MANFREDONIA, DIOCESE OF
Manfredonia is a city and archdiocese in the province of Foggia (Italy).
It has a population of 112,040 inhabitants, of whom 111,903 are Catholic, 16 parishes, 76 diocesan priests and 17 regular priests, one seminary, 4 male religious communities, and 14 female religious communities (Annuario Pont., 1951, p. 262).
### 1. HISTORY
Manfredonia was founded in 1256 by Manfredi after the ancient Siponto had been reduced to ruins, destroyed by a Saracen attack and an earthquake. When the diocese was transferred, it inherited not only the glories but also all the privileges of the former see. The origins of the Sipontine see are lost in legend. The first bishop historically attested is a certain Felix, who attended the Roman Council of 465. The second, Laurence, appears in two later Lives, one of which, written by an anonymous author, contains data not always reliable; the other, much manipulated in the 11th century, confuses facts and episodes unjustified before the Byzantine domination. Laurence’s episcopate is to be placed between the 5th and 6th centuries; he is connected with the consecration of the famous Garganic sanctuary of St Michael the Archangel, which achieved great fame in the Middle Ages. The third bishop is another Felix (not two, as Ughelli claims), attested between 591 and 593 (Jaffé-Wattenbach, nos. 1121, 1245, 1246, 1247, 1288). He was followed by Vitalian (597–99; ibid., 1495, 1496, 1638, 1791) and Ruffinus, who took part in the Lateran Council of Martin I (649). At this time Siponto entered a tragic period of devastation by Slavs, Saracens, and Lombards, which scattered the population and led to the see being entrusted to Benevento. Only in the early years after the year 1000 did Siponto regain independence under Pope Benedict VIII, who raised the see to metropolitan status with several suffragan dioceses. The first titular archbishop, Leo (1034), established his seat at Monte Gargano, but he remained the only one. Disputes over religious privileges between Siponto and Monte Gargano, and the continued subjection of the Sipontine see to Benevento, as desired by Leo IX, caused a state of uncertainty until 1066, when Alexander II definitively separated the churches, appointing Gerard I, a learned German monk of the Benedictine Order, as archbishop of Siponto. Subsequently Siponto acquired further privileges: Paschal II subjected Vieste to the Sipontine church, Eugenius III that of Monte Gargano, and in 1200 Innocent III confirmed both privileges.
It was Archbishop Roger who witnessed the decline of Siponto and the birth of Manfredonia: solemnly entering the city with his clergy in 1258, he confirmed the continuity of the Sipontine church while simultaneously inaugurating the series of prelates of Manfredonia. The church of this city, long agitated by ancient controversies and repeatedly shaken by the winds of schism, has left painful episodes in the history of its episcopate. Yet Manfredonia has often been linked with the noblest figures among the princes of the Church.
### Monuments
Siponto was the mother city of Manfredonia; among its ruins the most important monuments are still preserved. In a deserted plain stands the famous church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Romanesque-Byzantine style, with a square plan, low dome, and lateral apses. It consists of two superimposed churches, which would appear to be two distinct constructions, since the upper one, consecrated by Paschal II in 1117, was completed when the lower one was already buried and ruined by the tastes of the time and cultural movements. In any case, its chief merit lies not only in its form but also in its rich decoration, which draws on Byzantine types, imbued with that sense of classical balance that informs almost everywhere the masterpieces of medieval Apulian art. About a mile from the ruins of Siponto stands the church of San Leonardo, which closely recalls the Apulian cathedrals with multiple domes. Square in plan, with strong ogival arches resting on robust pillars, it still retains much of its structure despite the abandonment and mutilations suffered from attached buildings. Of Manfredonia itself little of note remains to be mentioned, except for the 13th-century cathedral, which, however, has almost entirely lost its original form in modern reconstruction.