CERVETERI (Caere). - In the suburbicarian Tuscia, crossed by a dense road network, numerous Christian communities flourished and had a rather ancient origin, as abundant records reveal.

The Christian origins of the city of Caere, which belongs to this region, are nevertheless entangled with the difficult hagiographic problems of the entire vast suburbicarian zone. In the 3rd century there were no martyrs in the church of Caere, as a legend claims that has created an artificial group of them: Sts. Maximus, Secunda 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 fantastic tale about the antipope Felix (355-58) and a certain local tradition that considers him its founder would try to suggest (Lib. Pont., I, pp. LXXIV-LXXV, CXX-CXXV).

(phot. Alinari)

Bishops succeeded one another there from 499, when an Adeodatus is recorded, down to the pontificate of Leo IX (1049-54), at the time when Caere was absorbed by the church of Porto.

Bibliography3 works

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

@incollection{ec3_cerveteri_caere, author = {Prete, Serafino}, title = {Cerveteri (Caere)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1342--1343}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cerveteri-caere} }

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