ALIFE, DIOCESE of. – In the Campania region, in the province of Benevento, suffragan of Benevento. It comprises 19 parishes, 32 diocesan priests and 7 religious; 35,000 inhabitants, all Catholics; area of the diocese: 400 sq. km. Residence: Piedimonte d'Alife, an Oscan, later Samnite, city, captured, lost, and recaptured by the Romans, flourishing under the Empire, and plundered and destroyed by the Saracens. Having passed under various feudal lords, it was, in 1135, stormed and razed to the ground by Ruggiero II.
The erection of the bishopric is thought to date back to 314, but the first bishop whose name is known is a Claro of 499. The regular succession begins with Alferio, ordained in 1252. In 1818 the diocese was suppressed; restored in 1820 and united with Telese, it was again separated in 1852. Within the diocese there once flourished the abbeys of S. Salvatore, S. Spirito, SS. Maria e Pietro, S. Agostino, S. Simeone, and S. Maria Maddalena.
Traces of its ancient splendor remain in the ruins of the temples, the Roman walls and baths, and the theater of the Antonine period. The cathedral of S. Sisto has an eleventh-century crypt and a bell tower with Roman inscriptions on the cornice and base.
Noemi Crostarossa Scipioni