MASSA MARITTIMA, DIOCESE OF. - Diocese and city in Tuscany. A suffragan of the archdiocese of Siena, in the Tuscan region, it extends along the Tyrrhenian coast from Follonica to the Forte di Bolgheri, touching inland the hills of Monteverdi, dominated by the ruined abbey of Palazzuolo, and the Cornate di Gerfalco, and it includes the islands of Elba, Pianosa and Montecristo.
Until the second half of the 1700s the island of Capraia was also part of it. It has 110,000 inhabitants, of whom 109,800 are Catholics, distributed in 33 parishes, with 40 secular priests and 10 regulars; 155 religious sisters of active life. Five orphanages, 2 elementary schools, 30 nursery schools depend on the ecclesiastical authority. There is a minor seminary. The territory of the diocese is included in the provincial districts: of Pisa for the commune of Monteverdi with two parishes, of Grosseto for the two communes of M. M. and Follonica with four parishes, of Livorno for 14 communes with 27 parishes, of which 14 are on the island of Elba.
The diocese of M.M., at first dependent directly on the Holy See, was made a suffragan of Pisa by a bull of 22 Apr. 1138 of Pope Innocent II and subsequently of Siena by a bull of Pius II of 1 May 1495.
The bishops resided until the 9th century at Populonia and afterwards at M. M., where in the 12th and 13th centuries they enjoyed authority and the title of princes. The first whose name is known is Asellus, who in 501 subscribed the acts of the Roman Council under Pope Symmachus.
The titular of the Cathedral and patron of the city and of the diocese is St. Cerbonius or Cerbone, bishop of Populonia, condemned by Totila to be torn apart by bears in 546-47 (St. Gregory, Dial., I, 15; II, 34-35; his life [BHL, 1728-29] depends on that of St. Regulus, which is of the 7th or 8th century [BHL 7102]). Also worthy of particular remembrance are: St. Florentius (d. in 545); Paul, elected bishop of Populonia in 846 and sent as pontifical legate first to Sardinia and then, with Formosus, to the Bulgarians; Albert II, who was bishop until 1230 and composed the first mining code entitled Ordinamenta super artem fossarum ramariae et argentariae civitatis Massae; Antonio I da Riparia, bishop of Massa in 1364 and then sent by the pope to the Dauphiné to repress the Waldensian heresy; John VII, bishop in 1391, a learned jurist, who was entrusted with the task of settling in Poland the dispute between King Wladyslaw and the Teutonic Knights; Leonardo Dati, bishop in 1467, an illustrious man of letters and poet; Ventura Bufalini, who took part in the last phase of the Council of Trent and on his return began the construction of a building as the seat of the Seminary; Alessandro II Petrucci, bishop in 1602, who restored the Cathedral, erected the episcopal palace from its foundations, and founded the monastery of the Poor Clares of Piombino; Giuseppe Maria Traversi (d. in 1872), who, first in Tuscany, established a mutual aid society among the rural workers. Among the saints and blesseds born or who lived in the diocese, mention should be made of: St. Walfred, founder and first abbot of the monastery of Palazzuolo near Monteverdi, d. in 764; St. Guido della Gherardesca, count of Donoratico, who lived as a hermit in the wood near his castle, where he built a chapel dedicated to St. Mary Assumed, and died around 1134. Above all excels St. Bernardino degli Albizzeschi, known as St. Bernardino da Siena (v.: 1380-1444). Among the blesseds of the various religious Orders are to be mentioned the Franciscans Bl. Ambrose (d. in 1239), Bl. James (d. in 1366), Bl. Bernard (d. in 1241), and the Augustinian Felice Tancredi, a disciple of St. Catherine of Siena and author of a short poem in verse on the infancy of Jesus.
The seat of the diocese, M. M., is a characteristic medieval town, which preserves its walls almost intact, and numbers distinguished monuments, such as the Cathedral in Romanesque style, built in the 13th century as a token of gratitude of the free Commune of Massa to the bishop-prince who had renounced his feudal rights; among its works of art are the baptismal font, carved in local travertine in 1265 by the Comacine Masters, and the marble ark for the relics of St. Cerbonius, a masterpiece of the Sienese Goro di Gregorio (1324). Other monuments: the Palazzo comunale and the Palazzo pretorio from the 13th century. Besides M. M., the major centers of the diocese are: Piombino, seat of a principality until the beginning of the 19th century and now the most populous city of the diocese, and Portoferraio on the Island of Elba. The population, devoted predominantly to agriculture, to the mining and steel industry, has tripled since the last century, chiefly as a result of the reclamation of the Maremma and of industrial development. - See plate XXIV.
