BOVINO, Diocese of. - A small town in the province of Foggia, on the spur between the Cervaro valley and the Biletra valley. The long, narrow gorge that takes the name Vallo di B. joins the basin of Benevento to Apulia. The territory of the present-day diocese of B. was included in that of the ancient diocese of Aeca, a city probably destroyed during the 7th century. In the middle of the 10th century B. is included, together with other places of Apulia, in the territory of Benevento. Besieged by Otto I in 969 and in 970, it remained with the Byzantines, and it is at this time that it was constituted as a diocese included in the metropolis of Benevento. It passed under the Normans of Apulia in 1047. No certain bishops are known before 971; the first is a John remembered in a document dating back to that period. Among the first bishops there is also a Hugh whose name is recorded in two tablets preserved in the place. Bishops of B. were Cardinal Benedetto Accolti and Gabriele Marini. The erection of the seminary (1601) is due to Bishop Paolo Tolosa.
In the diocese there still exists a municipality, Castelluccio de' Sauri, of Greek language and Byzantine rite, inhabited by Epirotes who took refuge there in the 15th century.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Assumed and to St. Mark, is of Byzantine origin. Begun in 905, it was rebuilt in the 12th-13th centuries. It has three fine ogival portals and a remarkable wooden choir. It was damaged by the earthquake of 1930. In B. was the tomb of St. Mark, bishop of Aeca, whose remains would have been transferred there after the destruction of that city.
The diocese of B. is a suffragan of Benevento; it has 12 parishes, of which part are in the province of Foggia and part in that of Avellino, 23 diocesan priests and 8 regulars, and 35,000 inhabitants, all Catholics (1948).
Bibliography9 works
Noemi Crostarosa Scipioni