PARMA, DIOCESE OF. - A city 49 m. above sea level, crossed by the river of the same name, not far from the right bank of the Po.
It has an area of 2,100 sq. km., with a population of 300,000 inhabitants, of whom 299,000 are Catholics distributed in 310 parishes served by 356 diocesan priests and 125 regular clergy; it has 14 male and 74 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 311).
First ruled by the Etruscans, then by the Celts, it became a Roman colony in 183 B.C., enrolled in the Pollia tribe. Once a marsh and forest, it was reclaimed by M. Aemilius Scaurus in 115 B.C. and flourished through the wool industry; the Via Aemilia linked it with the other cities of the region.
According to ancient legends, the evangelization is attributed to St. Apollinaris, St. Barnabas, and even St. Lucian of Beauvais; the only plausible supposition is that it originated from Milan. A bishop named Urbanus, present at the Council of Rimini in 359, may be the same as the bishop of Parma condemned in 372, who was still in office in 378 (Lanzoni, II, p. 807). In the first half of the 5th century, when Ravenna was constituted as a metropolitan see, Parma fell within its jurisdiction; but it was then in a period of decline. Having fallen into the struggles between Byzantines and Lombards at the beginning of the 7th century (Hist. Langob., III, 8; IV, 28), Brescello (v.), Parma was enlarged with its territory. But its bishop Grazioso did not reappear until the Council of Pope Agatho in 680. Capital of a county under Charlemagne, it subsequently passed under the rule of the Supponid, Bernarding, and Arduinic houses; meanwhile, its bishops grew in political importance, Vigibodus corresponded with John VIII, who entrusted him with negotiations with King Carloman, and is designated as consiliarius in a document of Charles the Fat of March 880; adhering to King Guy, of whom he was archchaplain, he is later found with Emperor Lambert in July 898. Elbungo, chancellor of Kings Guy and Lambert, was present at a Council in Rome in February 901 under Emperor Louis III. Aicardus, dilectus fidelis of Emperor Berengar I, obtained from him confirmations for himself and his canons in 920-21, and from King Rudolph, of whom he was auricularius summus fidelis, donations in 924 and 924, and from King Hugh confirmations.
The city was the scene of the murder of Pier Luigi Farnese. Moreover, Paul III himself had held the episcopal see of Parma since 1500 and transmitted it to his nephew Alessandro, who renounced it in 1535 in favor of the cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza di Santafiora; it passed in 1560 to Alessandro Sforza (created cardinal in 1565), then in 1575 to Ferrante Farnese.
With the extinction of the Farnese line through Elisabeth, who became the wife of Philip V of Spain, the duchy passed to the Bourbons; until in 1806 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy and Parma became the capital of the Taro department. The duchy was reconstituted in 1815 in favor of Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon’s second wife, and returned to the Bourbons from 1847 to 1859, when it became part of the Kingdom of Italy.
A distinguished bishop in the early 19th century was the Capuchin Adeodatus Turchi, while in more recent times Guido Conforti (v.) was notable as a preacher in the Parma region.
The diocese, which in 1583 Gregory XIII had subjected to the metropolitan see of Bologna, which he himself had erected, passed in 1875 under the direct jurisdiction of the Holy See.
The cathedral of Parma stood within the ancient city and as early as the 9th century it is found dedicated to the Virgin and served by a Chapter of canons to whom Bishop Vigibodus obtained donations from King Carloman on 29 December 877; rebuilt in 923, it suffered a fire together with the city in 1058. The complete reconstruction in ashlar stone, with three naves, matroneum, transept, crypt, and dome, is due to Bishop Cadalus; a magnificent Romanesque monument, at the beginning of the 16ACCORSO DA REGGIO (v.) decorated its dome with the Assumption of the Virgin, and the pendentives with images of saints; in the same century, the walls and vaults were adorned with paintings by Girolamo Mazzola and his son Alessandro, Michelangelo Amelio, Orazio Sammachini, Lattanzio Gambara, Francesco Testi, and Pomponio Allegri. In the square in front stands the tower begun in 1284, the octagonal baptistery begun in 1196, entirely in Antelami (v.), and the episcopal palace recently restored to its original 13th-century appearance.
