CAELENAE. - It is beyond doubt that a fairly ancient Christian church existed in the land of the Marsi. In the 6th century there is explicit mention of a bishop John marsicanus. For the present, however, it is impossible to establish its origin, since the legendary tradition of St. Rufinus, first bishop of the Marsi in the 3rd century (BHL, 7360-63), is not worthy of belief.
It is permissible to suppose that the first episcopal see was Marruvium (today St. Benedict), the capital of the Marsica, and at a later time probably C. (Celano). From the 10th century certain notices make it possible to follow its history, illustrated a little later by the bishop St. Bernard, cardinal of the title of St. Chrysogonus. After the ancient city was destroyed, the cathedral church of St. Sabina remained, to which the Roman pontiffs, as metropolitans, repeatedly confirmed the possessions and the rights in the subject territory, until Gregory XIII transferred the episcopal see to Pescina in 1580. At present the residence is at Avezzano (v. MARSI, DIOCESI dei).
Of the numerous collegiate and abbatial churches, which the abundant documents suggest were once flourishing, as at Celano and at Trasacco, subject to the bishop of the Marsi, very little remains. Memorable is the abbey of S. Cosma at Tagliacozzo, of which the church remains.
At Pescina the episcopal archive and the capitular archive contain few papers because of the dispersal that occurred prior to the transfer of 1580.
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Serafino Prete