SAN SEVERO. — Diocese and city in the province of Foggia. It has an area of approximately 706 sq. km., with a population of 79,607 inhabitants, of whom 79,208 are Catholics, distributed among 13 parishes served by 56 diocesan priests and 18 religious priests; it has a seminary, 3 male and 7 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 361). It is suffragan to Benevento; the Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption.
History. — The diocese of S. S., established in relatively recent times, continues the ancient see of Civitate, the Teano Apula situated ten kilometers beyond the bridge over the Frentone. The first information concerning this earlier diocese dates from the eleventh century, but it most probably existed at least a century earlier. In 1662, in fact, Amelgerius signed the provincial synod held at Benevento by Archbishop Uldaric, taking the first place. The importance of the bishop of Civitate reflects the authority that the town itself would increasingly acquire under the Normans, also thanks to the prestige conferred upon it by its selection as the capital of Capitanata at the Council of Melfi and by its remaining so until the reign of William II. Of Amelgerius’s successors, it is known that Roger took part in the provincial Council of S. Milone (1073), Landulf in that of Melfi celebrated by Urban II (1092), and Robert in the Lateran Council of 1179. Upon the death of Bishop Giacomo Caracciolo (1425–39), Civitato was united by Eugene IV to Lucera, but shortly afterward Sixtus IV restored its independence, appointing Nicola there in 1478. Despite this recognition, the city’s circumstances were precarious and became increasingly so. Abandoned by its inhabitants, some of whom emigrated toward the new Manfredonia and others fled during the harsh hegemony of the Carafa of Naples and the bloody wars, it fell into desolation and poverty. In 1580 Gregory XIII, who had been bishop of nearby Vieste and was evidently aware of the city’s miserable condition, transferred the see to S. S. by a bull dated 9 March, together with all its privileges.
Before being elevated to an episcopal see, S. S. was a very flourishing market under the Normans and was owned by the Benedictines of Torremaggiore and by the Templars. The first bishop of San Severo was the Aquilan Martino de Martinis in 1581, transferred from Fano. His successor, the Ligurian Germano Malaspina (1583), later nuncio of Clement VIII in Poland, obtained from Sixtus V an increase to four in the number of perpetual beneficiaries of the Chapter. Others worthy of remembrance are Fabrizio Varallo (1606), who, having been created a cardinal, resigned in 1615 and was succeeded by Vincenzo Caputo of Ruvo; and Francesco Venturi (1625), formerly a referendary of the Segnatura and highly esteemed by Gregory XV, who, because of conflicts and enmities, withdrew to Florence as archdeacon of the metropolitan church. Carlo Felice de Matta, a native of Cremona (1678), reformed the clergy, built the Seminary and the Episcopal Palace in the locality of S. Paolo, and began the work of defending the rights and privileges of his Church, subsequently pursued energetically by his successor Carlo Francesco Giocoli of S. Arcangelo (1703), a distinguished prelate who promoted the religious Orders and major works of restoration and embellishment at the episcopal residence, 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, in addition to various works of public utility, left his name attached to the Synod of 1720, at which he eliminated many abuses that had been entrenched for years and were nevertheless destined to recur for a long time afterward. Finally, it should be noted that the hypothesis advanced by some concerning the union with S. S. of the archpriesthood of Dragonara is purely conjectural, since there is no document or fact that authorizes even the supposition.
Monuments. — The rebirth of S. S. after the terrible trials inflicted by nature and by human beings is remarkable: destroyed by Frederick II and almost razed to the ground by the earthquake of 1627, it suffered serious damage to its reconstructed buildings from new tremors in 1638 and 1688, until in 1799 it underwent another dreadful destruction during 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 origins, when it was merely a parish church 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 see of Civitate. The contemporary church of S. Severino, by contrast, has preserved the Romanesque façade on its right flank, with the decorated archivolt of the portal and the fine rose window surmounted by a stone triptych, as well as the ancient bifora windows set into the lower part of the bell tower. Also worthy of mention are the Baroque façade of the church of S. Lorenzo, or of the Benedictine nuns (1712), and the graceful interior of S. Nicola, built between 1750 and 1779.