Adria, Diocese of

ADRIA, Diocese of. - A., now 22 km. from the open sea, had a very active port in the period of the Roman republic; and until the 10th century it remained the only important center between the Po and the Adige. Today it is a small city in the province of Rovigo, on the Po di Levante, and it is an episcopal see.

Dubious traditions would trace the introduction of Christianity in A. back to apostolic times; instead it must be dated to the end of the 2nd century. The seat of a bishopric from an unspecified era, it is mentioned for the first time as such in the 7th century, when the name of its bishop Galvanistus appears in the

The name of its bishop Galvanistus appears in the Roman Synod of 649. Around 920 Paul, titular bishop of A., authorized by a bull of John X (Jaffé-Wattenbach, n. 3561; PL 132, 804), transferred his see to Rovigo, which from that moment became the see of the bishops of A. and where, in 938, his successor John began the construction of the cathedral. In A. the present-day cathedral, dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul, was built in the years 1776-1836. The bell tower is from 1686; and in the interior a bas-relief of the 6th century, with a Greek inscription, depicts the Madonna with Child and angels.

Dependent on the archdiocese of Ravenna since the beginning of the 19th century, A. passed in 1818 into the patriarchate of Venice. The diocese has 97 parishes with 269,500 faithful, 198 diocesan priests and 30 regulars.

Mario Scaduto