CAGLI and PERGOLA, Diocese of. – In the Marches, in the province of Pesaro, a suffragan of Urbino. The ancient Callium, perhaps derived from a station on the Via Flaminia (ad Cale), was an episcopal see only from the 8th century, since no certain assignment is possible for certain bishops attributed to it previously; moreover, the ancient see must have been Pitinum (Pitinum Mergens, a short distance from C.), whose first bishop, who attended the Roman Synod of 499, was, with all probability, Romanus. John, legate of Pope John VIII at Ravenna, was one of the first and most distinguished bishops properly of Cagli, succeeding Pitinum. In 1563 Pius IV made it a suffragan of the diocese of Urbino, and Pius VII in 1819 united to it the new church of Pergola. The city and territory, after being long contested between the Lombards and Byzantines, belonged to the temporal dominion of the Roman Church in its first establishment. Later subjected to the lordship of Urbino, with the end of this in 1631, Cagli definitively returned to the Holy See.
Among the religious institutions located in the territory of the diocese, the abbey of St. Geronzio must be noted; it has a particular historical importance as it is connected with the most ancient Christian memories of the place, such as the cult of St. Geronzio, whom a legend identified with the bishop of Cervia of the 5th century (BHL, 3489 b), but who is not excluded from being considered a local saint. The abbey, anterior to the 8th century, united to the episcopal table by Nicholas IV, was destroyed in 1481.
The ancient cathedral collapsed due to an earthquake in 1781. In the church of St. Francis there is a notable artistic portal from the year 1427, and in that of St. Angelo a graceful 15th-century portico. Also the town of Pergola, of medieval origin, possesses monumental churches among which are St. Francis, St. James, and St. Roch. The chapter archive at the cathedral of St. Mary possesses documents of considerable value, especially the collection relating to the abbey of St. Geronzio.
At present the diocese comprises 501 sq. km. in area, 53 parishes, 64 diocesan priests, 12 regular priests, and 34,058 Catholics out of 34,102 inhabitants (1948).