POTENZA AND MARSICO NUOVO, DIOCESE OF. – P. is the capital of Basilicata: the Cathedral is under the invocation of s. Gerardo, suffragan of Acerenza and Matera.
It has a population of 87,050 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, distributed among 25 parishes, served by 67 diocesan and 24 regular priests; it has a seminary, 6 male and 22 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 327).
I. HISTORY
In the laterculus of the Hieronymian Martyrology for 27 August, four martyrs are mentioned: Felix, Arontius, Sabinianus, and Honoratus, whose relics, according to a late legend (BHL, cols. 2297–2302), were supposedly transferred in the eighth century by Duke Arechis II to Benevento. The same legend, however, regards them as African rather than Potentian martyrs; nor are there any grounds for refuting II.Another tradition (Acta SS. Augusti, V, Paris 1868, p. 813) celebrates the martyrdom of a Carthaginian bishop named Gennaro, who was supposedly beheaded together with his deacons Felix and Honoratus in an imprecisely identified place near P., on 26 August. Their relics—according to the account, at any rate—were discovered after a long interval by the Marsican bishop Grimaldo, following the indication of a pious woman named Susanna, and placed in the little church of the religious of S. Stefano, where they were later found. It was easy for Lanzoni (I, p. 326) to demolish this fantastic structure of information drawn from various sources and bound together in a single narrative. Much more simply, these are two martyrs mentioned in the Hieronymian through a coincidence of names; nor does any credit accrue either to that Gennaro, confused with the celebrated Saint of the Neapolitan church, or to that Grimaldo, bishop of Marsico, recorded by Ughelli solely on the testimony of this copyist. Again, in the Hieronymian, on three different days—namely, 19, 20, and 21 August—two names repeatedly appear: Valentinus (Valerianus, Valentinianus) and Leontius, also confirmed by the Beneventan Martyrology on 20 August (cod. Vat., 5949) and by certain martyrologies derived from Usuard on 21 August of the same month (Acta SS. Iunii, VI, Paris 1867, pp. 436–38; Acta SS. Augusti, IV, ibid. 1867, pp. 396–97). Their Passio (ibid., 544; Auct. seu notae ad Acta SS., 423) places their martyrdom under the diarchy of Diocletian and Maximian, and in the municipality of Tito; in the province of P., their feast is celebrated on 23 August. It therefore seems that at least these two martyrs were local and historically certain. There would also be an account of the theft of Leontius’s relics, from Basilicata to Vicenza and from there to Germany, if one wishes to regard the Leontius of Sigebert of Gembloux in the Vita Deoderici episcopi Mettensis (MGH, Scriptores, VI, p. 351; IV, p. 476) as Lucanian.
The Potentian Church thus had its martyrs very early, together with the new religion. And the inscriptions discovered at P. (CIL, X, 1, 178–79), even though they date from the sixth century, attest to the existence of a religious community whose origins cannot be ascertained. Nevertheless, if the historical sources place the first bishop at the end of the fifth century, one must suppose that P. had already, during that same century or even earlier, deserved to be raised to episcopal rank. The first bishop known from the Regesta is an Erculentius (492–96; Jaffé-Wattenbach, 680), to whom, in another letter (ibid., 653), the task was entrusted of intervening, together with two colleagues, Stephen and Justus, against the abusive consecration of two servants carried out by Sabinus, bishop of Consilium. His successor, Amando (502), leaves one perplexed, because no indication helps to resolve the question of whether he should be assigned to the Lucanian P. or to the homonymous Picene diocese. To find his successor, one must therefore proceed to Peter (552–60), to whom Pope Pelagius I gave instructions concerning the diocese of Marcellianum (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1017). From this locality it can be deduced with certainty that he was Lucanian, not Picene. For approximately three centuries no other bishop is known, until Balas appears, participating in the Roman Council held in 826 by Eugenius II. After him, complete silence. A bishop whose name is unknown is mentioned in 1080 in connection with the church of S. Giovanni Battista, completed by the married couple Roberto and Palma; then comes Gerardo in 1099, whose namesake successor, from Piacenza, is the saintly patron of the city and of the Duomo (1111–1119), canonized by Callistus II. Manfredo, elected bishop upon his death, wrote the biography of S. Gerardo. After this prelate, the catalogue of the Potentian Church becomes almost complete; the most distinguished bishops who succeeded to the see from the thirteenth century onward may therefore be mentioned. Oberto (1250–56) gave vigorous impetus to the reconstruction of the city, by then in decline; Guglielmo or Gualtiero built the church of S. Maria Maggiore at Diano in 1274, which Pius IX raised to cathedral rank in 1850; Fra’ Guglielmo of Torri (1343) was recommended by the archbishop of Acerenza and imposed by Clement VI upon the Chapter, which saw his election annulled; Angelo (1419), from Naples, the favorite counsellor of Queen Giovanna II; and Gaspare Cardoso, a Spanish Benedictine, who celebrated the Synod in 1606 and is remembered for his work on behalf of the clergy. In 1818 Pius VII united the see of P. with that of Marsico Nuovo, declaring it a co-cathedral.
(from G. Algrunati, Potenza, Milan 1918, cover)
POTENZA E MARSICO NUOVO, DIOCESI di — Little temple of S. Gerardo (19th century) — Potenza.