Fermo, Archdiocese of

FERMO, Archdiocese of. - City and archdiocese in the province of Ascoli-Piceno (Marche). It extends over 1392 sq km with a population of 225,340 inhabitants, almost all Catholics. It has 152 parishes with 327 churches, 322 diocesan priests and 73 regulars; one seminary.

The first bishop of the Church of Fermo, Fabio, according to the most reliable testimonies, dates from the 6th century: 580-98 (Gregorii M. Epistulae, IX, 52, in MGH, Greg. Reg., II, p. 77); but the origins of the Church are earlier and, according to Harnack (Missione e propagazione del cristianesimo, Italian trans. O. Marrucchi, 2nd ed., Turin 1945, p. 512) an episcopal Church already existed in the 3rd century. Nevertheless, what a late local tradition narrates concerning the martyrdom and the deeds of Sts. Alexander and Philip, held to be proto-bishops of F. in the same century, does not seem acceptable; the origins of Christianity in Piceno are likewise assigned to this same period.

The chronotaxis of the most ancient bishops of Fermo presents gaps and uncertainties, while it becomes more reliable from the 9th century, in the time of the monastic dissemination in the ducatus then comitatus Firmanus, which gave rise to numerous and important monasteries and abbeys, many of them dependent on Farfa (S. Prete, I monaci benedettini nella Chiesa fermana, in Studia Picena, 18 [1948], pp. 77-93). In the period of the struggles for investitures and of the Reform, the Church of F. was governed by bishop Udalrico (1057-73), a correspondent and sincere friend of St. Peter Damian (Epistulae, 4, 9: PL 144, 311-18) but, in the most heated phase of the struggle between Henry IV and Gregory VII over the see of Fermo, an imperial bishop was intruded (Gualfarango [?]: Regist. Greg., III, 10: PL 148, 440).

Later, in the disputes between Church and Empire of the 12th century, the Church of F. suffered terrible reprisals on the part of Frederick Barbarossa: the city was sacked and the Cathedral burned and destroyed by the troops of the imperial chancellor Christian of Mainz, on Sept. 21, 1176. In the 13th century, as the Franciscan movement spread through the Marche region more than elsewhere, at F., under bishop Philip (1229-50), a community of Franciscans established itself in 1240 and, around the same time, the communities of the Dominicans and the Augustinians had their origin in the city. The bishops, who had for some time (1217-33) held the effective principality of F., in the 14th century also assumed its title.

The diocese was conferred in 1424 on the prelate Domenico Capranica, later created cardinal by Martin V (Eubel, II, 611) and again, in commendam, in 1430, without his ever residing there. The diocese remained for a certain period with the prelates of the house of Capranica (Niccolò 1458, Geolamo 1475-78 etc.) in commendam and was administered by means of a vicar. In the movement of Catholic reform, the history of the Church of Fermo acquires prominence and splendor. The bishop Lorenzo Lenti, promoter of various reforms in the diocese, was extraordinary envoy of Pius IV in 1561 to the court of France (Pastor, VII, pp. 177, 460). From 1571 to 1577 the cardinal Felice Peretti was perpetuus Firm. episcopatus administrator et princeps, and he carried out various reforms and founded the seminary. Having become pontiff (Sixtus V) he erected the Church of F. into a metropolitan see with the bull Universi Orbis of May 24, 1589. The original extent of the diocesan territory, which comprised that of the extinct Churches of Potenza (Potentia in Piceno), Falcone (Palerio), Corridonia (Pansulae) and Civitanova (Cluvatum Vicus) had been gradually reduced with the creation of the new dioceses of Macerata, under John XXII in 1520, of Ripatransone, created by Pius V in 1571, of Montalto, Tolentino and Sanseverino, by Sixtus V in 1586. The pontiff Sixtus V, elevating the see of F. to a metropolitan see, assigned to it as suffragans the Churches of Macerata and Tolentino, Montalto and Ripatransone, and Sanseverino. The history of F. is linked with that of the Papal State. After the Lombard invasion (ca. 580) in which the Church of Fermo suffered immense ruin (L. Duchesne, Les échecs d'Italie et l'invasion lombarde, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 25 [1903], pp. 96-97) the city remained under their dominion and was the seat of a duchy (Lib. Pont., I, p. 496). From the conquest of Charlemagne, having become a march in the 10th century, down to the times of Gregory VII (Lib. Pont., II, p. 289) and having later merged with the [inconsulenza] (12th-13th century), it belonged, at least nominally, to the State of the Church, to which, with interruptions, it remained faithful in the turbulent disputes between Church and Empire in the 13th century. After the Papal State was reorganized by cardinal E. Albornoz, Giovanni Visconti da Oleggio, lord of F., was rector of the Marca (1561) and the city was the seat of the general Curia. In 1598 Boniface IX erected there the University, which came to an end in the year 1826. F., successively subjected to the dominion of the Sforza, of the local tyrants (Eufreducci), in the 16th century returned to the dominion of the Holy See, which governed it by means of cardinal-nephews and vice-governors, until the French occupation. In 1816, restored to the Papal State, it was the seat of a delegation and in 1860 was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.

