AVELLINO, Diocese of. - In Irpinia, in the province of A. Divided into 50 parishes, it has 124 diocesan priests and 27 regulars; 120,000 inhabitants, all Catholics (1948). The patron of the diocese is St. Modestinus.
The ancient Abellinum, a station of the Hirpinian Samnites, is mentioned by Frontinus among the Roman colonies whose territory was assigned to veterans. It declined with the barbarian invasions, only to rise again, around the 9th century, in a nearby locality at the foot of Monte Vergine, on which the sanctuary of the same name was built (1119) over the ruins of a temple of Cybele. The ruins of the ancient city attest to its grandeur and its degree of civilization. In 1130 the meeting took place at A., between the antipope Anacletus and Duke Roger, from which arose the constitution of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Innocent II and the emperor Lothair, having allied themselves, reconquered (1137) Naples and Campania and, having established themselves in A., elected there a new duke of Apulia and Calabria in the person of Ranulf, count of A. But Roger, having landed at Salerno, took and sacked the city, taking the Pope prisoner. A. later obtained recognition of its conquests and of its royal dignity. In 1586 the Royal Chamber of Naples alienated its lordship to the Caracciolo family.
Two ancient Christian centers exist in the diocese of A.: Atripalda and Prata. In Atripalda was the cemetery of ancient Abellinum. There the martyr Hippolytus was buried with various companions, but their Passio lacks authority (H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, pp. 305-306). The oldest documentation for Christianity in the diocese of A. is offered by a Christian sepulchral inscription of the year 357 containing the expression "cum sanctis sociatus" (CIL, X, 1191).
As for the bishops, the oldest known so far is a Thimotheus of the end of the 5th century, present at the Roman Synod of the year 499 where he signed Timotheus episcopus ecclesiae Abellinatis (Gesta Synodorum Romanorum, in MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi, XII, 399-455); of a bishop Sabinus there remains the sarcophagus where, between two candelabra, the sepulchral inscription in verse is engraved (CIL, X, 1194), of the same type as that of the sarcophagus of his deacon Romulus (CIL, X, 1195); both the sarcophagi and the inscriptions seem to belong to the 6th century, just like two other inscriptions relating to a priest Ioannis of the year 541 and to a lector who died in the year 558.
A kilometer from Prata are the remains of a series of small cemetery basilicas carved into the rock. Two columns delimit an elliptical chamber closed by walls up to half its height, whence reused columns with rough capitals support small arches on which is set a vault decorated (in the 15th century) with a representation of the Lord between two angels. In the center is a small niche; at the bottom runs a bench. Beyond this chamber are found a round crypt with arcosolia and two terracotta sarcophagi, and a cubiculum with faded and undecipherable paintings.
In 969 the diocese became a suffragan of Benevento. In 1446 Paul III united to A., aeque principaliter, Frigento (which had united Acqua Putrida and Eclana); the bishop bore the two titles united until the concordat of 1818, in which Frigento was suppressed as an episcopal title and became a simple collegiate church. A. is the birthplace of the blessed Franciscan Giovanni d'Arminio Monforte, d. in 1313.
The Cathedral was begun in 1132 by bishop Robert. In the collegiate church of Atripalda is venerated a large group of tombs of martyrs, among whom are St. Sabinus bishop, and St. Romulus. Abbeys and monasteries: St. Benedict (united in 1452 with the Cathedral), St. Paul, St. John the Baptist.
Bibliography13 works
Noemi Crostarosa Scipioni