Policastro, Diocese of

POLICASTRO, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the province of Salerno; it has an area of 1,200 sq km with a population of 70,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 41 parishes served by 70 diocesan priests and 15 regulars; it has a seminary, 4 male religious communities and 23 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 321). It is a suffragan of Salerno; the Cathedral is dedicated to the B.V.M. Assumed.

History. - It is held that P. inherited the episcopal see from ancient Bussento (Buxentum), destroyed by invasions and Saracen raids; only a few prefer to identify ancient Buxentum with Pisciotta in the Valley of Novi. The first known prelate of Buxentum is Rusticus, present at the Roman Council of 501; then a N., on whose death (592) Gregory the Great writes to Felix, bishop of Acropolis, to visit Bussento together with Velia and Blanda, in order to restore some order there, reestablish worship there and provide for the gaps in the clergy with new ordinations (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1195). The concern that shines through the letter is a sign of a grave situation, to which incursions and plundering of every kind, so frequent in that period, were perhaps not extraneous. The second known bishop is Sabbatius, who subscribes himself "episcopus buxentinus" in 649 at the Lateran Council. After this prelate the name of Buxentum disappears from history.

With the Byzantine conquest, the Greek rite must have been introduced among the populations of this region, as the Greek communities of Rivello and the collegiate churches of S. Maria del Poggio and of S. Nicolò, belonging to the diocese, attest. The birth and development of P. must have occurred after the year 1000. From its origin, it was a stronghold of the Latin rite and sought by every means to supplant the other. The appointment of Pietro Pappacarboni to the bishopric of P. in 1079 is meant to be at once a continuity and a restoration of the Bussentine dignity and marks the beginning of the series of prelates of the city. The life and virtues of this first bishop, a Salernitan patrician, who in the same year abandoned the see to retire to his cenobium of Cava, were so singular as to raise him to the honors of the altars. The successor, Arnaldo, known from a document of 1110, has left no other memory of himself, in the same way as all the other prelates, until that N., archpriest of Saponaria de' Marsi, for his election; nominated by the Chapter and confirmed in 1211 by Pope Innocent III, he replaced, following the papal annulment of the appointment, Giacomo, physician of Frederick II. Another contested election occurred at the death of Guglielmo de Licio, elected in 1222, when the archpriest chosen by the Chapter found himself replaced by N., imposed in 1237 by Gregory IX. With Giovanni Castellomata of Salerno the continuous series of bishops opens without further disputes, he himself having been confirmed in 1254 by Innocent IV. Of the successors are remembered: Pagano, remembered in two Angevin documents of 1294; Gabriele Attilio, an expert Latinist, poet and tutor of King Ferdinand of Naples (1471); Girolamo Almena (1485), a Dominican of Naples, created ambassador of the Kingdom to Alexander VI; Filippo Spinelli (1603-1605), a Neapolitan patrician, formerly nuncio in Vienna to Emperor Rudolf II, created cardinal while he was still bishop of P.; Filippo Giacobbi of Messina (1652), restorer of the episcopium, and Vincenzo de Sylva, a Dominican (1671), who strenuously defended the possessions of Torre Orsaia against Fabrizio Carafa and even launched the interdict against him, revoked by his successor Tommaso de Rosa (1679), a benefactor restorer of the Cathedral.

Monuments. - The only one of note is the Cathedral, built in 1177, but largely rebuilt at the end of the 17th century, which presents no interest. To be noted, in the diocese, are the two ancient churches of S. Maria Greca and S. Maria dei Martiri at Roccagloriosa and the parish church of Maratea superiore with the chapel of St. Blaise, containing relics of the saint of the same name and a ciborium of 1518.

Pasquale Testini