ROCCO da CESINALE. - Archbishop, born at Cesinale to the Cocchia family on 30 April 1830, died at Chieti on 19 December 1900.
A Capuchin in 1846 and a priest in 1853, he was a theologian at the Vatican Council and procurator general of the Order’s missions in the years 1870-72; from 1874 to 1883 he was titular bishop and apostolic delegate of S. Domingo, Ilisti, and Venezuela. In August 1876 Mons. Cocchia went to Caracas and, through his persuasive and conciliatory manner, succeeded in averting the danger of a schism on the part of the Republic.
At S. Domingo, in the Cathedral, he discovered the ashes of Cristoforo Colombo on 10 September 1877. The bishop proved the authenticity of the relics in Spanish publications, and also in an Italian book: C. Colombo and His Ashes (Chieti 1892). In 1878 he was appointed titular archbishop; in 1883, archbishop of Otranto; and from 1887 to 1900, archbishop of Chieti.
His most important work is the History of the Capuchin Missions from Their Beginnings to 1700 (3 vols., I, Paris 1867; II and III, Rome 1872-73). Some scant materials for a fourth volume were collected in the periodical Anal. Ord., 24 (1908), p. 43 ff., and the index of persons in Collectanea Franciscana, 9 (1939), p. 540 ff., and 10 (1940), p. 83 ff. Other works: Pastoral Acts (Chieti 1899); Synodus Diocesana di S. Domingo (1878); Synodus Diocesana di Chieti (there, 1894).