Melfi and Rapolla, Diocese of

MELFI AND RAPOLLA, DIOCESE OF. — Cities and dioceses in the province of Potenza, immediately subject to the Holy See. The union of the two sees took place on 16 May 1528. The diocese now has 51,000 inhabitants, of whom 50,380 are Catholics, with 41 churches, 36 diocesan priests and 2 religious priests, one seminary, and various religious institutes and houses. The present bishop (1951), Mons. Petroni, has held the see of Venosa united to it ad personam since 1 April 1935 (1951).

The importance of M. began with the occupation of Apulia by the Normans of the house of Hauteville, who built there a strong castle, a garrison for the conquests that gradually expanded at the expense of the Byzantines and the princes of Salerno, until they formed a county. They endured a siege there in 1061. According to a document of disputed authenticity, the archbishop of Canosa-Bari established the diocese of M. in August 1037. Not long afterward, a diocese was also erected at R., a mile from M.; near it, a monk named Vitale had founded a monastery toward the end of the 10th century. Pope Leo IX was at M. in 1050; Bishop Balduino of M. was present at the great reform Council held there by Nicholas II in 1059 and at the one held there by Alexander II in 1067 to reorganize the troubled ecclesiastical relations of the region. On 10 September 1089 Urban II held a third Council there. The bishop of M., who still appears subject to Canosa-Bari in Urban II’s bull of 9 October 1089, was made directly subject to the Holy See by Paschal II. Bishop Guglielmo was present at the Council held by this Pontiff at M. in November 1100. M. later became the scene of the struggle between the emperor Lothair II and Innocent II on the one hand, and Anacletus II and the Normans on the other, in May 1137.

There is information about Bishop Ruggero in the years 1153 and 1155, while it is known that Rodolfo took part in the Lateran Council of 1179, convoked by Alexander III. A bishop R. was deposed by Innocent III in 1215 for serious offenses. Among others, the following deserve mention: Blessed Alessandro da Santelpidio, a highly learned Augustinian Hermit (1325–28), author of treatises and commentaries; and Onofrio Fr. Sanseverino (1437), a Neapolitan, who took part in the Council held at Ferrara by Eugene IV (1438) and built a large convent for the Observant Friars Minor, demolished in 1812.
MONUMENTS. — Repeatedly devastated by earthquakes, M. was able to preserve very little of its monuments. Of the Cathedral, the bell tower still remains, square and set on a high base; in two inscriptions it preserves the name of its builder and the year of its erection: Nosto Remerio 1153, under Bishop Ruggero. In the upper part of the tower, the artist composed with red and black stones from the Vulture figures

mosaic figures of rampant lions beside the double windows, representing Norman heraldic emblems. Worthy of note are: the splayed portal of S. Maria la Nuova; two medallions depicting the Annunciation, the work of a late fourteenth-century artist, in the church of S. Agostino; and the ogival doorway of the church of S. Lucia. The church of S. Antonio (1523), situated on the hill to the east of the city, is also of interest; two Renaissance tombs and a rare fifteenth-century painting, perhaps from the Tuscan school, whose arrival there is unknown, are preserved there. In the surrounding area, the thirteenth-century Basilian chapel of S. Margherita is of exceptional interest. On its walls and vault there remain representations of the Redeemer enthroned, the Virgin and Child, Apostles and saints, and a remarkable depiction of Death in a scene full of vigor, extraordinarily unusual in Byzantine eremitic iconography.