CAMERINO, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - In the Marches, in the province of Macerata. Reliable documents make known that the episcopal see was certainly established there around the middle of the 5th century. The names of the bishops Boniface (501) and Severus (555-60) are certain. It grew in extent and splendor in the medieval age, especially in the Carolingian age. Its ancient territorial extent, however, kept shrinking from the 14th century onward.
In 1320, under Pope John XXII, a first dismemberment gave rise to the diocese of Macerata. A second, in 1586, under Sixtus V, led to the creation of Tolentino and of S. Severino. In 1728 the city of Fabriano, under Benedict XIII, and in 1787 that of Matelica, under Pius VI, separated from C., which was elevated to the rank of an archbishopric immediately subject [to the Holy See]. It had special ties with the Papal State, to which it was subject in the 12th century after having long been the capital of the "march" called after its name the March of C., and again directly in 1545 with the fall of the historic lordship of the Varano. In 1727 the University was established there by Benedict XIII; in the reorganization of the Papal State of 1814 C. maintained the political tradition of the past, having been designated as the seat of a delegation.
The flourishing past life of the vast archdiocese of Camerino is reflected in the considerable number of abbeys which, however, currently find themselves outside its territory. Thus the abbey of Rambona (Sts. Gregory, Sylvester and Flavianus) near the river Potenza, founded in the 9th century and, before its ruin, considered among the largest Benedictine abbeys in Italy; S. Maria di Chiaravalle di Fiastra, near the Chienti on the course of the Fiastra, arisen beside the church of the same name of the 11th century: heaped with privileges, rich in very extensive holdings, this Cistercian abbey was almost entirely destroyed in 1421.
Among the sacred monuments of C. are remembered: the church of S. Venanzio with its portal of the late 15th century, dedicated to the famous Dalmatian martyr, extraordinarily venerated in the city and in the territory and who plays so great a part in the tradition of local sacred memories. His passio (BHL, 8523) is an adaptation of that of the martyr Agapitus of Palestrina, but draws largely on the Passions of the Dalmatian martyrs. A monumental church is S. Francesco which, although reworked, preserves from the original the apse and the portal of the 13th century.
In the 16th-century temple of the Annunziata is housed a picture gallery with works of the 15th and 16th centuries, especially by local painters (Arcangelo di Cola). The archive was lost in the fire of 1515. Manuscripts of some interest are found in the city's Valentiniana library.
At present the archdiocese of C. counts 450 churches, 174 parishes, 179 diocesan priests and 28 regulars, 10 male religious communities, 8 female, 77,980 Catholics out of 78,000 inhabitants. - See Pl. XXIX.
Bibliography8 works
Serafino Prete