The church of CAPUA had its martyrs, recorded in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum*: Priscus, Lupulus, Sinotus, Marcellus, Rufus, Augustine, and Felicitas; the last two are said to have suffered martyrdom under Decius. In the present-day town of S. Priscus, near CAPUA, numerous Christian sepulchral inscriptions from the second half of the 4th century were discovered, and nearby was the Via Aquaria, along which, on September 1st, St. Priscus was celebrated, traditionally regarded as the first bishop of CAPUA. The *Liber Pontificalis* informs us that Constantine founded a basilica in CAPUA, endowing it with liturgical furnishings and extensive properties.
In the church of S. Priscus, mosaics from the 5th century, which decorated the apse and the dome, were preserved until 1766. In the apse, apostles, martyrs, and local saints—Priscus, Sinotus, Lupulus, Rufus, Marcellus, Augustine, and Felicitas—were depicted bearing crowns; in the vault, the symbolic dove was shown amid eight volumes symbolizing the Gospels and four prophets. In the dome, at the center, the divine throne; in the lower zones, prophets, apostles, evangelists, and the Campanian martyrs Hippolytus (Ipolistus), Canion, Augustine, Marcellus, Lupulus, Rufus, Artemas and Euphemus, Eutyches and Sosus, Festus and Desiderius. The chapel adjacent to the church of S. Priscus, dedicated to St. Matrona, still displays 5th-century mosaics. In the vault, at the corners, four large palm fronds, and between them, vines with clusters of grapes and birds; on the perimeter walls, on one side, a medallion of Christ amid vines and foliage, and on the others, the evangelical symbols—specifically, the winged man on one, and on another, the ox and the eagle flanking a jeweled throne with the symbolic dove on the backrest and a volume on the cushion.
Mosaic decorations are also recorded from the apse of S. Maria Maggiore (5th century) in S. Maria Capua Vetere, and from the apse of the cathedral of the new CAPUA (11th–12th century), both now lost, as well as the paschal candelabrum in the same cathedral, the *Exultet* scroll, the door of the church of S. Giovanni delle Monache, and the portal of S. Marcello Maggiore. Also of note are a 4th-century Christian sarcophagus in the courtyard of the church of S. Marcello, a series of sepulchral inscriptions from the 4th–6th centuries, and the Lectionary of the *Codex Fuldensis* of 546.
The episcopal succession of the first six centuries is attested by reliable documents only from the first half of the 4th century: Proto or Praetorius (313), St. Germanus (319–320, 540–541), and Victor (541–54). The best-known is Victor, a contemporary of Cassiodorus and Eugippius, abbot of Lucullanum, chiefly for the *Codex Fuldensis*, which he revised in 546 and 547.
Under St. Gregory the Great, due to the Lombard invasion, which had devastated and depopulated the Campanian metropolis, the clergy of CAPUA lived in exile in Naples. Once this situation ended, CAPUA became part of the Duchy of Benevento. In 787, Charlemagne, at the urging of Pope Adrian, offered the city of CAPUA to St. Peter, and from then on it was counted among the possessions of St. Peter, more in name than in fact. After the division of the Duchy of Benevento into the principalities of Benevento and Salerno, the gastaldate or county of CAPUA was included in the latter (847); however, Landone succeeded in making his domain independent of Salerno. From 899 to 980, the count of CAPUA, having become a prince, ruled both CAPUA and Benevento.
In 842, CAPUA was destroyed by the Saracens, and Bishop and Count Landulf transferred his residence to the new city, located about 5 km from the ancient one, on the site of ancient Casilinum, by the banks of the Volturno. Landulf I was succeeded by Landulf II; but Count Pandulf forced him to leave and return to the old city, then sent his brother Landonulf to Rome to be consecrated bishop of the new CAPUA. Pope John VIII came to CAPUA and divided the diocese into two, consecrating Landulf II as bishop of S. Maria Suricorum (ancient CAPUA, today S. Maria Capua Vetere), and assigning Landonulf to the new CAPUA. In 882, after Pandonulf and Landonulf were driven out, Landulf II returned as the sole bishop of the entire diocese; from then on, the episcopal see was transferred to the new CAPUA on the Volturno. Meanwhile, under the episcopate of Landulf, a new cathedral had arisen in the new city, consecrated by Otto and adorned with mosaics by Hugh. In 966, Pope John XIII came to CAPUA and elevated it to a metropolitan see. Today it has as suffragans Isernia and Venafro, Calvi and Teano, Sessa Aurunca, Caserta, and Cajazzo; it borders Aversa, Cajazzo, Calvi, and Teano. It has 110,000 souls; 63 parishes; 129 diocesan priests and 7 regular clergy (1948).
Among the ancient monasteries, the following should be noted: S. Benedetto, built by the Cossinesi around 913; S. Lorenzo; S. Maria; and S. Giovanni Battista, a women’s monastery, founded in 967 by Abbot Aligernus of Montecassino in the house of a certain Landulf, son of Landenulf and husband of an Aloara. Of the ancient monasteries in the vicinity, S. Angelo in Formia is renowned.
CAPUA was the site of three synods: the first, the *Synodus plenaria Cupuensis* (392), was attended by St. Ambrose, who set its directives; the second, on March 7, 1087, saw Desiderius, abbot of Montecassino, accept the papacy under the name of Victor III (d. September 16, 1087); the third, on April 7, 1118, condemned Emperor Henry V and the antipope Maurice Burdin (= Gregory VIII, 1118–21). Near CAPUA, St. Anselm completed his *Cur Deus homo* in 1088.
Many prelates have distinguished the see of CAPUA; among the ancient ones are Vincent, Victor, St. Germanus, then Cardinal St. Robert Bellarmine (1602–1605) and Cardinal Alfonso Capecelatro (1880–1912). Also worthy of mention is Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi (1684–1771), a distinguished archaeologist and philologist.
Of the sacred monuments of CAPUA, those from antiquity were largely destroyed in the 18th century, and those from the Middle Ages during the recent war.