Bagnoregio, Diocese of

BAGNOREGIO, Diocese of. - In Latium, in the province of Viterbo, with an area of 300 sq km and a population of 30,000 inhabitants divided among 28 parishes, with 34 diocesan priests and 15 regulars. It has its own minor seminary and shares the major seminary with the other dioceses of upper Latium in Viterbo. B. stands between Orvieto and Viterbo, on a steep plateau, between two streams tributary to the Tiber. Of Etruscan origin, in Roman times it was known by the name of Novem Pagi. Balneum regis, then Bagnorea until 1922 and thereafter B., it was named after the once-famous baths, of which nothing remains but a wretched spring of sulfurous water. 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 was part of the Papal State until its fall. It is famous above all for having given birth to the Franciscan saint and doctor Bonaventure Fidanza (1221-74), to whom the present Cathedral is dedicated.

The Passio of 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 Diocletianic persecution, during which Amsanus, son of a certain Tranquillinus, a Roman, would have been arrested in Rome together with his baptismal sponsor, Maxima. While the latter would have been killed in prison, Amsanus would have fled to B. and then to Siena and been beheaded there. L. Duchesne is of the opinion that the dioceses of B. and of Orvieto succeeded that of Bolsena. The first certain document recalling a bishop of B. is the letter written by St. Gregory the Great (Registr. epist., X, 3) in order 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 subscribers of the Lateran Council of 769. The list of the bishops of B. is often interrupted in the centuries of the Middle Ages. The diocese is immediately subject to the Holy See.

Benedetto Pesci

BAGNOREGIO IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

In the autumn of 1867, during the campaign fought in Lazio between the Garibaldians and the papal forces, B. was also the scene of events that were not without importance. Cleared by the pontifical troops at the first uncertain unfolding of the struggle, it was soon solidly occupied by Acerbi's Garibaldians, and by its naturally very strong position it served as an operational base against the whole Viterbo area. But by order of the general pro-minister of Arms Kanzler and in concert with the brigade general Raffaele De Courten, colonel Achille Azzanesi, on whom the whole zone depended, after a fruitful reconnaissance conducted on 3 October, on the morning of the 7th attacked with 303 men divided into two columns about 500 well-entrenched and barricaded Garibaldians. After alternating fortunes the Zouaves emerged victorious.

Paolo Dalla Torre