MONTE MARANO. – An ancient diocese in the province of Benevento, of which it was a suffragan; today it is a village at 824 m. in the province of Avellino. The inhabited area was almost destroyed in 1138 by Roger the Norman.
The diocese was established by Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), and its first bishop was the Benedictine monk St. JOHN. Among the other bishops remembered are: JOHN, who attended the Third Lateran Council (1179); BARBATO, transferred to Drogonara in 1345; the Franciscans M. TRANISCO (1346), G. CASTELLA (1365), A. DE SENI (1477), S. DE DAVIDICI (1484), A. BONITO (1484); then G. ISOPO, who consecrated the cathedral (1494); A. G. RODRIGUEZ, a Franciscan, who participated in the Council of Trent; S. BROCATI (1596), M. A. GENOVESI (1603), F. A. PORPORA (1636), U. ZAMBOTTO (1640), G. BATTAGLIA, formerly parish priest in Rome (1658), C. LABONI, who restored the cathedral (1670–1720), I. SANSEVERINO (1746), O. M. GINNARI (1774). Pius VII suppressed the diocese with the letter *De uiliori* in 1818, uniting it with that of Nusco.
The ancient cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed, has three naves, and in the crypt is buried the first bishop, St. JOHN.