Ascoli Satriano-Cerignola, Diocese of (ASCOLI SATRIANO-CERIGNOLA, DIOCESI DI)

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ASCOLI SATRIANO-CERIGNOLA, DIOCESE di. - In Puglia, province of Foggia, suffragan of Benevento. It has 15 parishes, 57 diocesan and 18 regular priests, 86,921 inhabitants, all Catholic. Residence: A. S. (summer), C. (winter). Patrons: of A. S., s. Potito; of C., s. Pietro.

A. S., burned by the Saracens and destroyed by the Normans, was rebuilt a short distance away and in 1400 became a duchy. The origins of the diocese are uncertain; it is mentioned in the bull founding the archbishopric of Benevento (969), but no bishops are known until the 11th century (Mauro in 1058); it seems that the episcopal title of Ardona was transferred to II.
C. is believed to have been founded by the scattered inhabitants of Cerina, a nearby Greek colony destroyed by Alessandro, king of Epirus. Razed to the ground by an earthquake in 1731, it was rebuilt. In 1818 Pio VII, in reorganizing the churches of the kingdom of Naples, conferred episcopal dignity upon it and united it to A. S.

Abbeys and monasteries: S. Giovanni; S. Maria; S. Michele; S. Leonardo, a commandery of the Teutonic Order founded by Federico II; SS. Benedetto e Lazzaro.

BIBL.: Ughelli, VIII, cols. 224 ff.; Cappelletti, XIX, p. 140 ff.; A. Gröner, Die Diözesen Italiens von der Mitte des 10. bis zum Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts, Tübingen 1904, pp. 35, 42, 45; Eubel, I, p. 97; III, p. 133; IV, p. 111; Lanzoni, pp. 256-57; F. Bonnard, s.V. in DHG, IV, cols. 912-13.

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