FRASCATI, DIOCESE OF. – The suburban diocese of Frascati in the province of Rome comprises the north-western area of the Alban Hills and, over a surface area of 150 km², has: 50,000 inhabitants, of whom 49,950 are Catholic; 17 parishes, 28 secular priests, 75 religious; a minor seminary (1948); patrons the holy apostles Philip and James; feast day 1 May.
Frascati is the successor of nearby Tusculum, which was the seat of a principality of the ancient Latins and, having become a municipium, remained a loyal ally of Rome. In the early Middle Ages, Tusculum was renowned as the feudal seat of the counts of Tusculum, who, between the 10th and 12th centuries, dominated Rome and gave the Church many popes. In 1911, Tusculum was completely razed to the ground by the Romans; much of the population, including the bishop, moved to swell the numbers around the two churches of Santa Maria and San Sebastiano in Frascati. Frascati, however, remained a place of modest importance, which in 1410 was granted by John XXIII to Giovanni and Nicola Colonna. In 1500 it became a possession of the Holy See.
The bishop of Frascati is one of the cardinal-bishops of the Order of Bishops, whose see was originally at Labicum, from where, in 1111, Bishop Bovo transferred it to Tusculum. With the destruction of that city, the episcopal see was transferred to Frascati, its first cardinal-bishop being Nicola de Romanis (1205). Among its prelates are to be remembered: Egidio, sent by John XII to Poland in 964; Giacomo de Vitry (1228), a doctor and opponent of the Albigensians; Pietro Giuliani (1273), physician to Gregory IX and later Pope John XXI; Berengarius of Fredol (1309), collaborator of Boniface VIII in the Liber sextus decretalium; Baldassare Cossa (1410), formerly John XXIII, after his submission to Martin V; Bessarion (1419); Alessandro Farnese (1519), later Paul III; Giovanni Pietro Carafa (1550), later Paul IV; Lorenzo Corsini (1725).
