Cerveteri (Caere) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 783

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

CERVETERI (Caere). - In the Tuscia suburbicaria, crossed by a dense road network, numerous Christian communities flourished and had fairly ancient origins, as the abundant remains attest.

The Christian origins of the city of Caere, which belongs to this region, are nevertheless entangled with the difficult hagiographical problems of the entire vast suburban area. In the 3rd century there were no martyrs in the church of Caere, as a legend claiming to have created an artificial group would have it: the Saints Massimo, Seconda, and companions (BHL, 5857 d). Likewise, in the 4th century the episcopal see of Caere does not yet appear to have been established, as a fanciful account concerning the antipope Felice (355–58) and a certain local tradition that regards him as its founder would seek to make us believe (Lib. Pont., I, pp. LXXIV–LXXV, CXX–CXXV).

Article illustration — CERVO - Two deer drinking from a basin. Fifth-century mosaic — Ravenna, mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
(phot. Almari)

The bishops succeeded one another there from 499, when an Adeodato is mentioned, until the pontificate of Leone IX (1049–54), at the time when Caere was absorbed by the church of Porto.

BIBL.: L. Duchesne, Le sedi episcopali nell'antico ducato di Roma, in Arch. della R. Soc. romana di storia patria, 15 (1892), p. 485; G. Tomassetti, La campagna romana, II, Roma 1910, pp. 515–34; Lanzoni, pp. 510–16. Serafino Prete