Aosta, Diocese of

AOSTA, Diocese of. - It comprises the entire territory of the Aosta valley (Piedmont) and has 90,000 inhabitants, 88 parishes, 140 secular priests, 5 male Orders and religious congregations and 7 female, and the major and minor seminaries. Patron: St. Gratus, bishop, whose feast falls on 7 September.

History. - Aosta, the ancient Augusta Praetoria, was founded in the year 25 B.C. at the convergence of the two roads that led to the Graian Alps (Little St. Bernard) and the Pennine Alps (Great St. Bernard); the colony Augusta Praetoria, made up of praetorians and of the ancient inhabitants of the valley, the Salassi, was included in region XI of Augustus's Italy. At the fall of the empire, the valley of Aosta belonged to the Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines, to the Lombards and, from 575 until the advent of the Carolingians, to the Merovingian kingdom of Burgundy; after the fall of the Carolingians it followed the fortunes of the kingdom of Italy and around the middle of the 10th century was again included in the territory of the kingdom of Burgundy. At the beginning of the 11th century the valley of Aosta begins to figure in the Burgundian Alpine group of the domains of Humbert Whitehands, and, although it belonged to the empire, it knew in practice, from that moment until its annexation to Italy, no other lords than the Savoys, to whom it remained most loyal. Aosta, erected into a duchy in 1238, governed itself with great liberties through the Assembly of the three Estates, clergy, nobility and people, the Council of the Commissi, instituted in the years 1535-36, and its own laws, codified in 1586 (Constumes générales du Duché d'Aouste, Chambéry 1588); but Charles Emmanuel III abrogated everything between 1760 and 1770. The official language of the duchy was French. Aosta knew so well how to defend the integrity of its territory as to merit the title of Aoste la Pucelle.

As in all of upper Italy, Christianity spread slowly in the valley of Aosta; its systematic evangelization took place in the course of the 4th century, probably through the work of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, whose diocese extended as far as the Graian and Pennine Alps. The erection of the diocese goes back to the beginning of the 5th century and its first bishop was Eustasius, who had himself represented, certainly because of his age, by the priest Gratus at the Council of Milan of 451. To the end of the 4th century there can in fact be dated the small cemetery basilica rediscovered, not long ago, in a cemetery area situated a short distance from the Porta Decumana, on the road leading to the Little St. Bernard (cf. C. Carducci, in Bollettino del Centro di Studi Archeologici ed Artistici del Piemonte, 1 [1941], p. 5).

The catalogue of the bishops of A. is fragmentary almost to the end of the 11th century. Among them, particular mention is due to: St. Gratus (v.); St. Jucundus, under whose episcopate St. Orso (v.) lived at A.; Anselm I (early 10th century), who rebuilt the collegiate church of Sts. Peter and Orso, of which remains of decoration still survive beneath the roof of the present church; Gualbert (d. 1212), who obtained from Count Thomas I of Savoy in 1191 the first charter of franchises for A.; the blessed Boniface of Valperga (1220-43), whose cult was confirmed in 1890; the blessed Emeric of Quart (1301-13), whose cult was confirmed in 1881; Pietro Gazino (1528-57), who, together with the three Estates, crushed Protestant propaganda in the Valley; Marc'Antonio Bobba (1557-68), jurist, who took part in the Council of Trent and became a cardinal (d. 1575); Pietro Francesco di Sales (1741-83), who in 1780 gave the major seminary its present seat; Augusto Giuseppe Duc (v.; 1872-1907), noted historian of the diocese, to whom the present small seminary is due.

The diocese of A. was a suffragan of Milan until the moment when Charlemagne incorporated it into the Tarantaisian ecclesiastical province he created at the end of the 8th century; but, toward the middle of the 9th century, A. passed back under Milan for a century, then returned to the Tarantaisian province and remained there until 1802. The diocese was then suppressed and united to Ivrea; upon its restoration (1817) it was annexed to the new ecclesiastical province of Chambéry and remained there until 1864, then passed to that of Turin. The diocese of A. had, like many other dioceses, a particular rite, suppressed on 4 Feb. 1829 by Leo XII with the bull In Pedemontii Ecclesias.

Among illustrious ecclesiastical figures, mention is due to: St. Bernard (v.), restorer of the Hospices of the Great and Little St. Bernard, St. Anselm (v.), Cardinal Antonio di Challant (v.), Prior Giorgio di Challant (d. 1509), patron of the arts, Father Antonio Savio (a sapientibus), general of the Conventuals, who took part in the Council of Trent (d. 1566), the canon Antonio Gal, father of Valdostan history, Father Lorenzo, learned and zealous Capuchin (d. 1880).

In the diocese there existed no monasteries or abbeys, but there were several Benedictine priories from the 11th century onward, and various houses of regular canons, among them the Aosta residence of the regular canons of the Great St. Bernard and the provostry of Verrès, which dates back to the end of the 10th century, passing in 1911 to the Lateran regular canons. The principal institute of ecclesiastical culture is the Religious and Scientific Academy of St. Anselm, founded in 1855 by the canon A. Gal, which has given a very strong impulse to local historical studies, has published its own bulletin since its origin, and possesses a fine library and a small museum. The principal library of the diocese is that of the seminary, not yet catalogued. Rich in codices (from the 9th century onward) and in documents (parchments from the 11th century onward) are the archives of the bishopric, of the cathedral, of the collegiate church of St. Orso (arranged chronologically) and of the municipality.

Monuments. - The city has many Roman monuments: the arch of Augustus, the Porta Pretoria, the theatre, now excavated, the amphitheatre, the crypto-portico, etc.; the cathedral and the collegiate church of St. Orso, reduced to their present state in the 15th century, have nothing noteworthy from the architectural standpoint, except for the two ancient crypts; on the other hand, the treasures of art they contain are most precious and numerous: the cathedral preserves the well-known ivory diptych of Honorius of 406, a fibula with a large cameo, of Roman art, enclosed in gold filigree of the 13th century, the artistic reliquary caskets of St. Gratus of 1458 and of St. Jucundus of 1615, vestments richly adorned from the 15th century onward, illuminated missals and choir books, the wooden stalls carved in the choir in 1467, etc.: the collegiate church, besides the paintings of the 10th century already noted, those of the vault of the 15th century and the wooden stalls carved in the choir in the 15th century, possesses precious illuminated missals of the 15th century, reliquaries, chalices, etc. Beside the church, the majestic bell tower of the 12th-13th century; the Romanesque cloister of 1133; the priory, decorated externally with terracottas of the late 15th century; the Roman museum. Several extra-urban parishes also possess notable monuments and works of art, which could be admired in the first exhibition of sacred art held at A. in 1936.

A. Pietro Frutaz