CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, DIOCESE of. - In the province of Napoli. The ancient Roman Stabiae, famous for its thermal waters. It has an area of 36 sq. km., with 39 parishes, 101 diocesan priests, 38 regular priests, a minor seminary, and 80,000 inhabitants, all Catholics. It is suffragan to Sorrento. Christianity is attested by monuments from the beginning of the fifth century. The first known bishop is Orso in the year 499; then a Lorenzo from 600 to 612, whose epitaph is also known (Ughelli, VI, p. 636).
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin of the Assumption, dates from 1587, with restorations in 1875. In 1879, in the foundations of the new sacristy beside the Cathedral, remains were discovered of the ancient open-air Christian cemetery of the community of Stabiae: namely, three sarcophagi and several simple graves in the ground. Among the inscriptions brought to light (CIL, X, 8139-42), one dates from 401; others commemorate an Oppius Paulus, buried in nomina Jhesus, and a puella Limantia; many terracotta lamps contained monogrammatic crosses; finally, there was a small hoard of coins
datable from Arcadio and Onorio to Teodosio juniore and Pulcheria. At Varano there is a Christian inscription from the year 535 (CIL, X, II, 786).