Ariano, Diocese of

ARIANO, diocesi di. - In the Irpinian region, province of Avellino, suffragan of Benevento, it has 24 parishes, 44 diocesan priests and 9 regulars. Area of the diocese: 463 sq km; population: 62,000 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, of whom about 21,000 are in the municipality of A. Patron: St. Otto.

A center of the Irpini, it merged with a Roman stopping place on the Via Appia Traiana, whence the name Ara Iani. It became contested under the Lombards, was later conquered by the Normans and made by Roger II the seat of a parliament (1140). In the 13th century it was given by Charles of Anjou as a fief to the Vaudemont; it passed, in the 15th century, to Attendolo Sforza and later to the Carafa. Gravely damaged by earthquakes and eruptions of Vesuvius (1546, 1781, 1930), it always rose again. The tradition that makes St. Peter its evangelizer is legendary. There are no traces of the erection of the bishopric until the 10th century; at the Roman Council of 969, John XIII subjected to the archbishopric of Benevento certain dioceses of the region, among them A. The first bishop of whom there is reliable record is Meinardo of Poitiers (1070). The Cathedral was erected by Bishop Nicola degli Ippoliti, completed and consecrated by Bishop Diomede Carafa in 1512; the seminary was founded in 1564.