CAVA and SARNO, DIOCESE of. - In the province of Salerno. Bonifacio IX conferred the title of city upon the territory of C. in 1396 and raised the abbey of the Most Holy Trinity (v. S.MA TRINITÀ DI CAVA DEI TIRRENI) to an episcopal see; it was subsequently governed by three bishops and then, in the 15th century, successively granted in commendam to Cardinals A. Fusco, L. Scarampi, Giovanni d'Aragona, and O. Carafa, who ceded it to the reformed Benedictine monks of Padua. Owing, however, to the insistence of the people of Cava, Giulio II detached the territory of C. in order to erect it into an independent diocese, a measure carried out by Leone X in 1513.
The modern cathedral of C. was built in 1565 and the episcopal palace in 1658. The diocese of S., probably ancient, was re-established by Alfano I, archbishop of Salerno, in 1666 with the consecration of Bishop Riso, and from that time the succession of bishops has continued, among whom the canonist Paolo Fusco (1583) and Antonio d'Aquino (1618) should be remembered. The modern cathedral of S. was erected in the Episcopal quarter by Bishop Stefano Solis Castelbianco in 1629. The two dioceses were united in 1834, and the bishop has an alternating residence in them; together they cover an area of 100 sq. km. and have a population of 92,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed among 44 parishes, with 83 diocesan priests and 32 regular clergy (1948).