BOLSENA. - Ancient episcopal see of Latium, in the province of Viterbo, along the via Cassia, to the north-east of the lake of the same name. It still preserves today the characteristic appearance of a medieval town, dominated by the Castle of the four towers (12th century). The Etruscans called it rono Velsina or Velsuna, the Romans Volsinius, translated into Volseno, Bolseno and finally B. It was the seat of one of the twelve Etruscan lucumonies and sustained various wars with the Romans, until in 490 of Rome it was stormed and destroyed by the consul M. Fulvius Flaccus, but because of its position it was not long in rising again with a praetorian palace, a theater, baths and villas built by the Romans. A free and confederate city until Augustus, then a Roman municipium until the fall of the Empire, it was devastated by the barbarian invasions until it lost all importance under Lombard rule. Included in the donation of Charlemagne to the Holy See, it formed part of the Papal State, but subsequently underwent the lordships of the De Vico, the counts of Cervara, the Monaldeschi, etc.
In 1880-81 excavations were carried out at B. in the ancient Christian cemetery of St. Christina, from which many inscriptions came to light (CIL, XI, 2, nos. 2834-2900), some with consular dates, and of these the oldest is from 37 (no. 2845). With them was found a marble slab (no. 2777), opisthographic, which in the Middle Ages had been used to close a sarcophagus inside which, in the aforementioned period, the relics of a St. Christina (v.) would have been placed. The archaeological data tend to demonstrate that in B., in the 4th century, there was a sanctuary with a martyr's tomb, around which an important Christian necropolis developed. This necropolis consists of a main gallery and various secondary ones branching off from it to the right and left, with ample loculi dug without regularity, closed with tiles bearing inscriptions painted in red, though there is no lack of graffito ones, while of inscriptions on marble only one example has been found up to now. The main gallery measures 7 m. in height by 1.50-2.00 in width, with 9 and even 11 rows of loculi. Such a monumental complex places the origin of Christianity in B. in the 4th century, and the tomb of a venerated martyr carries it back at least to the last great Diocletianic persecution.
In the 11th century, beside the sanctuary of St. Christina, the Romanesque church with three naves was built, which in 1490
Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici (later Leo X) had embellished with an elegant facade.
B. is known principally for the Eucharistic miracle that occurred in 1263, known under the name of the "Miracle of Bolsena." A German priest who was journeying as a pilgrim to Rome, while celebrating at the altar of the martyr Christina and held by doubt about the transubstantiation of the bread and wine, at the moment of breaking the Sacred Host, saw blood come forth that soaked the corporal. The venerable relic was carried to Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was, who resolved to institute the feast of "Corpus Domini," and the Orvietans, to celebrate so great a prodigy, soon began the works of their marvelous cathedral (v. ORVIETO).
Even without taking any account of the attempts of local writers to trace the origin of the episcopal see of B. back to the apostolic age, we must indeed say that we know very little about it. Among the bishops who came to the Roman Synod of 313 there is also an Evander "ab Ursino," regarding whom L. Duchesne doubts whether it should be read "Vulsinio," or rather "Urbino," and Lanzoni, while also leaning toward "Vulsinio," lists Evander as doubtful for both sees.
The same must be said of Gaudentius, whose subscription to the Roman Synod of 465 is reported by the codices as episcopus veconensis and interpreted by some as vulsinensis, by others as veronensis, which, however, with greater probability, must be read as vettonensis (v. BETTONA). The first bishop of undisputed historicity is Secundinus, to whom Gelasius I (492-96) addressed a letter (A. Thiel, Epp. Rom. Pont. genuine et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a s. Hilario usque ad Pelagium II, I, Braunsberg 1867, p. 492). We also know of a Gaudentius who took part in the Roman Synod of 499 and a Candidus at that of 595; the existence, on the other hand, of an Agnellus for 680 and of a Claudius contemporary with St. Gregory the Great has no solid foundation. The episcopal see of B. must have disappeared with the decline of the city in the Lombard era, and its territory forms part of the diocese of Orvieto.