Como, Diocese of

COMO, Diocese of. - In Lombardy it is part of the province of C., and it comprises the whole of that of Sondrio (province 3,123 sq. km.) and also the Marchirolo and Cuvio valleys with Saltrio in the province of Varese: originally also Poschiavo in the canton of Grisons and the whole canton of Ticino, the latter detached in 1886.

In 1858 the diocese consisted of 507 parishes (178 in C. and province, 140 in Sondrio and province, 186 in the canton of Ticino and 2 in the canton of Grisons), 2,102 priests, 360,089 faithful: at present (1948) it has 360 parishes, 605 diocesan priests and 200 regulars for 379,600 faithful out of 380,000 inhabitants. Male orders and congregations 15, female congregations 35, seminaries 2, minor seminaries 2. The bishop held the title of count; the patron of the diocese is St. Abbondio, feast on 2 April; titular of the Cathedral: St. Mary Assumed.

I. HISTORY

C. enters history around the year 196 B.C.; in 87 it enjoyed Latin rights; with Julius Caesar it took the name Novum Comum and became a Roman colony.

Narses (d. 568) made it a bulwark of defense; subsequently it was a county with the bishop at the head of the new political entity; around 1100 the commune arose.

C., destroyed in the struggle against Milan (1118-27), was soon rebuilt and recognized as independent in the Peace of Constance (1183). The Guelph and Ghibelline struggles followed, exacerbated by the Rusconi and Vitani factions with repercussions from the Visconti and the Torriani; Franchino Rusca ceded it (1335) to Azzone Visconti; in 1447 it was proclaimed the republic of St. Abbondio; in the Franco-Spanish-ducal disputes it was sacked (1521) by Pescara. For two centuries C. remained under Spanish rule, then assigned (1714), by the Peace of Rastatt, to Austria; united with the Cisalpine Republic in 1789, it returned to Austria in 1814 and in 1859 was incorporated into Piedmont; in 1927, with the district of Varese taken from it, it remained with 224 communes and 456,988 inhabitants over an area of about 2,668 sq km. (Grande illustrac., III, Milan 1859, p. 746).

Among the many famous men of Como the following stand out: Gaius Pliny the naturalist (23-79), Caecilius Pliny the man of letters (64-118), Paolo Giovio the historian (1483-1552), Benedetto Giovio the historian and poet (d. 1544), Alessandro Volta (1745-1826).

II. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

The origins of Christianity in Como are obscure; the proto-bishop St. Felix was consecrated in 379 by St. Ambrose, converted several citizens to the faith and inaugurated the first church on the Baradelle hill, where he established his see. Until 1945 the diocese had 110 bishops, of whom 4 were honored with the purple and 8 belonged to religious orders.

Noteworthy among them are St. Provino and St. Amanzio (450-89); St. Abbondio (v.) who gave organization to the diocese, destroyed the pagan cults on the shores of Lake Como and on the island of Comacina, and extended his activity to the Valtellina, for which he was declared patron. With Agrippino the diocese, because of its adherence to the schism of the Three Chapters, passed from the ecclesiastical province of Milan to that of Aquileia, from which it took the Patriarchine rite. Once the schism ceased, Como remained still subject to Aquileia. Titles and privileges were granted and increased by Charlemagne, by Louis the Pious, by Lothair, etc. Pietro III attended the Roman Council of 998; Guido Grimoldi (1096-1126) had as his adversary the heretical pseudo-bishop Landolfo Carcano; under the blessed Guglielmo della Torre and Umberto Sala, the Dominicans and the Friars Minor were introduced into the diocese, and under Benedetto da Asniago the Augustinians. During the Western Schism (1378-1415) the diocese stood with the Roman Pope until the appointment of the Pisan pontiff Alexander V (1409-1410); to Martin V the bishop Turconi resigned the see; Giannantonio Volpi (1559-88) with the Friars Minor of Milan offered strong resistance to the heretics in the Valtellina; and there the archpriest of Sondrio, Niccolò Rusca, won the crown of martyrdom (Sept. 4, 1618). Paolo Cernuschi (1739-46) erected the seminary of St. Ursula, Carlo Romano the seminary of St. Abbondio.

During the Middle Ages, until 1223, the bishop was appointed by the canons of the Cathedral together with the abbots of the three Como abbeys, St. Abbondio, St. Carpoforo, St. Giuliano.

