RUVO, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese in the province of Bari, of which it has always remained a suffragan see. Ruvo has an area of 39.880 sq. km. with a population of 57,387 inhabitants, of whom 57,200 are Catholics, distributed in 21 parishes, served by 71 diocesan priests and 5 regular clergy; a minor seminary; 1 male religious community and 10 female communities (*Ann. Pont. 1952*, p. 343). The cathedral is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed; the patron saint of the diocese is St. Blaise the Bishop.
HISTORY. — The tradition that the origin of the episcopal see dates back to the episcopate of Cletus, who was the second successor of St. Peter after Linus, is not sustainable. Nor is the equally untenable catalogue of the first seven bishops of Ruvo sustainable, whose names, as Lanzoni rightly observed, are unknown in Puglian onomastics until the 4th century. The eighth in the series, a Joannes, is mentioned in a *Vita et translatio s. Sabini* (BHL, 7443) from Canosa as being present in 493 at the blessing of the church of St. Andrew in Barletta, performed by Pope Gelasius I. The establishment of the Ruvo see may have occurred during the period of Byzantine domination, when the Easterners, having become masters of Bari and the Puglian coast, endeavored to create new episcopal sees everywhere, to draw those populations into the orbit of the Church of Constantinople. If this were the case, the diocese of Ruvo could have been founded in the 8th century or shortly thereafter. In the 11th century, the first prelate appears, Gioacchino de Zonicis, whom Coleti assigns to the year 1000 and who, according to an *indulcus Episcoporum huius Ecclesiae*, would have governed the diocese for only four days. The successor Abiatarus de Barghettinis is also doubtful, given the lack of any probative document. Guilberto (or Gisilberto), according to the anonymous Cassinese, took part in 1071 in the consecration of the church of Montecassino performed by Alexander II, and, according to Lupus Protospatharius (*Chr. ad an. 1082*), donated to the prior of Monte Peloso the church of St. Sabinus of Ruvo in exchange for four pounds of wax annually and the escort of a knight whenever he went to Bari or Canosa.
The reasons for these journeys, if explicable for Bari, the residence of the metropolitan, are entirely obscure for Canosa, unless at that time there were relations between the two churches that are now unknown. Among the successors was a certain Pietro, not otherwise identified, who is said to have lived in 1110 (but this is very doubtful); Orso, who consecrated the church of Our Lady of the Martyrs in Molfetta (1162); Daniele, who took part in the Lateran Council of Alexander III (1179), already known earlier (1177) for having received substantial donations from Robert, Norman count of Conversano and lord of Ruvo, for the benefit of the church of the Most Holy Trinity *pro expiatione Roberto patris sui suorumque parentum*. Finally, mention may be made of Domenico Ursi of Ruvo (1417), cited in a deed of emphyteutic grant preserved in the Chapter Archive; and Domenico Galesio (1676), who consecrated the church of the Capuchins and left his name linked to unfortunate works carried out in the cathedral. In 1818, Pius VII, with the bull *De ulteriori Dominicae*, united with Ruvo the episcopal church of Bitonto, declaring it a co-cathedral *principaliter*.
MONUMENTS. — Many of the oldest churches of Ruvo are now destroyed; such are St. Sabinus, the Most Holy Trinity, and St. John, which a tradition holds to have been the first cathedral. From the Middle Ages only the magnificent Romanesque cathedral remains, with its severe forms, bearing in its structure the marks of the attempts made and the innovations due to political vicissitudes. The church, in the shape of a Latin cross, has three apsed naves in an oblique position relative to the façade; its original plan was later enlarged by the opening of various chapels in the side walls, chapels that were removed during the most recent restoration work. The façade, tall and steeply sloping, has features quite different from those of the other Puglian cathedrals, with the exception of that of Trani: no dividing pilasters and little preference for empty spaces. At the top, the seated figure in the cathedra, which some claim to be that of the founder, as it were closes the series of hanging arches that now slope down and initiates that decorative verticalism which follows with the merchant.