NOVARA, DIOCESE OF. – A city, the capital of the homonymous province and diocese. The diocese extends from the lower Novarese region to the main chain of the Alps. To the east it is bordered by Lake Maggiore and the Ticino River, to the west by the Sesia River and a spur of Monte Rosa, and to the south by the provincial boundary and the territory of the
NOVARA, DIOCESE OF – Panorama of the city.
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NOVARA, DIOCESE OF – St. Agatius. Sculpture by Ignazio and Filippo Collino (18th cent.) – Novara, Cathedral.
Monferrato; in 1556–1602 it belonged to the Farnese of Parma, and by the Treaty of Vienna in 1738 it passed to the House of Savoy.
Because of its strategic position, Novara has been the scene of important battles. In April 1500, Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, was preparing to besiege the Trivulzio, whom the King of France had appointed governor; but abandoned by his Swiss troops, he was taken prisoner. On 6 June 1513, the Swiss in the service of the King of Spain drove out the French; on 10 April 1812, troops who had rebelled against King Charles Felix were dispersed here; and on 23 March 1849, Radetzky inflicted a defeat on the Piedmontese that forced King Charles Albert to abdicate.
II. MONUMENTS
Little remains today of the ancient monuments with which the city was once rich. Among them is the Baptistery, octagonal in plan, probably rebuilt in the 10th century on a 5th-century plan.The old Romanesque cathedral, consecrated in 1132 by Innocent II, already much restored, enlarged, and patched up so as to recall little of its original lines, was demolished in 1865 to make way for the Tempio Antonelliano, opened to the public and consecrated by Bishop Mons. Gentile on 2 October 1869. The building is striking for the grand porticoes that rise beside and in front of it, for the various superimposed colonnades, for the vastness of its proportions, and for the beauty of its classical forms. The interior is basilican in form, with three naves divided by Corinthian columns 19 m high. It contains nine altars: the high altar and eight side altars, in which are admired paintings and altarpieces from the old cathedral, including The Marriage of St. Catherine by G. Ferrari, Our Lord on the Cross with St. Gaudensius, St. Benedict, and the Magdalene by Bernardino Lanino, and the fresco of the Madonna of Graces by Bernardino Campi. Other precious remnants of the ancient basilica are the museum of the presbytery pavement, believed to date from the 9th century, the oratory of St. Syrus with 12th-century frescoes, and the frescoes by Lanino transferred to the walls of the lower sacristy. The Chapter Library ranks among the richest in Piedmont for its manuscripts: it possesses 144 codices, a collection of sacred canons by the grammarian Stephen, a guide to Rome from 1399, and precious incunabula.
The basilica of St. Gaudensius, rebuilt in stages between 1577 and 1659 to a design by Pellegrini, is flanked by the handsome bell tower erected in 1753–86 by Benedetto Alfieri and surmounted by the daring dome by Antonelli, executed between 1844 and 1888, which gives a distinctive character to the city’s skyline. Inside, on the Baroque altars are noted a *politico* by G. Ferrari from 1514, the Deposition from the Cross by Moncalvo, and frescoes by Morazzone and Stefano Legnani. Splendid and rich in marbles and fine works is the “scurolo,” begun in 1674, where, in an octagonal urn of worked silver and Venetian crystal, rests St. Gaudensius (v.), patron of the city and diocese.
Among other churches of Novara are to be recalled that of All Saints, with Romanesque remains; the 15th-century churches of St. Martin and St. Nazarius, the latter restored in 1929–32 and containing 15th-century frescoes; the Baroque churches of St. Mark (1607), with frescoes by Moncalvo and a canvas (Martyrdom of St. Mark) by Crespi, and St. Peter at the Rosary, with a Madonna by Procaccini and frescoes by the Fiammenghini.
III. SHRINES
The Sacro Monte of Varallo is the most renowned of the Novarese shrines; founded in 1491 by the noble Milanese Bl. Bernardino Caimo of the Observant Friars Minor. The complex of architectural buildings, designed by Pellegrino Tibaldi and Galeazzo Alessi, comprises 46 chapels, a basilica, a secondary church, four grand buildings (one used as a hostel and three as hospices for pilgrims), and a cloister for the Oblate Fathers who attend to spiritual care. Within the chapels are reproduced in statues and paintings the most important events in the life of Jesus Christ. The finest artists of the time worked here: suffice it to recall Maestro Frate Francesco, G. Ferrari, F. Stella, G. Wespin, and the Valsesian artists G. D’Enrico, G. Ferro, B. Ravelli, G. Bargnola, D. Bussola, G. Volpini, C. Tandardini, L. Marchesi, A. D’Enrico, Gianoli, Orgiazzi, Avondo, Borsetti, Gilardi, Reffo, etc.The shrine of the Most Holy Crucifix of Boca owes its origin to a fresco painted on a rough pillar depicting a Crucifix flanked by an angel collecting the blood flowing from the side, long venerated since the mid-17th century. The traveler G. B. Curioni of Gallarate, delivered from an ambush nearby, attributed his salvation to the invocation of the Crucifix and made the first substantial offering that gave rise to the shrine. The present grand temple is by the architect A. Antonelli.
The church of the Most Holy Pietà of Cannobio is a national monument and was designed by order of St. Charles Borromeo by Pellegrino Pellegrini. The façade is in red granite from Baveno; the interior is rich in gold and stucco with paintings by fine 17th-century artists. In place of the tabernacle, in the position it occupied in 1522, is the miraculous little picture depicting the Pietà. St. Charles Borromeo enriched this shrine with many privileges, visited it several times, and on 31 October 1584 celebrated his penultimate Mass there.
