LUNI (LA SPEZIA), SARZANA and BRUGNATO, DIOCESE of. — Dioceses united in Liguria.
Of a total population of 245,266, there are 243,000 Catholics, distributed among 150 parishes, served by 216 diocesan priests and 83 religious priests; one seminary, 15 male and 79 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 257).
The origins of L. are uncertain. According to Livy, a Roman colony of 2,000 citizens was transferred there in 177 B.C. The importance of the place is evident from Ennius’s reference: «Lunai portu est operae cognoscere cives». The city flourished after Claudius Marcellus’s victory over the Ligurian Apuani, Velleiati, and Friniati; the excavation of the Carrara marble quarries, begun in the first century B.C., increased its prosperity. The curia, forum, and basilica were established; the municipal magistracies functioned, as did an amphitheatre. In the fifth century A.D., Rutilius Namatianus still greeted it as a dazzling vision. During the barbarian invasions, thanks to the protection of the Eastern fleet, which had a permanent base in Sardinia, L. became the maritima provincia Italorum, linked by frequent maritime relations with Rome and Byzantium. At the beginning of the eighth century L. capitulated to Liutprand and was incorporated into the Lombard duchy of Lucca. Upon the descent of the Franks it met no different fate, until it was attacked by the Saracens in 849 and by the Normans in 860.
Christianity was preached at L. in the earliest times, although it is not known who its first bishop was; in 465 the Lunensian bishop St. Felix signed the acts of the Roman Council. Other known bishops are: Victor (499–503), Justus (556), St. Venantius (594–603), mentioned in the correspondence of St. Gregory the Great; Thomas, present at the Lateran Council of 649, and Severus at that of 680. A Lunensian Martyrology lists bishops whose identities are confused with legend,
such as St. Solaro, St. Terentius, St. Ceccardus, etc. The Christian life of L. manifested itself in the cathedral of S. Maria and in parish churches in territories where pagan worship persisted until the eighth century, and through the establishment of abbeys such as those at Tino, Brugnato, Aulla, Linari, etc. After the collapse of the march and the county, the figure of the bishop asserted itself decisively against the encroaching Obertenghi dynasties, obtaining as early as 900 from Berengar, in 963 from Otto I, and in 981 from Otto II, immunity over the richest part of Lunigiana. Thus began the temporal power of the bishop, who was recognized as the comital sovereign in the territory of Lunigiana, totum in integrum, long before receiving official investiture (1185) from Frederick I. The bishop was de facto and de jure count of Lunigiana, with the power to mint coins, and the Liber Iurium of the Lunensian Church, the famous Codice Pelavicino, collected its acts from 900 to 1297. His jurisdiction extended over the islands of Capraia and Gorgona, Palmaria and Tino, with their celebrated monasteries; over the three valleys of the Magra, the Vara, and the Frigido, along the entire southern slope of the Apennines, sending its extensions beyond them; northward into the valleys of the Parma and the Taro, and eastward into the valley of the Serchio and almost as far as Pietrasanta.
Probably after the Saracen incursion at the beginning of the second millennium, the bishops established their seat at Ameglia, Carrara, and Sarzanello, until, in 1204, Bishop Gualtieri transferred the Cathedral to Sarzana, which, however, obtained papal recognition as the definitive episcopal see only in 1465, from Paul II. But already in the sixteenth century the autonomy of Lunigiana was disappearing: Dante Alighieri himself, acting as peacemaker between the Malaspina dello Spino Secco and Bishop Antonio di Camilla, marked its decline at Castelnuovo Magra on 6 October 1306. Spiritual authority was also curtailed: after the islands of Capraia and Gorgona had passed to the diocese of Pisa in 1133, Innocent II, recognizing the diocese of L. as immediately subject to the Apostolic See, removed the abbey of Tino from it in order to incorporate it into the new archdiocese of Genoa, and established the abbey of S. Colombano of Brugnato as an autonomous diocese with its extensive possessions. Finally, in 1161, Alexander III also removed the area of Portovenere, in the Gulf of La Spezia, in order to unite it with Genoa’s possessions.
The line of warrior bishops ended with Gabriele Malaspina, who in 1355 obtained from Charles IV the useless recognition of his ancient privileges and the title of Prince of the Empire. He was succeeded by Dominican and Franciscan bishops. But the diocese attained its most brilliant glory in Tomaso Parentucelli, later Nicholas V, who, being from Sarzana, allowed the diocese to join that of Sarzana to the name of L. and incorporated into the city Chapter the possessions of the abbey of Corvo, at the mouths of the Magra, and those of the Augustinians of Vezzano Ligure. His relatives adorned the recently built Cathedral with sovereign munificence and constructed the episcopal residence, leaving a mark of the widest generosity.
In 1545 Simone Pasqua, bishop of L.–Sarzana, was present at the Council of Trent and began the line of cardinal bishops (1561–65). He was succeeded by Cardinal Benedetto Lomellini (1565–72) and, after the bishops G. B. Bracelli, an eminent prelate and Curial diplomat (1575–89), and G. B. Salvago (1590–1632), founder of the diocesan seminary, by the cardinal-bishop G. D. Spinola (1632–36). Other eminent figures of the diocese at that time were the two Cardinals Zacchia (Emilio, who died in 1605, and Ludovico, who died in 1637), Monsignor Agostino Favoriti, secretary of state to four pontiffs (d. 1682), and Cardinal Lorenzo Casoni.
