Albano, Diocese of

ALBANO, DIOCESE of. - In Lazio, in the province of Rome, it is one of the six suburbicarian sees held by a cardinal of the order of bishops. From the Castelli Romani it extends to the sea, measuring an area of 66 sq. km., with a population of 85,000 inhabitants, divided into 19 parishes, with 32 secular priests,

and 107 regular priests. The minor seminary is in A., while the major one is in Anagni, shared with the other dioceses of lower Lazio. A., situated on the eastern slopes of the Alban Hills, along the Via Appia, 25 km from Rome, derives its name from the famous villa built by the Emperor Domitian in the territory of ancient Alba Longa. As an inhabited center, however, it is only mentioned from the 5th century AD and owes its origin to the Via Appia, a stretch of which forms the main street of A. The inscriptions found in A. and its surroundings, and the devastated catacombs of the ancient diocesan territory, along with the cemetery of S. Senatore itself, have not provided any certain news of a Christian community prior to the 4th century; there is no doubt, however, that one existed and that the diocese of A. dates back to the pre-Constantinian era.

The Liber Pontificalis, in the Life of Sylvester, records that the Emperor Constantine « fecit basilicum in civitate Albanensi sancti Iohannis » (ed. L. Duchesne, I, p. 184). Recent excavations have uncovered the primitive columns of this basilica, which was remodeled many times and dedicated at least from the 8th century to the Roman martyr St. Pancras, patron saint of A. Based on the error of Socrates and Sozomen (PG 67, 301. 1129), who had called Dionysius, bishop of Milan (ca. 355), bishop of Alba, Ughelli and others placed a Dionysius on the see of A. in the year 355. The known series of bishops of A. dates from the 5th century and begins with Romano, whom we find among the signatories of the synod of 465 in Rome. Among these bishops, Nicholas Breakspear and Alessandro de' Medici ascended the papal throne under the names, respectively, of Adrian IV and Leo XI, and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio is counted among the Doctors of the Church.

The diocese of A. also includes the small town of Anzio, which must have had a Christian community very early on, although its first bishop appears only in 465 along with Romano of A. After Vindemius, who was still present at the Roman Synod of 502, no further trace of the bishops of Anzio is found (v.).

The episcopal archive exists, as do those of the individual collegiate churches of the diocese of A., but the documents preserved therein are not prior to 1500. The monumental churches of A., among which are the Cathedral, of Constantinian age, renewed in the 18th century, the church of the Rotonda, formerly a nymphaeum of Domitian's villa, Madonna della Stella, S. Pietro, S. Paolo, and the collegiate and parish churches of the diocese, abound in works of art.