AMELIA, Diocese of. - In the Umbrian region, in the province of Terni, bordering on 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 measures an area of 262.08 sq km, with a population of 21,000 inhabitants, distributed among 20 parishes, with 24 secular priests and 35 regulars, 7 male religious houses and 13 female ones. It has its minor seminary in A., and its major seminary in Assisi, shared with the other dioceses of Umbria.
A., called Ameria by the Romans, according to Cato, cited by Pliny (Hist. natur., III, 14), would have been 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 in A. must have been preached already in the first centuries of the Church, but no trace of it is found in the sources, whether monumental or literary. The Passion of St. Firmina, not earlier than the 6th century, would place the burial of the saint, after her martyrdom under Diocletian, near A., where in the 9th century her relics are said to have been found. A more recent recension of the same, however, indicates the martyr's tomb near Civitavecchia, where likewise St. Firmina was venerated or her relics were preserved. The first bishop of A. would be Hilary, whose existence is supported by documents of 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 topographical 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 Zachary, and, once the Papal State was constituted, it became part of it until the establishment of the kingdom of Italy.
A. is a diocese immediately subject to the Holy See.
Bibliography4 works
Benedetto Pesci