SASSOVIVO. - An ancient Benedictine abbey in the diocese of Foligno, 3 km distant from II. The monk Mainardo and the counts Ugolino and Gualterio founded in 1088 a new Benedictine congregation which established itself in the monastery of S. Croce at Sassovivo in the diocese of Foligno.
The Congregation spread rapidly, coming to have jurisdiction over more than 90 monasteries, 41 churches, and 7 hospitals. In Rome it held the churches of the SS. Quattro Coronati and of the SS. Sergio e 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 every episcopal jurisdiction (ibid., 7898); this was confirmed by Clement III on 4 June 1188 (ibid., 16270). Clement III on 26 Oct. 1186 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 placed the monastery under apostolic protection (ibid., 16723). In 1291 the monastery of S. Stefano of Gallano was united to it, its archive now being preserved in the archiepiscopal Curia of Spoleto. In 1486 the Olivetan Benedictines succeeded them, and then came the commendatory abbots.
The cloister attached to the abbey was executed by Pietro di Maria, the same who composed the similar Roman cloisters 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.