MATELICA, DIOCESE OF. — In the Marches. It was an episcopal see in the 5th century, since the names of the bishops Equizio (478), Basilio, and Fiorenzo are known; the latter was in Constantinople with Pope Vigilius in 551 (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 930). The complete lack of later information suggests that the bishopric may have been extinguished as a result of the Lombard invasions. It was restored in 1785 Fabriano (v.) «aeque principaliter». For statistical data V. FABRIANO.
Among the monasteries, mention should be made of the 13th-century female monastery of S. Maria Maddalena, now the convent and church of the Blessed Mattia. In 1655, a community of Oratorians from the Oratory of S. Filippo established itself in M., becoming a noted quietist cenacle led by Fr. Matteo Romiti of the same Congregation (1685; M. Petrocchi, Il quietismo italiano del Seicento, Rome 1948, p. 106).
The history of the city is linked with the Duchy of Spoleto at first, and in the 12th-century struggles between Empire and Church it suffered the devastations of Cristiano of Mainz (1715). Subsequently, it was under the lordship of the Ottoni, who were invested with it by Boniface IX in 1394, and it followed the later fortunes of the Papal States.