IMOLA, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese in the province of Bologna.
It has a population of 144,450, of whom 144,226 are Catholic; it comprises 132 parishes with 193 diocesan priests and 45 regular clergy, one seminary, 8 male religious communities and 25 female (1949).
I. is situated on the left bank of the Santerno, at the intersection of the Via Emilia and the Via Appia (Via Mazzini). The Romans called it Forum Cornelii, either after Cornelius Sulla (82 BC) or Cornelius Scipio. It was a Roman municipium; the name "Imolas," though of pre-Roman origin, came into use only in the Middle Ages.
It was devastated many times: in 552 by the Goths; it was subject to the Exarchate of Ravenna, then sacked by the Lombards; Aistulf ceded it to the Pope; in the 11th–12th centuries it was in conflict with Bologna, Faenza, and Ravenna; it was torn apart by civil wars; it fell under the rule of the Alidosi (1341–1424); then conquered by Galeazzo Sforza in 1434 and given as a dowry to Caterina Sforza, wife of Girolamo Riario (1473); in 1499 Cesare Borgia took possession of it, followed by the Sassatelli, until in 1504 it passed to the Church and remained under papal control until 1860. Christianity is attested by the martyrdom of St. Cassian (v.). Forum Cornelii was an episcopal see as early as 373, as attested by the well-known letter of St. Ambrose inviting Bishop Constantius of Vibenzia to visit the diocese at that time vacant.
St. Peter Chrysologus recalls the bishop Cornelius as “vita clarus, cunctis virtutibus ubique fulgens, operum magnitudine notus universis” (sermo 165: PL 52, 633); his successor was Proiectus, consecrated by Chrysologus himself between 425 and 450 (ibid. 633–34); then Pacatianus in 502; some mention a St. Maurellus, though Lanzoni
di Giacomo di Bernardo di Cereto di I. (1340) preserves
votive frescoes from the 14th–15th centuries and a painting
of the martyrdom of St. Ursula by Ludovico Carracci (1600).
In the convent attached to the church of St. Francis are located
the Library, the Picture Gallery, the Museum, and the
Municipal Archive with documents from the 13th century
onward.
Among the bishops of I. are remembered G. Dandini (1546–1532); F. Ghigi (1652–55), later Alexander VII; Barnaba Gregorio Chiaramonti (1785–1800), later Pius VII; Giovanni M. Mastai Ferretti (1832–46), later Pius IX. From Fagnano in the diocese of I. came Lamberto, later Honorius II (1124–1130); from I. were the Dante scholar Benvenuto Rambaldi, called Benvenuto da Imola (1306–90); the painter Innocenzo Francucci, called Innocenzo da Imola (1490–1547); and the architect Cosimo Morelli (1732–1812).