FORLÌ, DIOCESI di. — City, diocese, and province in Romagna; the diocese, a suffragan of Ravenna, extends over 320 sq. km and has 80,350 inhabitants, of whom 80,115 are Catholics; it has 62 parishes served by 103 secular priests and 26 religious, and one seminary (1948). Ancient Forum Livii had its first episcopal see around the 4th century, and its first bishop was St. Mercuriale. Before that date, it is likely that a Christian community organized from Ravenna existed there; A. Harnack (Missione e propagazione del cristianesimo, Italian translation, 2nd ed., Turin 1945, p. 513) supposes that F. was among the Italian cities that had an episcopal see around 250.
The protobishop Mercuriale is commonly assigned, with greater certainty, to the 4th century, but his history is uncertain and confused because of the numerous and late legends that have altered his image and even led to the duplication of his person in some writers (P. Gama, Series episcoporum Eccl. cathol., Regensburg 1873, p. 697), who have given F. three bishops of this name in the early centuries. Memories of the cult of St. Mercuriale in F. go back to the 9th century. A basilica dedicated to him, perhaps the primitive cathedral, near the via demilia, east of ancient Forum Livii, existed at that time and preserved the Saint’s body; but it was destroyed in a fire in the 12th century. A famous monastery, first Benedictine and later Vallombrosan, bore the Saint’s name; through the donations of the bishops of F. and of the counts of the Terra, and the privileges of the emperors, the monastery grew to great splendor, and its importance is attested by its rich archival holdings, currently in the possession of the State Historical Archive at the Municipal Library of F. During this period, the history of the bishops of F., which is intertwined with that of the illustrious monastery of S. Mercuriale, presents no noteworthy events. A particular place in the chronology of the bishops of Forlì belongs to Giovanni Numai (1902–1911), commendatory abbot of S. Mercuriale, who annexed the historic abbey to the episcopal endowment; and to Pietro Grifi (1412–16), a Pisan, who carried out important legations and offices for the Holy See.
The history of the city and territory of F., belonging to the temporal dominion of the Holy See, closely follows that of the exarchate of Ravenna; it fell under Lombard rule (L. Duchesne, I primi tempi dello Stato pontificio, Italian translation by A. M. Salvatorelli, p. 51) and from the 8th century formed part of the Papal States. After gaining communal liberties in the 11th century (1958) and taking the Guelf side during the struggles between Guelfs and Ghibellines in Italy, it fell under the rule of the powerful Forlì families and then, definitively, under that of the powerful tyrant Francesco Ordelaffi, who was brought back under the lordship of the Holy See through the efforts of E. Albornoz, papal legate (1357–58). For some time the city was the seat of the Presidency of Romagna and, despite the troubled rule of the Ordelaffi and Riario lordships, remained subject to papal dominion until the revolution. During the Restoration, Pope Pius VII (motu proprio of 6 July 1816) chose it as the seat of a legation, and it remained so until its suppression (1859).
When the Nullius of Forlimpopoli was suppressed in 1848, F. received 11 new parishes (7 from the Nullius, 4 from Bertinoro), whereas in 1853, when the diocese of Modigliana was established, it had to cede an equal number of parishes (including the towns of Terra del Sole, Castrocaro, and Dovadola).
MONUMENTS. — The present cathedral of S. Croce and S. Valeriano dates from the 12th century; previously, the church of the Holy Trinity, rebuilt in 1782, seems to have been the cathedral of F. S. Croce was restored in 1417 and visited by Pope Martino V (1418); the bishop of F., Alessandro Numai, after completing the works, consecrated it, dedicating it to S. Croce and S. Valeriano. Its present form is the result of the 1841 rebuilding by the architect Giulio Zambianchi, in the Neoclassical style with a pronaos. Inside, several chapels are destinations of popular devotion: that of S. Valeriano, where the relics of the martyr are venerated; that of the Madonna della Ferita; and the other of the Madonna del Fuoco, the most venerated in F. following the miraculous episode of 4 February 1428, when the image remained unharmed in a fire.
The church of S. Mercuriale, a 12th-century construction, has undergone many alterations and restorations that have largely changed its lines; particularly noteworthy is the restoration of 1786. In the lunette above the portal, a fine bas-relief from the 12th or 13th century, depicting the Magi, is attributed to Fuccio Fiorentino. The graceful Romanesque bell tower of 1180, by the Forlì artist Francesco di Deddo Aleotti, was built on the occasion of the translation of the body of S. Mercuriale, under Bishop Alessandro (1176).
S. Biagio in S. Gerolamo, dating from the 15th century, was restored in 1650. The monumental family church of the Ordelaffi family preserved—before its destruction in 1944—important works of art inside, including Reni’s Concezione and Melozzo’s Il miracolo di S. Giacomo il Maggiore. In the church of S. Pellegrino, the body of Pellegrino Laziosi, a Servite and, since 1942, co-patron of the city, is venerated; he is one of the saints claimed by the diocese of F., together with the b. Marcolino Amanni, a Dominican, and the b. Giacomo Salomoni, also a Dominican.
The birthplace of Melozzo degli Ambrosi possesses a rich picture gallery, founded in 1858. The archives are worthy of mention: the municipal archive (G. Mazzantini, Gli archivi della storia d'Italia, I [1899-1905], p. 41); the chapter archive, with a valuable collection of parchments from the 11th–15th centuries (A. Pasini, L'Archivio capitolare di F., in La Romagna [1923], p. 547; 1924, p. 346).
BIBL. - G. Casali, Serie cronologica dei vescovi di F., in Atti e Memorie della V. Deput. per le province della Romagna, 2 (1863), p. 51 ff.; Cappellotti, II, pp. 307-67; E. Calzini-C. Mazzantini, Guido di F., Forlì 1895-97; F. Lanzoni, S. Mercuriale vescovo di F. nella leggenda e nella storia, in Rivista storica critica delle scienze teologiche, 1 (1904), pp. 154, 463 ff.; P. F. Kehr, Italia Pontificia, V, Berlino 1911, pp. 141-43; Lanzoni, pp. 767-69; F. Casadei, F. e dintorni, Forlì 1928; Cottinetti, I, pp. 1106-97; A. Mambelli, Il vecchio campanato e la sue iscrizioni funerarie, Forlì 1935. Serafino Prete