Penne e Pescara, Diocese of

PENNE E PESCARA, Diocese of. - Diocese with its seat at Pescara, it has 235,000 inhabitants, 70 parishes grouped into 14 foranias. It has another 290 churches and oratories. The territory, predominantly hilly, measures 2000 sq km, comprising 39 municipalities, of which 30 belong to the province of Pescara and 9 to that of Teramo. The Chapter, established at Penne in the year 1000, is composed of 12 canons (Ann. Pont., 1952, pp. 314-15). The diocese depends directly on the Holy See.

Legend attributes the evangelization of the present diocesan territory, in ancient times inhabited for the most part by the Vestini, to Patras, one of the seventy-two disciples of Jesus Christ, who is said to have been the first bishop of Penne. It is also related that, during the persecution of Diocletian, there suffered martyrdom in the territory of Casauria: Maximus the deacon, Venantius, Lucianus and Donatus, whose relics were transferred to the cathedral of Penne in the year 868 by a bishop Giraldo; but these were probably martyrs of other places (Lanzoni, I, p. 371). The diocese appears during the 9th century, but its origin may be much earlier. In 958 Penne extended its own jurisdiction over the territory of the very ancient city of Atri, which possesses a monumental church of great historical importance. In 1252 Atri was erected into a diocese but united to Penne "aeque principaliter."

In the course of the first centuries of the second Christian millennium the diocese of Penne-Atri enjoyed great splendor and notable influence over a vast, prosperous zone of Abruzzo. It was visited by St. Francis of Assisi, who went to Penne to settle grave enmities that had arisen among certain noble families. The convent of the Franciscan Friars Minor of that city dates back to the year 1225.

On 2 July 1949 Pius XII transferred to Pescara the seat of the bishop and of the Chapter and separated Atri from Penne in order to unite it to the diocese of Teramo. The first bishop of the reorganized diocese (with the name of Penne-Pescara), Msgr. Benedetto Falcucci, from Atesa, took canonical possession on 30 Oct. 1949.

The ancient cathedral of Penne (now a co-cathedral) dedicated to St. Mary and St. Maximus was destroyed in 1943 by an aerial bombardment. Its reconstruction was begun in 1951. The diocesan Seminary, founded in 1570, still has its seat in Penne and educates about a hundred students. The new Cathedral, built at Pescara in 1933, titled to St. Cetteus and dedicated to all the holy supreme pontiffs, is also the national temple of the Conciliazione. It is, after that of S. Clemente at Casauria, the most notable church of the diocese. It was devastated during the period in which the city of Pescara was deserted because of the events of war (Oct. 1943-June 1944).

The diocese counts not a few saints and illustrious persons born or long resident in its territory: St. Guidone, abbot of S. Clemente at Casauria, thaumaturge; St. Bernard, born at Isola del Gran Sasso, diocese of Penne, who was one of the greatest bishops of Teramo, where he is still much venerated today; St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (v.), who died in the convent of the Passionists of Isola del Gran Sasso. The sanctuary, where his remains are kept, a destination of numerous pilgrimages, has depended since 1950 on the bishop of Teramo. Monastic life had a broad development in the diocese. First among all stands the illustrious abbey, originally of the Most Holy Trinity, then of S. Clemente di Casauria (Casa aurea), erected on a small island formed by two branches of the river Pescara by the emperor Louis II in 871; relics of St. Clement are said to have been brought there from Rome. Ruined by the Saracens in the 10th century, it excelled anew in fame and wealth among the abbeys of royal right, endowed with privileges by sovereigns; but Urban II placed it under the dependence of the Apostolic See. In the 13th century its decline began and in the 15th it was given in commendam. Celestine monks and then Reformed Franciscans officiated in its great Basilica until the suppression, in 1860; today it is cared for by the State as a national monument. S. Bartolomeo di Carpineto was founded for the Benedictines in 962 by the count of Penne, was entrusted to the Cistercians by Galvano Lancia in 1258 and was a very wealthy monastery. Other Benedictine abbeys were: S. Maria di Picciano, which received from Leo IX the confirmation of its possessions and by Alexander VI was granted to the Olivetans; Loreto Aprutino, existing in the 12th century; S. Salvatore di Castelli; while S. Giovanni di Casanello in the territory of Atri, subject to the abbey of Sts. Quiricus and Julitta at Antrodoco, belonged after 1252 to the cathedral of S. Maria di Atri.

Enrico Josi