ISERNIA and VENAFRO, DIOCESES OF
United dioceses, suffragans of Capua, in Campania. Over an area of 714 sq. km., there is a population of 53,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, with 41 parishes, 68 diocesan priests and 7 regular priests, one seminary, 2 male religious communities and 5 female (1949).
The origins of Isernia are lost in legend. According to the most widely accepted opinion today, they would go back to the Osci, as is documented by numerous inscriptions found and by the very name *Aisernion*, found on certain coins and which in the Oscan language means "stone," and therefore a city built on stones. It was a Roman colony with the right to mint coins as early as 265 B.C.; it always remained faithful to Rome. It held preeminence over all the Samnite cities, even during the Social Wars. The Christian origins of Isernia date back to the 5th century. The first bishop mentioned by Ughelli is a St. Benedict, not well identified, whose body is preserved under the high altar of the cathedral. Sporadic names then follow in the series of bishops until 942; from then on the series becomes uninterrupted. In 1182, Pope Lucius III placed the diocese of Isernia under papal protection, uniting it with the nearby diocese of Venafro. In 1302, the two dioceses were again united by Adenolfo, archbishop of Capua, and entrusted to a certain Bishop Gerard, whose consecration bull, also bearing the limits of the diocese, is preserved in the Historical Archive of the Cathedral. Separated again, the two dioceses were definitively united in 1852. The city of Isernia was razed to the ground by various earthquakes, in 847, 1349 and 1456; to these must be added the destructions and fires caused during the wars that devastated the peninsula during the Middle Ages. The cathedral of Isernia has been rebuilt several times, most recently after the bombings of September 1943, during which about 4,000 people perished. Isernia is the birthplace of St. Celestine V, pope. The cathedral of Isernia is dedicated to St. Peter; that of Venafro to the Madonna of Loreto. *V. VENAFRO.*