The see of Brugnato also enjoyed a period of prosperity in the sixteenth century, chiefly through the efforts of Bishop Filippo Sauli (1512–28), who, in accordance with a bull of Leo X (1518), arranged with the archbishop of Genoa for the exchange of certain parishes, thereby obtaining the coastal area of Sestri Levante; he revived the cathedral Chapter, founding six canonries, and marked the renewal of spiritual life in the diocese. He was succeeded as administrators by Cardinal Grimaldi (1528), Cardinal Trivulzio (1535), and Bishop Antonio di Cogorno, who took part in the Council of Trent. Subsequently, because of political events, the sense of Lunigianese unity became increasingly disintegrated; the region was governed at different times by the Genoese, the Sforza, the grand duke of Tuscany, and the duke of Modena, and the new political hegemonies produced new diocesan boundaries. In 1787, Pius VI, by the bull In suprema, created the diocese of Pontremoli, removing 124 parishes from that of L. and from that of Brugnato the churches of Zeri and Teglia, the vicariate of S. Pietro of Pontremoli, Gotta, and Buzzò in the Val di Taro. The new diocese was declared a suffragan of Pisa, to which it had to cede the vicariate of Serravezza in 1798. It then seemed advisable to transfer the episcopal see of Brugnato to La Spezia, but it was the king of Sardinia himself, Victor Emmanuel I, who proposed to the Holy See the definitive union of Brugnato with Sarzana and of Noli (formerly governed by the bishop of Brugnato) with Savona, «in view of the small populations and the meagre revenues of the episcopal sees». This took place in December 1820, by decision of Pius VII. In 1822 Pius VII, by the bull of 20 February, made Massa, which was included in the diocese, a new suffragan bishopric of Modena, removing 109 parishes from L. A ministerial project of 1865 even aimed at suppressing the bishopric of Sarzana.
All'inizio del sec. XX, lo sviluppo della Spezia, in breve tempo assurta a grande città, impose un rimaneggiamento delle antiche circoscrizioni diocesane in Lunigiana. Nel 1923 La Spezia fu dichiarata capoluogo di provincia e, nel 1929, Pio XI con la cost. apost. Universi dominici gregis del 12 genn. 1929 (AAS, 21 [1929], pp. 144-46) riconobbe La Spezia legittima erede della sede vescovile di L., assegnandole la denominazione: «diocesi di L., ossia La Spezia, Sarzana e Brugnato». Alle tre città vengono riconosciuti i diritti di sedi vescovili, però sotto un unico Pastore ed un'unica Curia, stabilita definitivamente a La Spezia, la quale eredita tutti i privilegi di L. Primo vescovo-conte fu eletto mons. Giovanni Costantini, già amministratore apostolico e ideatore del concorso nazionale per il progetto della nuova cattedrale da dedicarsi a Cristo Re. - Vedi tav. CXVII.
finora ignorato, Lucca 1918: id., L'epitaffia di Leodegor vescovo di L. nel sec. VIII, in Giornale storico della Lunigiana, 10 (1919), pp. 1-111; id., Iustus vescovo di L. e la sua epigrafe sepolcrale, ibid., 11 (1920), pp. 53-67; id., Il registro della Curia vescovile di Brugnato, ibid., 12 (1922) pp. 19-51, 81-102; G. Volpe, Lunigiana medievale, Firenze 1923; U. Formentini, I vescovi di L. nel periodo carolingio, in Giornale storico della Lunigiana, 13 (1923), p. 81 seg.; id., Leggende della «Maritima», in Giornale stor. e lett. della Liguria, nuova serie, 3 (1927), pp. 281-308; id., Introduzione alla storia ed all'archeologia cristiana di L., in Memorie dell'Accademia lunigianese di scienze G. Capellini, 9 (1928), pp. 3-37; id., L'abbazia di S. Salvatore di Linari e le sue strade, in Giornale stor. e lett. della Liguria, nuova serie, 9 (1933), pp. 16-20; id., Brugnato. Gli abati, i vescovi, i «vives», in Memorie dell'Accademia lunigianese di scienze G. Capellini, 20 (1939), pp. 3-47 (numero unico); id., Un nuovo vescovo nella serie dei primi vescovi di L., Pontremoli 1940; P. F. Ferro, Il monastero del Tinetto, La Spezia 1928; P. Rosso, Vita di mons. Giacinto Rossi O. P., vescovo di Sarzana, ivi 1940. Per la storia dell'arte: A. Neri, La cattedrale di Sarzana, Sarzana 1900; F. Podestà, Arte antica del duomo di Sarzana, Genova 1904; U. Mazzini, Il primitivo battistero di L., in Atti della R. acc. delle scienze di Torino, 54 (1918-19), pp. 381-90; U. Formentini, Arte francescana, monumenti e marmi gotici e Sarzana, La Spezia 1927; id., Intorno al duomo di Sarzana, in Giorn. stor. e lett. della Liguria, nuova serie, 3 (1927), pp. 43-47; id., La Spezia, il suo duomo, il suo blasone, La Spezia 1927; N. M. Conti, Chiese medievali a due navate in Lunigiana, in Memorie dell'Accademia lunigianese di scienze G. Capellini, 8 (1927), pp. 7-22; C. M. Richter, The Crucifix of Guglielmus at Sarzana, in The Burlington Magazine, 1927. Casimiro Bonfigli