The Patriarchine rite gave way to the Roman rite during the episcopate of Filippo Archinti (1595-1621); Benedict XIV in 1751 returned the diocese to being a suffragan of Milan.

The episcopal see remained at St. Carpoforo until around 480; St. Abbondio transferred it to the SS. Apostoli (from 818 St. Abbondio), and from 1093, in the city, to St. Maria where the present Cathedral stands.

The diocese has famous sanctuaries, the destination of frequent pilgrimages: the basilica of the Most Holy Crucifix in Como, the Madonna di Tirano, St. Maria del Soccorso at Lenno, Gallivaggio above Chiavenna, St. Maria delle Lagrime of Dongo.

III. ILLUSTRIOUS FIGURES

The venerable Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi, d. 1689) was from Como; 13 cardinals, among them Tolomeo Gallio (d. 1607); Antonio Rusconi, general of the Friars Minor (d. 1449), the martyr Nicolò Rusca, Daniele Cassomo O. F. M., minister of state in Spain (d. 1654), Primo Luigi Tatti, Somascan (d. 1676), and Giuseppe Rovelli (d. 1813), distinguished historians; friar Emmanuele da Como, painter (17th century), d. Santo Monti, a distinguished recent historian, the venerable Luigi Guanella (d.

1915), founder of the Servants of Charity and of the Daughters of St. Mary of the Presentation.

IV. ABBEYS AND MONASTERIES

Como is illustrious for its ancient abbeys, monasteries and convents, both male and female. In the city: the Benedictine abbeys of St. Abbondio (1010), of St. Carpoforo (1040), of St. Giuliano (1055), the monastery of St. Michael of the Benedictine nuns at Monte Olimpino (1164), the provostry of the Humiliati (1134), called Rendineto, mother of other houses; the extra-mural monastery of St. Benedict of Monte Olterone in Valle Perlasca (1083), St. Mary at Torello (Lugano) of the Canons Regular (1217), St. Mary of Acquafredda of the Cistercians above Lenno (c. 1142); Cluniac priories: St. Peter of Vallate (Cosio) in Valtellina (1078), St. Nicholas of Piona on Lake Como (1110); the collegiate church of St. Euphemia on the island of Comacina, erected in 1031, was famous; convents and monasteries of almost all the religious Orders, which disappeared because of the laws that destroyed the freedom of the Church.

V. INSTITUTES OF CULTURE

In 1474 Como had its first printing press, that of Ambrogio de Orchi; from the sixteenth century onward it produced historians, men of letters, theologians, orators and scientists.

In the middle of the 18th century Bishop Cernuschi founded the Accademia Innocenziana, which foreshadowed the Civic Museum of Archaeology (1873), the Voltian Temple and the historical-political-civil and ecclesiastical society, with the Rivista storica and the Raccolta storica comense, and the Archaeological Society, which since 1871 has published a Rivista archeologica della provincia e antica diocesi e suo territorio. The Civic Library (17th century) is rich in codices, incunabula and more than 100,000 volumes, and is open to scholars; the seminary library is also important for its codices, etc. Bishop Macchi inaugurated the Innocenziano Museum in the episcopal palace and reorganized the episcopal archive with the precious collection of codices and authentic records of the diocese. The Como notarial archive preserves registers from the 14th century and others of ecclesiastical notaries.

VI. MONUMENTS

C. preserves many Christian epigraphs that go back as far as the 11th century. Parts of the ancient city walls of 1192 still survive, along with three of the ancient towers and the square one, called Porta Torre, which is at two openings, according to the Roman custom. In 1931 remains of the ancient episcopium of 1015 came to light. The basilica of S. Abbondio, consecrated by Urban II in 1095, is well preserved: the inner apse preserves paintings of the 14th century; likewise the basilica of S. Carpoforo with the square tower of 1040; the apse and dome of S. Giacomo from the Romanesque period; the church of S. Fedele and the Broletto in Gothic form of 1215; the splendid cathedral of S. Maria Assunta of the 14th century and following represents the synthesis of the artistic life of C. from the Trecento period to our own times. The diocese possesses sacred monuments of antiquity on the shores of Lake Como, at Isola Comacina; the Baptisteries of Gravedona, of Lenno, of Chiavenna, the church of S. Maria di Dongo of 1110, the abbey of Piena, restored, and likewise in the Valtellina ancient monuments.

Paolo Sevesi