CIVITAVO NA MARCHE

CIVITAVO NA MARCHE. — The earliest Christian records, like those of the episcopal see of ancient Cluentum, are not yet entirely clear. To this vicus, probably located near present-day C., is attributed the Picene martyr S. MARONE (BHL, 6064), commemorated on April 15 in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, but his Passio is not reliable (A. Dufourcq, *Les Gesta martyrum*, III, Paris 1907, p. 271). The episcopal see appears there in the 5th century, as shown by a letter of Pope Gelasius I regarding the election of the bishop of the *plebs cluentensis* (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 663); however, it was soon absorbed by the Church of Fermo. The church of S. MARONE, built over his tomb, still stands; the Romanesque structure underwent a thorough restoration in 1898.