BAGNOREGIO, DIOCESE OF. — In Lazio, in the province of Viterbo, with an area of 300 sq. km. and a population of 30,000 inhabitants distributed across 28 parishes, served by 34 diocesan priests and 15 regular clergy. It has its own minor seminary and a major seminary shared with the other dioceses of upper Lazio in Viterbo. B. stands between Orvieto and Viterbo, on a steep plateau between two tributary streams of the Tiber. Of Etruscan origin, in Roman times it was known as *Novem Pagi*. Called Balneum regis, later Bagnorea until 1922 and then B., it took its name from the once-famous thermal baths, of which only a wretched sulfur spring remains. Almost completely destroyed by the Lombards in 606, it was rebuilt by the last of their kings, Desiderius. Donated by Charlemagne to Adrian I, it remained part of the Papal States until their fall. It is especially renowned as the birthplace of the saint and Franciscan doctor Bonaventure Fidanza (1221–74), to whom the present cathedral is dedicated.
The *Passio* of the saints Amsanus and Maxima (BHL, 515–16), not earlier than the 11th century, would trace the origins of Christianity in B. to the time of the great persecution under Diocletian, during which Amsanus, son of a certain Tranquillinus of Rome, was arrested in Rome together with his godmother Maxima. While she was killed in prison, Amsanus is said to have fled to B., then to Siena, where he was beheaded. L. Duchesne is of the opinion that the dioceses of B. and Orvieto succeeded that of Bolsena. The first secure document mentioning a bishop of B. is the letter written by St. Gregory the Great (Registr. epist., X, 3) to be informed about the deacon John elected by the clergy and people of B. as their bishop.
Another bishop of B. appears among the signatories of the Lateran Council of 769. The list of bishops of B. is often interrupted in the centuries of the Middle Ages. The diocese is immediately subject to the Holy See.
B. IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY. — In the autumn of 1867, during the campaign fought in Lazio between Garibaldi’s volunteers and papal forces, B. was also the scene of events of some significance. Evacuated by the pontifical troops at the outset of the struggle, it was soon solidly occupied by Garibaldi’s forces under Acerbi and, thanks to its naturally strong position, served as an operational base against the entire Viterbese region. However, on the orders of the pro-minister of war Kanzler and in concert with Brigadier General Raffaele De Courten, Colonel Achille Azzanesi, in command of the area, after a successful reconnaissance on 3 October, attacked at dawn on the 7th with 303 men divided into two columns about 500 well-entrenched Garibaldi volunteers. After fluctuating fortunes, the Papal Zuavi emerged victorious.