CALVI and TEANO, DIOCESES of. — Dioceses of Campania, united aeque et principaliter in 1818, with the episcopal residence in T. Area: 447.4 sq km; parishes 107, diocesan priests 140, religious 46, with 73,000 inhabitants, all Catholics (1948). It is a suffragan of Capua.
C., the ancient Cales of the Romans, on the right bank of the Volturno, north of Capua, was destroyed by the Saracens in the eighth century; it was rebuilt nearby by Atenulfo, first count of Caserta. The origin of the diocese is uncertain. In C., s. Casto is venerated as apostle and patron; he was not a local martyr, but an African, companion of s. Emilio (H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2ª ed., Bruxelles 1933, p. 370).
The first known bishop is Valerio, present at the Roman Synod of 499. The regular list of bishops begins in the twelfth century. The Romanesque cathedral, with three apses, is dedicated to s. Casto; several Christian inscriptions were found there, one of them from the year 346 (CIL, X, I, 4712-4715).
The « Grotta dei santi » contains votive frescoes from the tenth and eleventh centuries, of the Benedictine school.
T. is situated in the valley of the Savone and is dominated by the cone of Rocca Monfina. It was the capital of the Sidicini and played a major role in the Samnite Wars. The first bishop of T. seems to have been Amasio (337-52). Documents from the sixth century give the names of Paride, who is said to have been ordained by Pope Silvester (BHL, 6466), and Amasio, who is said to have been ordained by Pope Julius (ibid., 3545-46); then there appear a s. Urbano (ibid., 8408) and Quinto,
who is recorded as present at the Roman Council of 499.
In 1906, a Christian cemetery dating from the fourth and fifth centuries was discovered near T.; in an hemicycle there were 10 superimposed tombs. The second from the top was closed with a mosaic decoration depicting the Epiphany, and an inscription placed by a Geminius Felix for his wife Geminia Felicitas and his daughter Geminia Marciana, who died in the year 370. Another inscription bears the date 442 (v. Spinazzola, Di un musaico cristiano e di altre antichità nel territorio di Teano, in Notizie degli scavi, 1907, pp. 697-703).
The abbey of S. Benedetto, built in the eighth century by Landolfo, count of T., was notable in T.; in the year 884 the monks of Montecassino took refuge there following the murder of their abbot Bertario and the burning of their monastery; in 896 a fire destroyed the autograph of the Rule preserved there. The monastery declined in the thirteenth century. There were also the abbey of S. Maria di Ferraria or della Ferrara near Vairano, founded in 1171 by the Cistercian Giovanni de Ferraria; and the two abbeys of Benedictine nuns, S. Caterina (1590) and S. Maria de foris (1610).
The Cathedral is dedicated to ss. Giovanni and Terenziano; the patronal feast of s. Paride is held on 5 August. Other notable churches are S. Benedetto and S. Francesco.