Alongside the churches that arose in the medieval age, in the 16th century there arose the sumptuous sanctuary of S. Maria della Steccata, in the shape of a Greek cross surmounted by a dome, with paintings by good artists; in the crypt it preserves the tombs of the Farnese, the Bourbons who governed Parma, and their relatives. In 1566 Ottavio Farnese began the elliptical church of the Annunciata, which was completed only in 1692; the adjacent convent was entrusted to the Friars Minor.
For the collegiate church of Borgo S. Donnino, governed by an archpriest, which soon became exempt V. FIDENZA.
As in the other dioceses of Emilia, monasticism developed widely in the diocese of Parma. In the immediate suburb there arose the Benedictine monastery of S. Giovanni Evangelista, founded by Bishop Sigifred II at the instigation of Abbot Maiolus in 983; it obtained a diploma from Emperor Conrad II in 1037 and privileges from Paschal II, Innocent II, Lucius II. It had under its jurisdiction the monasteries of S. Bartolomeo in Pistoia and S. Salvatore in Fonte Taone. On 17 July 1477 it entered the Congregation of S. Giustina, and to the munificence of those abbots goes the credit for having summoned Correggio to fresco the dome of their rebuilt church. The monks were expelled during the suppression of 1810 and reestablished in 1816, they participated in the uprisings of 1848, were again expelled in 1849, readmitted in 1852 through the efforts of Abbot Casaretto.
To the same Bishop Sigifred is due the foundation in 985 of the monastery of the Benedictine nuns of S. Paolo; it obtained privileges from Otto IV (1210) and Frederick II (1216). Correggio frescoed its celebrated hall at the request of the abbess. The monastery of the Benedictine nuns of S. Alessandro was founded in the 9th century by Cunegunda, widow of Bernard, the unfortunate king of Italy; it had under its jurisdiction the monasteries of S. Bartolomeo in Parma and S. Tom
for its church in September 926. Sigifred, his successor, chancellor of King Hugh and his fidelis and consiliorius in 926, obtained concessions for Borgo S. Donnino in 928; Adeodatus, who appeared around 946, was present on 7 August 952 at the Diet of Augsburg, where Berengar II acknowledged
maso near Reggio; it paid census to the Apostolic See to which it swore an oath. Innocent VIII subjected it to the Abbey of S. Giovanni Evangelista on 27 May 1486.
Brescello (v.), after the suppression of the bishopric, through the efforts of the marquises of Tuscany there arose the Benedictine monastery of S. Genesio, which paid census to the Roman Church; the monks claimed to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Parma. It was given in commendam in 1409. The monastery of S. Maria at Castione de’ Marchesi was founded in 1033 by Marquis Adalbert and his wife Adelaide and remained under the patronage of the Pallavicini marquises. In 1143 it passed under the Apostolic See to which it paid census; given in commendam, it was held by the Olivetans in 1487.
Bishop Lanfranc of Parma founded in 1142 the abbey of S. Maria di Fontevivo, entrusting it to the Cistercian monks whom he called from the Abbey of La Colomba. In 1518 it passed under the jurisdiction of the monastery of S. Paolo in Rome; then in 1605 it came under the dominion of the Farnese.
P., which for a time hosted and had as archdeacon of its cathedral Francesco Petrarca, did not lack schools that occasionally bore the name of university, until Duke Ranuccio I in the 17th century granted them special privileges. Better university organization was Du Tillot (v.) during his reforms (1768). At this moment, G. B. Bodoni (v.) established his famous printing house in P., and following the footsteps of the monk Benedetto Bacchini, the Conventual Ireneo Affò conducted his historical studies. The University, closed due to the political events of 1831, after some controversy reopened in 1854; it is now limited to the Faculties of Law and Medicine.
The State Archive possesses a part of the Farnese Papers, while the greater part passed to Naples with Charles of Bourbon. The Deputazione di Storia patria rendered meritorious service through good publications, also thanks to an excellent library. — See pl. LXX.