NUSCO, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the province of Avellino. It comprises 8 municipalities, of which the most important are: Bagnoli Irpino, Castelvetero di Calore and Montella. It has an area of 31,143 sq km. with a population of 38,810 inhabitants, of whom 38,700 are Catholics. It has 19 parishes served by 49 diocesan priests and 4 regulars; it has a seminary, one male religious community and 8 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 294).
The diocese was established in the 11th century, whether around 1048 or at the end of the century cannot be ascertained, as a suffragan of Salerno. The first bishop was St. Amatus (997-1093), a native of N., a most learned and pious man, of a patrician family, to whom it seems must be attributed, besides everything else, the merit of establishing the episcopal see, with the favor of the Normans. Among his most notable works must be remembered the restorations of various churches, the construction of two new ones dedicated to St. Lawrence and to the Madonna of Fontignano, and the rebuilding of the Cathedral. Moreover it was he who united into a single center the inhabitants scattered among the nearby villages. Among the other bishops are remembered: Roger II (1198), who adorned the Cathedral and gave a more honorable burial to the patron Saint of the city; Iannuccio Pascasio, a Franciscan, who was assigned by Pius II (1461) the abbey of Fontignano; P. P. Parisio (1538), later a cardinal, and F. Acudio (1639-41), a Greek, learned in the classical languages.
In 1818, Pius VII with the apostolic letter De utiliori suppressed the diocese of Monte Marano, uniting it to N.
MONUMENTS
Of the Cathedral dedicated to St. Amatus, little or nothing is known with certainty. It is certain that after the various restorations, due to the damage suffered from earthquakes, it has lost all interest. Noteworthy, in the crypt, is only a small Byzantine statue of the Virgin of Succor.