FERENTINO, Diocese of. - In the province of Frosinone, immediately subject to the Holy See; area 353 sq. km.; population 55,000 inhabitants, of whom about 15,500 in the municipality of F.; 29 parishes; 44 secular priests and 32 religious; 21 male religious communities, 86 female; minor seminary (1948); patron St. Ambrose martyr.
F. was a city of the Hernici, conquered by Rome in the years 413 and 361 B.C., to which it remained faithful. It was sacked by the Saracens, but soon passed under the dominion of the Church. After 1900 the municipality developed there and it was often the residence of the popes, particularly of Alexander III. Honorius III convoked there in 1225 a congress with the king of Jerusalem and Frederick II, who promised to set out for the Crusade but then postponed the expedition.
It is not certain when Christianity was introduced at F., and the first historically certain bishop 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 prelates of Ferento in Etruria with those of F. Bishop Bono, on 16 April 556, consecrated Pelagius I. St. Gregory relates that Redento, bishop Ferentino civitatis, during his pastoral visitation stopped one evening to refresh himself near the church of the martyr Eutychius, who appeared to him during the night (Dial., III, 38; PL. 77, 316). Noted further are: Trasmondo (1150), who died in prison; Ubaldo (1148), legate of Adrian IV to the Christian princes for the Crusade and already consecrator of the antipope Victor IV; Giacomo (1255), legate of John XXI to the emperor Michael Palaiologos; Landolfo de' Rossi (1298), who rendered excellent services to Boniface VIII; Francesco Filipperi (1499), legate of Julius II to the emperor Maximilian.
Of F. was Novidio Flacco (ca. 1476), poet and author of the Fasti cristiani, in imitation of those of Ovid.
MONUMENTS
Massive polygonal walls, well preserved and partly fortified, from the early Sullan age; a theater of the 2nd century; a probable temple beneath the episcopal palace; the testament of Aulus Quintilius, who in the time of Trajan owed money and lands to F.; the Romanesque-Gothic church of St. Francis (1277-82); that of St. Valentine with a small bell tower with double-arched windows; that of St. Mary Major (13th century) with a Latin-cross interior and inspired by Fossanova; the Romanesque Cathedral, dedicated to Sts. John and Paul, with a pavement by the marble-worker Paul (c. 1116), a ciborium by Drudo de Trivio (13th century), and in the cellars of the episcopal palace the dismantled ciborium of the 9th century.
In the diocese flourished the famous monastery of St. Mary in Fiume, erected in 1196 by Count Giovanni and by Cardinal Giordano of the counts of Ceccano. - See plate LXXVI.
Bibliography10 works
Alberto Galietti