FERMO, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – Archdiocesan city in the province of Ascoli Piceno (Marche). It extends over 192 km² with a population of 225,340 inhabitants, almost all Catholic. It has 152 parishes with 327 churches, 232 diocesan priests and 73 regular clergy; one seminary.
The first bishop of the Church in Fermo, according to the most reliable evidence, is 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. However, the late local tradition that recounts the martyrdom and deeds of Sts Alexander and Philip, considered proto-bishops of Fermo in the same century, does not seem acceptable; the origins of Christianity in the Picenum region are also assigned to this same period.
The chronology of the earliest bishops of Fermo presents gaps and uncertainties, while it becomes more reliable from the 9th century, at the time of the monastic dissemination in the duchy and later county of Fermo, which gave rise to numerous and important monasteries and abbeys, many dependent on Farfa (S. Prete, I monaci benedettini nella Chiesa fermana, in Studia Picena, 18 [1948], pp. 77–93). During the period of the Investiture Controversy and the Reformation, the diocese underwent various reforms and the seminary was founded. When its bishop became pope (Sixtus V), the Church of Fermo ceased to be metropolitan with the bull Universi Orbis of 24 May 1589. The original extent of the diocesan territory, which included the existing Churches of Potenza (Potentia in the Pieno), Falerone (Falerio), Corridonia (Fasulae) and Civitanova (Civitanum Vetus), had been reduced by the creation of the new dioceses of Macerata, under John XXII in 1320, of Ripatransone, created by Pius V in 1571, and of Montalto, Tolentino and Sanseverino, by Sixtus V in 1586. Pope Sixtus V, elevating the see of Fermo to metropolitan status, assigned it as suffragans the Churches of Macerata and Tolentino, Montalto and Ripatransone, and Sanseverino. The history of Fermo is linked with that of the Papal States. After the Lombard invasion (c. 580), in which the Church of Fermo suffered immense devastation (L. Duchesne, Les écrits d'Italie et l'Inquisition lombarde, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 23 [1903], pp. 96–97), the city remained under their rule and was the seat of a duchy (Lib. Pont., I, p. 496). From the conquest by Charlemagne, becoming a march in the 10th century, until the time of Gregory VII (Lib. Pont., II, p. 286) and later merging with the March of Ancona (12th–13th centuries), it belonged, at least nominally, to the Papal States, to which, with interruptions, it remained faithful during the upheavals connected with the struggle between Church and Empire in the 13th century. After the reorganization of the Papal States by Cardinal E. Albornoz, Giovanni Visconti da Oleggio, lord of Fermo, was rector of the March (1361) and the city was the seat of the general Curia. In 1398 Boniface IX founded the university there, which came to an end in 1826. Fermo, successively subject to the rule of the Sforzas and of local tyrants (Euffreducci), in the 16th century returned to the dominion of the Holy See, which governed it through cardinal-nephews or vice-governors until the French occupation. In 1516, restored to the Papal States, it was the seat of a delegation and in 1560 annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.
MONUMENTS. – The Cathedral, after recent excavations (1934–38), constitutes the most significant sacred monument, enclosing within its walls the remains of all the structures that succeeded one another there. Of the paleo-Christian basilica: 1) the mosaic pavement of the apse (two stylized peacocks and a kantharos in the centre) not later than the 6th century; fragments of the mosaic pavement of the naves, remains of perimeter walls with the following dimensions: 22.60 m in length and 13.30 m in width. Remains of the second basilica, dedicated to the Virgin, destroyed in 1176, are visible in the crypts, recently arranged and systematized for this purpose. The Cathedral was rebuilt, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, and completed c. 1227 by the architect Giorgio da Como. Of this Gothic-style structure, the monumental façade with its portal and rich bas-relief decoration, and the bell tower survive; remains of columns belonging to this third building are visible in the excavated area. Archbishop Minnucci, under the direction of Cosimo Morelli, restored and radically modified it in 1789, and in that form it has come down to us.
The interior, imposing in scale, is decorated in chiaro-scuro. In the Chapel of the Sacrament there is a fine bronze tabernacle with bas-relief, the work of G. Lombardi. In the crypt is preserved a 4th-century Christian sarcophagus (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, I, p. 119, pl. 116, no. 3). The Cathedral treasury possesses a precious illuminated manuscript: the Missal of Primonibus, commissioned by Bishop Giovanni IV de Primonibus (1412–21). Among the many churches of artistic interest are also to be mentioned: S. Zenone, a Romanesque building (1171) with decorated portal; S. Pietro, restored, attributed, according to a Gothic-inscribed epigraph on the side portal, to 1251; S. Francesco, erected on the site of the ancient chapel of S. Leone, with the first establishment of the Franciscans in Fermo in 1240 (Wadding, Annales, III, p. 42). An important recent restoration of the apse is in progress. S. Domenico, built in 1333 and radically renewed inside. S. Agostino, from the 13th century, deeply modified inside, to a design by Fra Vincenzo Rossi, Augustinian (1730–38): in the church is venerated the Holy Thorn. Important restoration work and the discovery of frescoes have been carried out recently (F. Maranesi, Gli affreschi in S. Agostino di F. [Quaderni d’arte, 3], Fermo 1941); S. Filippo, consecrated in 1607 by the Fathers of the Oratory, established in Fermo c. 1580. Notable for its richly decorated altars and paintings: 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. Here is preserved the body of Bl. Antonio Grassi of Fermo. Sanctuary of the Madonna del Pianto, erected in 1675, restored in the last century and recently enlarged. Here is venerated the image of Our Lady of the Weeping, a sculptural work of 1612 by Sebastiani, architect of the city and of the archdiocese. Other Marian shrines in the diocese: S. Maria dell’Ambro (Montefortino) and S. Maria a Mare. In the palace of the Civic Library are housed: the Lapidary Gallery, the Picture Gallery and Museum, and the Municipal Archive, which preserves the Liber epistolarum sive iura episcoporum Firm., etc., a 13th-century parchment codex, no. 1030. Near the Cathedral is preserved the Chapter Archive, and in the Archbishop’s Palace, now organized, the Curia Archive.