CAMERINO, ARCIDIOCESI di. — In the Marche, in the province of Macerata. Reliable documents establish that the episcopal see was certainly established there around the middle of the fifth century. The names of the bishops Bonifazio (501) and Severo (555–60) are beyond doubt. It grew in size and splendor during the medieval period, especially
in the Carolingian age. Its ancient territorial extent, however, began to diminish as early as the fourteenth century.
In 1320, under Pope Giovanni XXII, a first dismemberment gave rise to the diocese of Macerata. A second, in 1586, under Sisto V, led to the creation of Tolentino and S. Severino. In 1728 the city of Fabriano, under Benedetto XIII, and in 1787 that of Matelica, under Pio VI, separated from C., which was elevated to an immediately subject archiepiscopal see. It had special ties with the Papal State, to which it became subject in the twelfth century after having long been the capital of the “march” called from its name Marca di C.; it again came directly under the Papal State in 1545, with the fall of the historic lordship of the Varano. In 1727 the University was founded there by Benedetto XIII; in the reorganization of the Papal State in 1814, C. retained the political tradition of the past, having been designated as the seat of a delegation.
The flourishing past life of the extensive archdiocese of Camerino is reflected in the considerable number of abbeys which, however, are now located outside its territory. These include the abbey of Rambona (SS. Gregorio, Silvestro e Flaviano), near the Potenza River, founded in the ninth century and, before its ruin, considered one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in Italy; S. Maria di Chiaravalle di Fiastra, near the Chienti on the course of the Fiastra, established beside the church of the same name dating from the eleventh century: endowed with privileges and rich in very extensive dependencies, this Cistercian abbey was almost entirely destroyed in 1421.
Among the sacred monuments of C., mention should be made of the church of S. Venanzio, with its late-fifteenth-century portal, dedicated to the famous Dalmatian martyr, extraordinarily venerated in the city and the surrounding territory and of such importance in the tradition of local sacred memories. Its passio (BHL, 8523) is an adaptation of that of the Praenestine martyr Agapito, but draws extensively on the Passions of the Dalmatian martyrs. S. Francesco is a monumental church which, although remodeled, preserves the apse and portal of the original thirteenth-century building.
The sixteenth-century church of the Annunziata houses a picture gallery with works from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially by local painters (Arcangelo di Cola). The archive was lost in the fire of 1515. Manuscripts of some interest are held in the city’s Valentiniana Library.
At present the archdiocese of C. has 450 churches, 174 parishes, 179 diocesan priests and 28 religious priests, 10 male and 8 female religious communities, and 77,980 Catholics out of a population of 78,000. — Vedi Tav. XXIX.