NORCIA. – City and diocese in the province of Perugia (Umbria). It comprises 8 municipalities, 3 of which are in the province of Macerata (Castel S. Angelo, Ussita and Visso).
It extends over more than 110 sq. km. and has a population of 28,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 102 parishes served by 85 diocesan priests and 11 religious priests; it has one seminary, 3 male and 16 female religious communities.
A very ancient Sabine city; a Roman municipium from 292 B.C.; birthplace of the Flavii Vespasii, the Flavii Anicii and Sertorius. It was disputed by the Goths, Byzantines, Lombards and Franks and sacked by the Saracens; given by Otto I to John XII in 962, it became a republic in the period of the Communes and suffered the struggles between the Guelfs and Ghibellines; later the popes entrusted the government of the city to prelates who assumed the office of prefect. In 1798 it was incorporated into the department of Trasimeno; from 1809 to 1814 it belonged to the prefecture of Spoleto; it returned to papal rule from 1814 to 1860, when it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.
The first bishop was St. Stephen (ca. 495); from the 9th century it was annexed to the diocese of Spoleto, but it was re-established in 1820 by Pius VII, and the first bishop was Mgr. C. Bonano. It is immediately subject to the Holy See. The bishop holds the title of perpetual commendatory abbot of S. Eutizio.
The Cathedral, also called « S. Maria argentea », stands on the remains of a Romanesque building; it was rebuilt in the 13th century and destroyed by the earthquake of 1328; the side portal dates from the 14th century. It was rebuilt in 1560 and again in the 18th century. The bell tower, demolished in the 18th century, was reconstructed in 1859. The interior has three naves. The episcopal palace was established in the ancient monastery attached to the church, which on its right-hand side has the portico known as that of the Merchants, with the old measures for cereals.
The church of S. Benedetto, which tradition asserts was erected on the patrician house of Eupropius, father of ss. Benedetto and Scolastica, was built in the 6th century and belonged to the Benedictines of the abbey of S. Eutizio until 1280, when the abbot ceded it to the Friars Minor. Because of the disputes that arose, Pope Celestine V in 1294 declared it immediately subject to the Holy See. In 1344 Clement VI placed it under the authority of a monastery in Sulmona; in 1369 Urban V transferred it to Subiaco; in 1389 Boniface IX made it autonomous. The crypt is mentioned in the 9th century by the monk Adrevaldo of Fleury; it was modified in 1880 and subsequently decorated (1910) by the Benedictine school of Bruron.
The « Castellina » was built at the behest of Pope Julius III, « a laude della gloria di Dio, alla conservazione dello stato ecclesiastico, alla esaltazione dei buoni, alla confusione e perpetua disperazione dei tristi »; this is read on one of the plaques of the corner towers. The fortress built by Vignola is remarkable; it stands on the site where the temple of Fortuna Argentea is believed to have stood, later transformed into a church and demolished in 1554 to make way for the new building. State offices and the magistrate’s court are now housed there. In the 14th century the Municipality enclosed the city with high walls; it was divided into eight districts.
The Municipal Palace was built in the 13th century; from that period there remains the portico with polygonal columns leading to the notarial archive. In the Hall of the forty guardians of the peace there is a Latin funerary inscription of the Roman Sefius, plebeian aedile of the 3rd century B.C. The Council chamber, also called « Sertoriana », leads to the Secret Archive, which possesses documents from the beginning of the 13th century. A precious reliquary of s. Benedetto (1450) is preserved in the Mayor’s office.
Enrico Josi
THE ABBEY OF S. EUTIZIO. — In Valcastoriana near N. Its origins date back to the 5th century; S. Gregorio Magno celebrates in the Dialogues the glorious deeds of S. Spes, S. Eutizio, and S. Florenzo, who were the first to practice the ascetic life there, attracted numerous imitators and disciples to their following, and soon saw the entire surrounding region populated by monasteries and hermitages, which gained great fame for holiness.
