POTENZA E MARSICO NUOVO, DIOCESI DI

It has a population of 87,050 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, distributed across 25 parishes, served by 67 diocesan priests and 24 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 6 male religious communities, and 22 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 327).

I. HISTORY

In the list of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum under 27 August, four martyrs are mentioned: Felix, Arontius, Sabinianus, and Honoratus, whose relics, according to a late legend (BHL, cols. 2297-2302), were allegedly transferred in the 8th century by Duke Arechi II to Benevento. The same legend, however, considers them African martyrs and not from Potenza; nor are there any arguments to refute this.

Another tradition (Acta SS. Augusti, V, Paris 1868, p. 813) celebrates the martyrdom of a Carthaginian bishop named Januarius, who was allegedly beheaded along with his deacons Felix and Honoratus in an unspecified location near Potenza on 26 August. Their relics—if they are the same—

POTENZA AND MARSICO NUOVO, DIOCESE OF. - Church of St. Gerard (19th century) - Potenza.

would have been brought to Potenza by Bishop Sabinus of Consilium. His successor Amandus (502) is perplexing, as there is no evidence to determine whether he should be assigned to Potenza in Lucania or to the homonymous diocese in Picenum. To find the next bishop, we must go to Peter (552-60), to whom Pope Pelagius I gave instructions for the diocese of Marcellianum (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1017). From this location, it can be deduced with certainty that he was from Lucania and not Picenum. For about three centuries, no further information is available until Balas, who participated in the Roman Council held in 826 by Eugenius II. After him, complete silence. A bishop, whose name is unknown, is recorded in 1080 in connection with the church of St. John the Baptist, completed by the spouses Robert and Palma; then Gerard in 1099, whose successor, a certain Omo, from Piacenza, is the saint to whom the city and the cathedral are dedicated (1111-1119), canonized by Callistus II. A biography of St. Gerard was left by Manfred, elected bishop after his death. After this prelate, the catalog of the Church of Potenza becomes nearly complete: therefore, the most illustrious bishops who succeeded to the see from the 13th century onward will be mentioned. Oberto (1250-56) vigorously promoted the reconstruction of the city, now in decline; William or Walter built the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Diano in 1274, which was elevated to cathedral status by Pius IX in 1580; Brother William of Torri (1343) was recommended by the archbishop of Acerenza and imposed by Clement VI on the Chapter, whose election was annulled; Angelo (1419), from Naples, a favorite counselor of Queen Joanna II; and Gaspar Cardoso, a Spanish Benedictine, who in 1606 held a synod and is remembered for his work in favor of the clergy. In 1818, Pius VII united the see of Potenza with that of Marsico Nuovo, declaring the latter a co-cathedral.

II. MONUMENTS

Potenza has few monuments, perhaps because, having suddenly become the epicenter of the struggle between the Swabians and the Angevins and siding with the unfortunate Conradin, it found itself alone in facing the wrath of King Charles and succumbed to the violence of the vassals who razed it to the ground. This happened just as it was beginning to recover after the violent earthquake of 1273. The cathedral retains much of its Gothic origins; the 18th-century reconstruction by Antonio Magni, a pupil of Vanvitelli, gave the church a Baroque appearance that, although not without heaviness—especially due to the high dome pressing on the single nave—displays a sober nobility of lines, in which a certain classical taste survives. The church of St. Francis (late 13th century) was built on the site of an oratory erected in 1265 by the companions of the Poor Man of Assisi, but it was remodeled in Baroque forms, particularly inside, and in the last century lost the small columns of the bell tower's biforas in an earthquake. Nevertheless, the three superb carved wooden doors remain, the most valuable being the one on the façade (14th century), adorned with geometric inlays, symbols, putti, griffins, and figures of friars. Inside, noteworthy is the fine Renaissance tomb of the nobleman Donato Grassi, with its beautiful sarcophagus guarded by two griffins, the recumbent statue of the deceased, and the Virgin and Child between two angels in the lunette. The church of St. Michael the Archangel, with its three naves (a fourth was later added to the left, altering its lines), preserves its original 13th-century exterior form. Its attribution to Master Sarolo of Muro Lucano is a plausible hypothesis but is not supported by any proof. The interior is of little interest.