Castellammare di Stabia, Diocese of

CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, DIOCESE OF. - In the province of Naples. The ancient Stabiae of the Romans, 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, 80,000 inhabitants, all Catholic. It is a suffragan of Sorrento. Christianity is attested by monuments from the beginning of the 5th century. The first known bishop is Orsus in the year 499; then a Lawrence from the year 600 to 612, whose epitaph is also known (Ughelli, VI, p. 636).

The Cathedral, dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin Assumed, dates from 1587 with restorations in 1875. In 1879, in the foundations of the new sacristy next to the Cathedral, the remains of the ancient open-air Christian cemetery of the community of Stabiae were found, that is, three sarcophagi and some simple graves in the ground. Among the inscriptions brought to light (CIL, X, 8139-42) one is from 401, others commemorate an Oppius Paulus, buried in nomine Jhesus, a puella Limantia; many terracotta lamps contained monogrammatic crosses; finally a small hoard of coins datable from Arcadius and Honorius to Theodosius the Younger and Pulcheria. At Varano there is a Christian inscription from the year 535 (CIL, X, II, 786).

Enrico Josi