Diocese of Fossano

DIOCESE OF FOSSANO. - Suffragan of Turin.
In the province of Cuneo, it comprises the territory extending to the left of the Stura river, at the crossing of the railway lines and state roads joining Turin with Ventimiglia and Savoy, flourishing through commerce and industries. Over an area of 264 sq km it counts 39,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, 30 parishes, 7 chaplaincies, more than 200 churches and oratories, 88 diocesan priests and 10 regulars, numerous educational and welfare institutions, a major and a minor seminary, the latter with its retreat house attached to the well-known sanctuary of Cussanio (3 km from F.) erected in 1872 on the site of the Augustinian church and convent (17th century), and dedicated to Mary Most Holy Mother of Divine Providence in memory of the twofold miraculous apparition to a deaf-mute (1521). Patron: St. Juvenal, bishop of Narni, where he died in 376. Feast on 3 May.

HISTORY

The body of the Saint, stolen and abandoned near F. by a canon of Toulouse, was found again around 1220 and placed in the collegiate church of Romanisio, a village of Roman origin. After the establishment of F. as a commune (1236), the inhabitants of Romanisio moved there with the collegiate church, and on 29 Dec. 1279 they brought there the relics of the Saint, adding his name to the church of St. Mary.

After passing under the dominion of Marquis Manfred IV of Saluzzo (1304), of Charles II of Anjou (1307), and again of Saluzzo, in 1314 F. entered, by an act of submission, into the dominion of Prince Philip of Savoy-Achaia (who built the four-towered castle from 1324 to 1332). When the Achaia line died out in 1418, F. passed directly under Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy from 1416. After the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), F., having remained constantly faithful to the Savoys and having escaped the French occupation in 1536, 1553 and 1557, received on 9 Oct. 1560 Duke Emmanuel Philibert, who granted it the title of city and the coat of arms with the motto Fidelitatis insignia (20 Feb. 1566), and it soon began the proceedings to have it erected as an episcopal see. The first three bishops appointed died before the negotiations, which lasted more than 30 years, were completed, until Charles Emmanuel I proposed Mons. Camillo Daddeo of Mondovì and Pope Clement VIII provided for it (15 Apr. 1592), erecting as cathedral the collegiate church of St. Mary and St. Juvenal and detaching 15 parishes from Turin and 4 from Asti. Twelve bishops succeeded one another with a single interruption (1701-27) until the suppression of the diocese, which took place on 12 Aug. 1803 following the Concordat between Pius VII and Napoleon, by which it was aggregated to that of Mondovì. The diocese was reconstituted on 17 July 1817 by the same Pius VII at the request of Victor Emmanuel I, but greatly diminished in territory. The bishops were: from 1821 L. Franzoni (archbishop of Turin in 1832); from 1836 Bruno di Tournafort; from 1848 the senator L. Fantini; see vacant from 1852; from 1871 E. Manacorda; from 1910 G. Signori; from 1919 Q. Traviani; from 1934 A. Soracco; from 1943 D. Borra.

Among the illustrious ecclesiastics are to be remembered: the provost Bl. Oddino Barotti (1344-1400); Bl. Bartolomeo da Cervere, inquisitor of the Waldensians, martyred on 21 Apr. 1466; Bl. Giovenale Ancina (v.); the canon L. Craveri

(1781-1850); the historians E. Thesauro, Giovanni Negro, G. Muratori, P. Fuserio. Also from Fossano were the painters Ambrogio il Bergognone, S. Fuseri, the Barotti and the engraver G. Boetto.

Of the various religious Orders that existed in F. (Templars, Benedictines, Augustinians, Somaschi, Filippini, etc.) there remain only the Capuchins and the Salesians, besides a monastery of Cistercian Benedictine nuns and other female religious Congregations.

Monuments worthy of note: the Cathedral Basilica, in Baroque-Neoclassical style, by Querino

(1778), with a beautiful Cena by Clàret and paintings by L. Morgari; the massive bell tower dates back to 1397; the church of the Most Holy Trinity, by Gallo, and the church of St. Philip, two gems of pure Piedmontese Baroque, with frescoes by the Pozzi brothers; the major hospital, also by Gallo; the castle and remains of ancient walls. Holy-water stoups, vestments and precious and artistic sacred vessels also in the churches outside the city.

Virginio Marco dell'Agnola