LACEDONIA, DIOCESI di. - City and diocese in the province of Avellino. It has 35,948 inhabitants, of whom 34,673 are Catholics, distributed among 11 parishes, served by 29 diocesan and 2 regular priests; it has a seminary, one male religious community, and 6 female ones (1950). The diocese is suffragan to Conza. Patron: St Nicholas of Bari (feast on 6 Dec.).
The city, according to some, arose on the ruins of the ancient Aquilonia of the Hirpini. The Vulture earthquake of 1456 destroyed it for the most part, and the other earthquake of July 1930 caused serious damage to its buildings. In the Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption, on the night between 10 and 11 Sept. 1486, the famous “conspiracy of the Barons” against Ferdinand I of Aragon was sworn.
The suppressed see of Treviso (Vico della Baronia) was united to the diocese of L. in 1818.
Among its bishops may be recalled Angelo, who took part in the Third Lateran Council (1179); Fra' Guglielmo Neritono (1392), Antonio Dura (1506), Giacomo Candido (1606), Giacomo Giordano, who built the episcopal palace; and Morea, who in 1684 suppressed certain paganizing customs on the eve of Epiphany.