MARSI, DIOCESE of. — In the province of L'Aquila, in Abruzzo. It extends through the region around Lake Fucino, now drained, over 16,281 sq. km.; it has a population of 125,000, of whom 124,700 are Catholics. It comprises 85 parishes, served by 105 diocesan priests and 28 religious; it has one seminary, 6 male and 30 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 265). The diocese includes 30 municipalities in the province of L'Aquila. Originally a suffragan diocese of Chieti, it later became immediately subject to the Holy See.
The name of the diocese is that of one of the most ancient peoples of central Italy. A late passio (BHL, 7789) places in this region the martyrdom of SS. Simplicius, Constantius, and Victorianus, entirely unknown to the ancient documents. Lanzoni (I, pp. 364–65) believes that the bishop Vaticanus who signed the acts of the Synod of 501 was bishop of the M., probably residing at Caelena, near Fucino. An Ioannes Marsicanus accompanied Pope Vigilius to Constantinople in 551 (Jaffé-Wattenbach, nos. 930, 935). St. Gregory relates that the Lombards placed monks and deacons in the land of the M. (Dialogi, IV, 21 and 23). But it was only the bulls of Paschal II (1114) and Clement III (1118) that established the boundaries of the diocese.
The first episcopal see was at S. Benedetto, with S. Sabina as its cathedral, a church now destroyed but believed to have been erected on the ruins of the Capitol of the ancient city of Marruvium. Benedict IX had divided the diocese, but Stephen X (1057–58) reunited II. With the bull In suprema dignitatis of 1 January 1580, Gregory XIII transferred the see to Pescina, elevating the church of Madonna della Neve to cathedral rank; it took the name of S. Maria delle Grazie and was completed in 1596 by the bishop B. Peretti. The episcopal residence is in Avezzano. The patron of the diocese is St. Sabinian (29 August).
Among the bishops are remembered: St. Berard of the counts of M., later a cardinal under Paschal II; Nicola da Celano (1254); Bishop Jacopo (1276); Angelo Maccapani (1445); Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi (1533); Matteo Colli, who transferred the see to Pescina (1596); G. Paolo Caccia (1648); D. Pietra, who restored the Seminary of Pescina (1664); F. Corradi (1680); and N. De Vecchi (1719).
The diocese experienced a flourishing development of sacred buildings, unfortunately in part completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1915. At Alba Fucense, a city of the Aequi, the ambo in the Romanesque church of S. Pietro, the work of the Roman marble sculptors Giovanni and Andrea, is noteworthy. At Luco dei M., the Romanesque church of S. Maria delle Grazie, rebuilt in the 13th century over the temple of the goddess Angitia. At Magliani dei M., ancient Malleanum, the church of S. Luca, by the masters Giovanni and Martino. It has a 15th-century ogival façade with 15th-century Cistercian-type portals, four 13th-century reliefs, and a 15th-century rose window; it was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1915. In the parish church of S. Maria di Loreto is a wooden statue of the Madonna and Child (15th century). At Ortucchio, the church of S. Orante (a monk who came from Calabria and died in 1431), formerly S. Maria (bull of Paschal II, 25 February 1115). At Rosciolo, S. Lucia in Valle Porcianeta is noteworthy, a Romanesque church dating from before 1080, with a polygonal apse from 1200, in three tiers of small columns, an iconostasis, a trefoil tabernacle, and an ambo with scenes of Jonah, the work of Roberto and Nicodemo of Guardiagrele. The church of S. Maria delle Grazie bears the date 1456 on its architrave; it has a 13th-century Romanesque portal and was restored in 1935. At Scurcola Marsicana are the remains of the church of S. Maria della Vittoria, erected by Charles of Anjou after the battle of Tagliacozzo in which he defeated Conradin of Swabia (23 August 1268). A polychrome olive-wood sculpture from the 13th century is noteworthy there. At Trasacco (Trans Aquas), the church of SS. Rufino and Cesidio has three aisles and a fourth added in 1618; it contains a wooden statue of S. Cesidio (1425), a Romanesque baptismal font in the treasury, and a processional Cross from the 15th century.