SAN SEVERO. - Diocese and city in the province of Foggia. It has an area of about 706 sq km with a population of 79,607 inhabitants, of whom 79,208 are Catholics, distributed in 13 parishes, served by 56 diocesan priests and 18 regulars; it has the Seminary, 3 male religious communities and 7 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 361). It is a suffragan of Benevento; the Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption.
History. - The diocese of S. S., which arose in recent times, continues the ancient see of Civitate, the Teano Apula located ten kilometers beyond the bridge over the Frentone. The first mention of this earlier diocese is found in the 11th century, but in all likelihood it must have existed at least a century earlier. In 1662, in fact, Amelgerio subscribes to the provincial Synod held at Benevento by Archbishop Uldarico, and occupies the first place. The importance of the bishop of Civitate reflects the authority that the town itself would increasingly acquire under the Normans, thanks also to the prestige conferred upon it by being chosen as the capital of the Capitanata in the Council of Melfi and by remaining such until the reign of William II. Of Amelgerio's successors it is known that Ruggero took part in the provincial Council of St. Milone (1073), Landolfo in that of Melfi celebrated by Urban II (1092), and Roberto in the Lateran Council in 1179. On the death of Bishop Giacomo Caracciolo (1425-39), Civitate was united by Eugene IV to Lucera, but shortly afterward Sixtus IV restored its independence, appointing Nicola there in 1478. Despite this recognition, the conditions of the city were and became ever more precarious. Abandoned by its inhabitants, partly emigrated toward the new Manfredonia, partly fled during the harsh hegemony of the Carafa of Naples and the bloody wars, it fell into squalor and misery. In 1580 Gregory XIII, who had been bishop of nearby Vieste, evidently aware of the wretched state of the city, by a bull of 9 March transferred the cathedra to S. S. with all its privileges.
Before being elevated to an episcopal see, S. S. was a very flourishing market under the Normans and a possession of the Benedictines of Torremaggiore and of the Templars. The first bishop of San Severo was in 1581 the Aquilan Martino de Martinis, translated from Fano. His successor Germano Malaspina, a Ligurian (1583), later nuncio of Clement VIII in Poland, obtained from Sixtus V that the perpetual beneficiaries of the Chapter be increased to four. Of the others, mention should be made of Fabrizio Varallo (1606), who, having been elected cardinal, resigned in 1615 and was followed by Vincenzo Caputo of Ruvo; and Francesco Venturi (1625), formerly referendary of the Segnatura, much esteemed by Gregory XV, who, because of conflicts and enmities, retired to Florence as archdeacon of the metropolitan church. Carlo Felice de Matta, a Cremonese (1678), reformed the clergy, built the Seminary and the episcopal Palace at the locality of S. Paolo, and began that work of defending the rights and privileges of his Church, later continued energetically by his successor Carlo Francesco Giocoli of S. Arcangelo (1703), a prelate deserving of merit for having favored the religious Orders and great works of restoration and embellishment of the episcopium, the Seminary and the Cathedral. Transferred to Capaccio in 1717 by Clement IX, he was succeeded by the Augustinian prior Adeodato Summantico of Foggia, a man of rigid character, who, besides various works of public utility, has linked his name to the Synod of 1720, in which he eliminated many of the abuses rooted for years and yet destined to recur for a long time still. It should be noted finally that the hypothesis maintained by some concerning the union with S. S. of the archpriesthood of Dragonara is purely conjectural, there being no document or fact that would authorize even supposing it.
Monuments. - The rebirth of S. S. after the terrible trials suffered from nature and from men is admirable: destroyed by Frederick II and almost razed by the earthquake of 1627, new shocks in 1638 and 1688 inflicted grave damage on the rebuilt buildings, until in 1799 it had to undergo another tremendous destruction in the sack by the French. For this reason the sacred buildings are all modern and little of the ancient remains. The Cathedral preserves nothing of its medieval origin, when it was a simple parish under the title of S. Maria della Strada. Built with a single nave, it acquired the two side aisles in 1583, after the transfer of the cathedra of Civitate. The contemporary church of S. Severino has instead preserved the Romanesque facade on the right side, with the archivolt of the ornate portal and the beautiful rose window surmounted by a stone triptych, and the ancient bifora windows set into the lower part of the bell tower. Also worthy of note are the Baroque facade of the church of S. Lorenzo or of the Benedictines (1712) and the graceful interior of S. Nicola, erected between 1750 and 1779.