CONCORDIA, DIOCESI DI

### CONCORDIA, DIOCESE OF

In the Veneto region; its boundaries extend from the Tagliamento to the Livenza rivers; from the Adriatic to the mountains toward Belluno. Its origins date back to the late 4th century. The city of Iulia Concordia Sagittaria was a Roman colony linked to the defense system of the northeastern border of Italy, which declined from the time of the barbarian invasions until it became today’s modest rural center. The diocese, generously endowed by the Carolingian rulers, was subjected feudally to the Patriarchate of Aquileia by King Hugh of Provence of Italy on 11 February 928; thus the bishop was the first of the feudal vassals of the patriarchate and, as such, from the 13th century onward participated in the Parliament of the Patria del Friuli in the class of ecclesiastical prelates, even after the occupation of Friuli by Venice in the 15th century.

With the bull of Sixtus V of 29 March 1586, the episcopal see was transferred to the civic castle of Portogruaro, where the bishop had already resided at least periodically. In the ecclesiastical reorganization of the Venetian dioceses in 1818, Concordia became part of the ecclesiastical province of Venice, whereas previously it had belonged to that of Aquileia and later to that of Udine.

Within the territory of the diocese stood the important abbey of Santa Maria di Sesto al Reghena, founded toward the end of the 8th century, but soon passed under the spiritual and feudal dominion of the Patriarch of Aquileia. With the patrimony of the Church of Concordia, the abbey of Santa Maria di Summaga was founded during the 11th century, also suppressed at the end of the 18th century.

The population of the diocese numbers 316,830 inhabitants, of whom 316,820 are Catholic, grouped into 173 parishes with 288 diocesan priests and 16 regular clergy (1948).

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### ARCHAEOLOGY

In 1873, about 500 meters from the old city walls of Concordia, on the left bank of the Lemene, an open-air Christian cemetery was discovered, consisting of a series of over 140 limestone sarcophagi, with Constantinian monograms on the pediments of the sarcophagi or with monogrammatic crosses. The sarcophagi were arranged in groups of ten or twelve and oriented toward the east.

There are more than forty inscribed texts on the exterior, almost all in Latin, with very few in Greek. Many sarcophagi belong to soldiers; three of these were from Apamea.

Among the most notable inscriptions, one states: *ipsam arcam eclesiae commendavi*, whereas generally fines were imposed on violators of tombs payable to the treasury and once to the commune of Concordia (CIL, V, 8697). A second important inscription records the following prayer of the two spouses interred in the sarcophagus: *Petimus omnem clerum et cunctam fraternitatem ut nullus de genere nostro vel aliquis in hac sepultura ponatur. Scriptum est: quod tibi fieri non vis, ali ne feceris* (CIL, V, 8738). In a third epigraph, the owners state: *arcam commendamus sanctae ecclesiae civitatis Concordensium. Si quis aperire voluerit dabit fisco auri pondo duo sine mora* (CIL, V, 8740).

Remains of tree trunks show that the cemetery was shaded. The entire area was covered with sand after being devastated and the sarcophagi broken; the sanding likely occurred at the end of the 6th century, when *fuit diluvium aquarum in finibus Venetiarum qualis post Noe tempore creditur non fuisse* (Paul the Deacon, *Historia Langobardorum*, XVIII).

In 1902–1903, about 11 km southwest of Concordia, in the locality Teson, at the site called *el baro de la Ciesuola* (the bush of the little church), where tradition held a church once stood, the foundations of a large brick building (55.40 m long) were found, along with other smaller structures and, to the south, a water conduit. G. C. Bertolini believes it should be excluded that this is the church of tradition, based solely on the Roman Concordian type of brick constructions.

It seems that Concordia was rebuilt in the 9th century for the baptistery, which appears to be from that era; in it a marble slab commemorates Regimpo the Venerable of Concordia in the 10th century.

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