CALVI AND TEANO, Diocese of. - Dioceses of Campania, united aequae et principaliter in 1818 with episcopal residence in T. Area 447.4 sq km: 107 parishes, 140 diocesan priests, 46 regulars, with 73,000 inhabitants, all Catholic (1948). It is a suffragan of Capua.
C., the ancient Cales of the Romans, on the right bank of the Volturno, north of Capua, destroyed by the Saracens in the 8th century, was rebuilt a little distance away by Atenulf, first count of Caserta. The origin of the diocese is uncertain. At C. St. Castus is venerated as apostle and patron, who is not a local martyr but an African one, a companion of St. Emilius (H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, p. 370).
The first known bishop is Valerius, present at the Roman Synod of 499. The regular list of bishops begins with the 12th century. The Romanesque cathedral with three apses is dedicated to St. Castus; there some Christian inscriptions were found, one of them from the year 346 (CIL, X, I, 4712-4715).
The "Grotta dei santi" contains votive frescoes of the 10th-11th century, 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 great part in the Samnite wars. The first bishop of T. seems to have been Amasius (337-52). Documents of the 6th century give the names of Paris, who is said to have been ordained by Pope Sylvester (BHL, 6466), and of Amasius, who is said to have been ordained by Pope Julius (ibid., 3545-46); then one encounters a St. Urban (ibid., 8408) and Quintus, who appears as present at the Roman Council of 499.
In 1906 near T. a Christian cemetery of the 4th-5th century was found; in a semicircle 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 of the year 442 (V. Spinazzola, Di un musaico cristiano e di altre antichità nel territorio di Teano, in Notizie degli scavi, 1907, pp. 697-703).
Notable in T. was the abbey of St. Benedict, built in the 8th century by Landulf count of T.; there the monks of Montecassino took refuge in the year 884 after the killing of their abbot Bertarius and the burning of their monastery: in 896 a fire destroyed the autograph of the Rule preserved there. The monastery declined in the 13th century. There were furthermore the abbey of St. Mary of Ferraria or della Ferrara near Vairano, erected in 1171 by the Cistercian Giovanni de Ferraria; the two abbeys of Benedictine nuns of St. Catherine (a. 1590) and of St. Mary de foris (1610).
The Cathedral is dedicated to Sts. John and Terentian; the patronal feast of St. Paris is on 5 Aug. Other notable churches are St. Benedict and St. Francis.
Bibliography8 works
Enrico Josi