NUSCO, DIOCESE OF
City and diocese in the province of Avellino. It comprises 8 communes, the most important of which are Bagnoli Irpino, Castelvetere 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 regular clergy; 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, though whether around 1048 or at the end of the century cannot be determined; it was a suffragan of Salerno. The first bishop was St. Amatus (997-1093), a native of Nusco, a most learned and pious man of patrician family, to whom, among other things, is attributed the credit for the establishment of the episcopal see with the favor of the Normans. Among his most notable works are the restoration of various churches, the construction of two new ones dedicated to St. Lawrence and to Our Lady of Fontignano, and the rebuilding of the Cathedral. Moreover, he is credited with uniting into a single center the inhabitants scattered in the nearby villages. Among other bishops are remembered: Roger II (1198), who adorned the Cathedral and gave more honorable burial to the city’s patron saint; Jannuccio 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 classical languages.
In 1818, Pius VII, with the apostolic letter *De ubitiori*, suppressed the diocese of Monte Marano, uniting it to Nusco.
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Little or nothing is known with certainty about the Cathedral dedicated to St. Amatus. It is certain that after various restorations, due to damage from earthquakes, it has lost all interest. Notable in the crypt is only a small Byzantine statue of Our Lady of Succor.