SASSOVIVO. - Ancient Benedictine abbey in the diocese of Foligno, from which it is 3 km away. The monk Mainardo and the counts Ugolino and Gualterio founded in 1080 a new Benedictine congregation that established itself in the monastery of S. Croce at S. in the diocese of Foligno.

The Congregation spread rapidly until it had jurisdiction over more than 90 monasteries, 41 churches and 7 hospitals. In Rome it held the churches of the SS. Quattro Coronati and of SS. Sergio and Bacco; in Terni the church of S. Nicola. Paschal II on 17 March 1116 granted to the abbot the church of S. Apollinare in the diocese of Assisi (Jaffé-Wattenbach,

6511). Innocent II on 21 May 1138 exempted Abbot Michele from all episcopal jurisdiction (ibid., 7898); this was confirmed by Clement III on 4 June 1188 (ibid., 16270); Clement III on 26 Oct. 1189 granted jurisdiction over the church of S. Nicola of Bevagna and on 27 Apr. 1189 over that of S. Nicola of Foligno. Celestine III on 19 June 1191 confirmed the said privileges and took the monastery under apostolic protection (ibid., 16723). In 1291 the monastery of S. Stefano of Galliano was united to it, whose Archive is today preserved in the Archiepiscopal Curia of Spoleto. In 1486 the Olivetan Benedictines succeeded, and then commendatory abbots.

The cloister adjoining the abbey was executed by Pietro di Maria, the same who composed the analogous Roman ones of the SS. Quattro Coronati and of S. Cosimato (E. Lavagnino, L'arte medievale, Turin 1949, p. 269). At present the bishop of Foligno has granted the use of the abbey to the Benedictines of the abbey of Emmaus exiled from Czechoslovakia.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: L. Iacobilli, Cronica della chiesa e del monastero di S. Croce ai S. nel territorio di Foligno, Foligno 1623; M. Faloci Pulignani, Memorie epigrafiche del chiostro di S., ivi 1879; id., Il chiostro di S., in L'Italia, 5 (1885); P. Lugano, Gli abati di S. e di S. Maria in Campis, Foligno 1903; id., Le chiese dipendenti dall'abbazia di S. presso Foligno ed un elenco compilato per ordine del card. commendatorio Gerolamo Rusticucci (1586), in Riv. st. bened., 7 (1912), pp. 47-94; P. Fr. Kehr, Italia Pontificia, IV, Berlin 1909, pp. 46-50.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec10_sassovivo, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Sassovivo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1948}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sassovivo} }

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