melfi and to Rapolla, as the population migrated in the post-war period away from agriculture to jobs on the coast.
On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. Instead, the Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese. On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Melfi, Rapallo, and Venosa be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Dioecesis Melphiensis-Rapollensis-Venusina. The seat of the diocese was to be in Melphi, and the cathedral of Melfi was to serve as the cathedral of the merged dioceses. The cathedrals in Rapolla and Venosa were to become co-cathedrals, and the cathedral Chapters were each to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in Melfi, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the former dioceses of Melphi, Rapolla, and Venosa.
On 11 February 1973, Pope Paul VI had promoted the diocese of Potenza e Marsico Nuovo to the status of an archdiocese, and made it immediately subject to the papacy, rather than to some other archdiocese in the regions of Basilicata or Lucania. It had been suffragan to the archdiocese of Acerenza. The bishop was given the rank of archbishop, and granted the right to use the processional cross and the pallium. The diocese of Melphi-Rapolla-Venosa was made a suffragan of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo.




= Chapter and cathedral

=
The cathedral of Melfi, dedicated to the Taking Up of the Body of the Virgin Mary into Heaven (Assumption), was administered by a Chapter, composed of four dignities (the Cantor, the Primicerius, the Treasurer, and the Vice-Cantor) and sixteen canons. In 1748, there were four dignities and twenty-two canons.
The cathedral Chapter of Rapolla had three dignities and five canons.
In 1764, Venosa had a population of about 4,000 persons. Its cathedral, dedicated to S. Andrew, had a Chapter composed of four dignities and twenty canons. When Venosa became united to the diocese of Melfi in 1986, it had a population of less than 34,000, with only twenty priests to serve them.




Bishops






= Diocese of Melfi

=




= Diocese of Melfi e Rapolla

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Latin Name: Melphiensis et Rapollensis
United: 16 May 1528 with Diocese of Rapolla




= Diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa

=
Latin Name: Dioecesis Melphiensis-Rapollensis-Venusinus
United: 30 September 1986 with Diocese of Venosa

Gianfranco Todisco, P.O.C.R. (13 Dec 2002 – 21 Apr 2017 Resigned)
Ciro Fanelli (4 Aug 2017 –)




See also


Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo
Roman Catholic Diocese of Venosa
Roman Catholic Diocese of Rapolla




Notes and references






Bibliography


Eubel, Conradus, ed. (1913). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 1 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana.
Eubel, Conradus, ed. (1914). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 2 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana.
Eubel, Conradus; Gulik, Guilelmus (1923). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. 3 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana.
Gams, Pius Bonifatius (1873). Series episcoporum Ecclesiae catholicae: quotquot innotuerunt a beato Petro apostolo (in Latin). Ratisbon: Typis et Sumptibus Georgii Josephi Manz.
Gauchat, Patritius (Patrice) (1935). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. IV (1592-1667). Münster: Libraria Regensbergiana.
Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1952). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi (in Latin). Vol. V (1667-1730). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio.
Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1958). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi (in Latin). Vol. VI (1730-1799). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio.
Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1968). Hierarchia Catholica medii et recentioris aevi sive summorum pontificum, S. R. E. cardinalium, ecclesiarum antistitum series... A pontificatu Pii PP. VII (1800) usque ad pontificatum Gregorii PP. XVI (1846) (in Latin). Vol. VII. Monasterii: Libr. Regensburgiana.
Remigius Ritzler; Pirminus Sefrin (1978). Hierarchia catholica Medii et recentioris aevi... A Pontificatu PII PP. IX (1846) usque ad Pontificatum Leonis PP. XIII (1903) (in Latin). Vol. VIII. Il Messaggero di S. Antonio.
Pięta, Zenon (2002). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi... A pontificatu Pii PP. X (1903) usque ad pontificatum Benedictii PP. XV (1922) (in Latin). Vol. IX. Padua: Messagero di San Antonio. ISBN 978-88-250-1000-8.




= Studies

=
Antonucci, Giovanni, "II vescovato di Melfi." (in Italian). in: Archivio storico per la Calabria e la Lucania 6 (1936) 35 ff.
Cappelletti, Giuseppe (1870). Le chiese d'Italia: dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni (in Italian). Vol. vigesimoprimo (21). Venezia: G. Antonelli. pp. 419–457.
Araneo, Gennaro (1866). Notizie storiche della città di Melfi nell'antico reame di Napoli. (in Italian). Firenze: Tip. nazionale di V. Sodi, 1866
D'Avino, Vincenzio (1848). Cenni storici sulle chiese arcivescovili, vescovili, e prelatizie (nullius) del regno delle due Sicilie (in Italian). Naples: dalle stampe di Ranucci. pp. 326–332.
Kamp, Norbert (1975). Kirche und Monarchie im staufischen Königreich Sizilien: I. Prosopographische Grundlegung, Bistumer und Bistümer und Bischöfe des Konigreichs 1194–1266: 2. Apulien und Calabrien München: Wilhelm Fink 1975. pp. 486–494.
Kehr, Paulus Fridolin (1962). Italia pontificia. Regesta pontificum Romanorum. Vol. IX: Samnia – Apulia – Lucania. Berlin: Weidmann. (in Latin). Pp. 154 496-499.
Mattei-Cerasoli, Leone (1919). "Da archivii e biblioteche: Di alcuni vescovi poco noti". (in Italian). In: Archivio storico per le province Neapolitane 44 (Napoli: Luigi Lubrano 1919). pp. 310–335, at 313.
Ughelli, Ferdinando; Coleti, Niccolò (1717). Italia sacra, sive De Episcopis Italiae (in Latin). Vol. Tomus primus (secunda ed.). Venice: apud Sebastianum Coleti. pp. 920–942.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Venosa
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Rapolla
• Abbey of Santissima Trinità, Venosa
• List of Catholic dioceses (structured view)
• List of Catholic dioceses in Italy
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro
• List of Catholic dioceses (alphabetical)
• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo
• List of Catholic dioceses in Europe