The shrine of the Madonna of Blood at Re, in the Val Vigezzo, also originated from a miraculous event, namely the blood that flowed from the forehead of the Madonna, painted with the Child in her arms on the façade of the church of St. Maurice, after a stone was thrown at her forehead on the evening of 29 April 1500 by one Giovanni Zuccone, who had left an inn in a rage after losing at gambling. The event was repeated on the night of 19 May before a large crowd of people praying by the light of numerous candles, and the blood began to flow so copiously that it ran down to the ground and soaked various cloths that are jealously preserved in the shrine, as attested by written testimonies from the valley’s podestà Daniele De Crispi and the noble Angelo Romano. Before the miraculous image, a wooden altar was immediately erected; then the old church of St. Maurice was extended so that the portico came to lie at the center of the new construction (1595). But as the fame of the shrine and the number of Italian and Swiss pilgrims grew, it became necessary to erect a new temple, whose construction is underway. The design, in Gothic style, is by the architect Edoardo Collamarini.
Novara, diocese of – St. Agatius. Sculpture by Ignazio and Filippo Collino (18th cent.) – Novara, Cathedral.
The sanctuary of the Holy Mount of Orta was conceived by the community of the village to commemorate the principal events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi; however, it began in 1591 when Abbot Amico Canobio took up the construction of what would later become the 20th chapel. The bishop of Novara, the venerable Bescapé, gave impetus to the works of the Holy Mount, ordering a chapel at his own expense; other benefactors followed his example. By 1630, ten chapels had been completed, and in 1770 the twentieth was inaugurated. They stand in the most varied architectural forms of the 16th and 17th centuries amid the pine groves of the enchanting mountain that dominates the lake of the same name on three sides: they contain a good number of terracotta statues and have their walls frescoed by various painters, among whom are remembered G. C. Procaccini, Cantalupi, Nuvolone, Crespi, the Fiammenghini, and Morazzone.
The Madonna of Boden: on the mountain overlooking the village of Ornavasso, an image of the Virgin painted on the wall of a small chapel was venerated at the beginning of the 16th century; this was later transformed into a small church, enlarged in 1761, and in 1825 the side aisles were constructed. Now the sanctuary is connected to the town by a good carriage road and is a destination for numerous pilgrims.
Minor sanctuaries. — The diocese is rich in other sanctuaries, most of them dedicated to the Madonna. Among these are remembered: the Madonna of Varallino at Galliate, the Madonna of St. Cassian at Cameri, the Madonna of Loreto at Oleggio in the lower Novarese; the Madonna of the Rock at Boleto and the Madonna of Bocciola at Vacciago on Lake Orta; the Madonna of Graces at Montirone near Borgosesia and the Madonna of Callone at Camperto in Valsesia; St. Fermin at Crusinallo, the Madonna of Snow at Bannio, the Madonna of Life at Mozzo in the Ossola; St. Charles, on the mountain of the same name, at Arona, and the Madonna of Graces at Suna on Lake Maggiore.
IV. THE SAINTS
The first apostle of Novara was St. Laurence, priest and martyr, named in the diptychs of the Cathedral after Sts. Gaudentius and Agabius (sistorum magister et doctor egregius, sed non episcopus), who probably came from Vercelli, preached and baptized outside the city, and was killed by pagans along with some children who followed him. — The first bishop of Novara was St. Gaudentius (q.v.), succeeded by St. Agabius (d. 438?), who continued his work with great zeal and is buried in the Cathedral beneath the altar dedicated to him. The saints Julius and Julian, apostles of the upper Novarese and the Cusio, are said to have been two brothers, one a priest and the other a deacon, who destroyed many pagan altars and temples and erected many churches, among which the 90th was that built at Gozzano in honor of St. Laurence, where Julian was buried, and the 100th was that built on the island of Lake Orta by Julius, who was buried there with the bodies of St. Elia, bishop of Sion, St. Audentius, the martyr Demetrius, St. Filibert abbot, and St. Adalgisus (q.v.), the 32nd bishop of Novara. The blessed Panacea, a girl of fifteen, killed by her stepmother (10 May 1383) and venerated at Ghemme; the blessed Pacificus of Cerano, of the Friars Minor Observant (d. at Sassari in 1482), at Cerano. Also worthy of mention is the blessed Catherine of Pallanza (1437–38), who lived an eremitical life on the Holy Mount at Varese; her body rests beside that of the blessed Juliana in the small temple adjoining the Basilica.V. THE BISHOPS
The diocese of Novara is, as Father Savio affirms, the only one in Piedmont to possess a precise list of its bishops, recorded in the precious ivory diptychs of the Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Gaudentius. The diptych of the Cathedral, 33 cm high and 27 cm wide, was written by a certain Airaudo, subdeacon, and lists the bishops of Novara from St. Gaudentius to Boniface (1172). That of St. Gaudentius measures 32 cm in height and 22 cm in width and contains the list of bishops of Novara up to Guglielmo Amidano (1343).From St. Gaudentius to the present day, 117 bishops have governed the diocese of Novara: three of them, Gaudentius, Agabius, and Adalgisus, are crowned with the halo of sanctity; two, Peter Filargo (Alexander V) and Benedict Odescalchi (Innocent XI), ascended to the glories of the Roman pontificate, and fourteen were granted the cardinal’s hat.