MONUMENTS

The Cathedral, after the recent excavations (1934-38), constitutes the most conspicuous sacred monument and encloses within its walls the remains of all the constructions that have succeeded one another there. From the paleo-Christian basilica: the floor mosaic of the apse (two stylized peacocks and a cantharus in the middle) no later than the 6th century; stretches of floor mosaic of the naves, remains of perimeter walls with the following dimensions: 22.60 m in length by 13.30 m in width. Remains of the second basilica, dedicated to the Virgin, destroyed in 1176, are visible in the underground chambers, recently arranged and organized for this purpose. The Cathedral was rebuilt, dedicated to Mary Assumed and completed ca. 1227 by the architect Giorgio da Como. Of this Gothic-style mass, the monumental facade has survived, with its portal and rich bas-relief decoration, as well as the bell tower; remains of columns belonging to this third building are visible in the excavation area. Archbishop Minnucci, under the direction of Cosimo Morelli, restored it and radically modified it (1789), and in that form it has come down to us.

The interior, imposing, is decorated in chiaroscuro. In the chapel of the Sacrament is a fine bronze tabernacle, with bas-reliefs, the work of G. Lombardi. In the crypt is preserved a Christian sarcophagus of the 4th century (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, I, p. 119, pl. 116, no. 3). The treasury of the Cathedral possesses a precious illuminated manuscript: the Messale de Firmonibus, commissioned by Bishop Giovanni IV de Firmonibus (1412-21). Also to be mentioned, among the numerous churches of artistic interest: S. Zenone, a Romanesque building (1171) with a decorated portal; S. Pietro, restored, attributed, according to an inscription in Gothic characters on the side portal, to 1251; S. Francesco, erected on the ancient chapel of S. Leone, with the first establishment of the Franciscans at F. in 1240 (Wadding, Annales, III, p. 42). An important successful restoration of the apse is under way. S. Domenico, erected in 1233, and radically renovated in its interior. S. Agostino, of the 13th century, profoundly modified in its interior, on a design by fra' Vincenzo Rossi, Augustinian (1730-38): in the church the holy Thorn is venerated. Important restoration work and discoveries of frescoes have been done recently (F. Maranesi, Gli affreschi in S. Agostino di F. [Quaderni d'arte, 3], Fermo 1941); S. Filippo, consecrated in 1607 through the work of the Fathers of the Oratory, who settled at F. ca. 1580. It is noteworthy for the rich decoration of its altars and for its canvases: the Night by Rubens (F. Maranesi, La pala Rubensiana di F. [Quaderni d'arte, 4], Fermo 1942); the Descent of the Holy Spirit by Lanfranco. There the body of the blessed Antonio Grassi of F. is preserved. Sanctuary of the Madonna del Pianto, erected in 1675, restored in the last century and recently enlarged. There the image of St. Maria del Pianto is venerated, a sculptural work of 1612, by Sebastiani, protectress of the city and of the archdiocese. Other Marian sanctuaries in the diocese: Maria S.ma dell'Ambro (Montelottino) and S. Maria a Mare. In the building of the Civic Library are housed: the Lapidary Gallery, the Picture Gallery-Museum and the Municipal Archive, where the Liber episcopatus sive inca episcoporum Firm, Eccl., cod. membran. of the 13th century, no. 1050, is kept. Near the Cathedral the Capitular Archive is preserved, and in the Archiepiscopal Palace, arranged, the Curia Archive.

Serafino Prete