FERENTINO, DIOCESE OF. — In the province of Frosinone, immediately subject to the Holy See; area 353 sq. km; population 55,000, of whom about 15,500 in the comune of F.; 29 parishes; 44 secular priests and 32 religious; 21 male religious communities and 86 female; minor seminary (1948); patron saint, St AMBRICIUS the martyr.
F. was a city of the Hernici, conquered by Rome in 413 and 361 BC, to which it remained faithful. It was sacked by the Saracens but soon passed under the dominion of the Church. After the year 1000 the comune developed there and it was often a residence of the popes, particularly of Alexander III. Honorius III convened there in 1235 a congress with the king of Jerusalem and Frederick II, who promised to set out on the Crusade but did not carry out the expedition.
It is not certain when Christianity was introduced into F., and the first bishop historically certain is Bassus, who was present at the Roman synods of 487 and 492. It should be noted that the compilers of the catalogues have often confused the bishops of Ferento d'Eurita with those of F. Bishop Bonus, on 16 April 556, consecrated Pelagius I. St Gregory relates that Redemptus, bishop of the city of Ferentina, during his pastoral visit stopped one evening to refresh himself at the church of the martyr Eutychius, who appeared to him during the night (Dial., III, 38: PL 77, 316). Other bishops noted are: Trasmondus (1130), who died in prison; Ubaldo (1148), legate of Adrian IV to the Christian princes for the Crusade and already consecrated by the antipope Victor IV; James (1235), legate of John XXI to the emperor Michael Palaeologus; Landulf de' Rossi (1208), who rendered excellent services to Boniface VIII; Francis Philippi (1499), legate of Julius II to the emperor Maximilian.
From F. came Novidius Flaccus (c. 1476), poet and author of the Fasti christiani, in imitation of those of Ovid.
MONUMENTS. — Ancient polygonal walls, well preserved and equipped with gates, from the early Sullan age; a 2nd-century theatre; a probable temple beneath the episcopal palace; the will of Aulus Quintilius, who at the time of Trajan owed money and lands in F.; the Romanesque-Gothic church of St Francis (1277–82); that of St Valentine with a small bell tower with biforas; of St Mary Major (13th century) with a Latin-cross interior inspired by Fossanova; the Romanesque cathedral dedicated to SS John and Paul, with a marble pavement (c. 1116), a ciborium by Drudo de Trivio (13th century) and, in the cellars of the episcopal palace, the disassembled ciborium of the 9th century.
In the diocese, outside the town, is the celebrated monastery of St Mary in Fiume, founded in 1196 by Count John and Cardinal John of the counts of Ceccano. — See pl. LXXVI.