AMELIA, DIOCESE of. — In the Umbrian region, in the province of Terni, bordering the dioceses of Todi to the north, Spoleto to the east, Narni to the southeast, Orte to the south, and Bagnoregio to the west. It covers an area of 262.08 sq. km, with a population of 21,000 inhabitants, divided among 20 parishes, with 24 secular and 35 religious priests, 7 religious houses for men and 13 for women. It has a minor seminary in A., and a major seminary in Assisi, shared with the other dioceses of Umbria.
A., called Ameria by the Romans, according to Cato, as reported by Pliny (Hist. natur., III, 14), was supposedly founded 387 years before Rome; its antiquity is also attested by the so-called Cyclopean walls. After the Roman occupation, the conquerors began there one of the great military roads, which they called the Amerina, and raised the city to the rank of municipium.
The Christian faith must have been preached in A. as early as the first centuries of the Church, but no trace of it is found in either monumental or literary sources. The Passion of s. Firmina, dating no earlier than the 6th century, places the saint’s burial, after her martyrdom under Diocletian, near A., where her relics were supposedly discovered in the 9th century. A more recent version of the same work, however, locates the martyr’s tomb near Civitavecchia, where s. Firmina likewise received veneration or where her relics were preserved. The first bishop of A. was supposedly Ilario, whose existence is supported by documents from the Roman Synod of 465.
A., in the first half of the 8th century, was the property of the Holy See and, because of its geographical position, was used as a fortress and counted among the castra sancti Petri. In 739 it was occupied by the Lombards, but in 742 it was restored by King Liutprand to Pope Zaccaria; and, once the Papal State had been established, it became part of it until the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy.
A. is a diocese immediately subject to the Holy See.