MODIGLIANA, DIOCESE OF
Suffragan of Florence. It comprises 7 communes in the province of Forlì and one in the province of Florence. Population: 41,549, of whom 41,514 are Catholic; 83 parishes, 114 churches; 91 diocesan priests and 11 regular clergy; one seminary. Patron saint: St Stephen, pope and martyr.
Small town in the Marzeno valley, 18 km from Faenza and 33 km from Forlì, the chief town of the province. Many scholars see in it the *castrum Mutilum* mentioned by Livy (cf. *Historiae*, XXXI, 3; XXXIII, 12). It belongs to the territory of the Exarchate according to two charters in the Archiepiscopal Archive of Ravenna (a. 963, 967). From the first half of the 10th century until 1370 it was under the rule of the Counts Guidi. After a brief period of autonomy it passed to the Republic of Florence, following its political fortunes until the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. The pieve of St Stephen in M., first mentioned in a charter of the Archiepiscopal Archive of Ravenna (B. 322, 892), on account of its venerable antiquity and wide jurisdiction was always regarded as one of the most important centres for the spread of religious life in the upper Romagna. Ecclesiastically it was under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Faenza until 1850, when Pius IX, acceding to the wishes of Grand Duke Leopold II and the people of Modigliana, raised it to the status of a bishopric by the bull *Ex quo licet innumerato* of 7 July. The first bishop was Mgr M. Melini (1854–64).
Sacred buildings: in M. the pieve of St Stephen, now the cathedral, of ancient construction, rebuilt in 1500 and consecrated by Pope Julius II (1506), enlarged in 1660 when Pope Alexander VII raised it to the rank of an Insigne Collegiate Church. It was restored in 1872–95 and recently by Mgr Massimiliani. Beneath the choir is a graceful crypt called ‘of the Dead Christ’ with artistic wooden statues of the Passion. Adjoining the Duomo is the sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Cantone with a 15th-century fresco of the Blessed Virgin and fine paintings by S. Lega, a native of Modigliana. Churches of St Bernard, St Dominic and the monastery of the Augustinian nuns. In Marradi: archpriest church dedicated to St Lawrence the martyr. Church of St Reparata in Badia del Borgo, formerly belonging to the Vallombrosan Order, with panels attributed to the school of Ghirlandaio. St Barnabas in Gamogna, ancient hermitage inhabited by St Peter Damian, in Dovadola; sanctuary of Montepaolo, formerly the ancient hermitage of St Anthony of Padua. In Castrocaro: archpriest church, formerly conventual, of SS Francis and Nicholas with panels by Palmezzano and a processional cross of 1450. In S. Benedetto in Alpe (formerly Bifurcum): church of St Benedict, formerly an ancient Benedictine abbey, with visible remains of the ancient crypt.
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