Savona and Noli, Diocese of

SAVONA AND NOLI, DIOCESE OF. - Dioceses united "aeque principaliter," in the Ligurian ecclesiastical province.

They have an area of 400 sq km, with 130,978 inhabitants, of whom 699 are non-Catholic. They count 65 parishes and autonomous vicariates, 15 public non-parochial churches, 144 public oratories, 5 sanctuaries, 4 basilicas, 3 collegiate churches, 164 diocesan priests and 127 regulars; they have 1 seminary, 17 male religious houses with 154 professed religious and 51 female religious houses with 870 professed religious, 5 female generalate houses, of which 3 are of pontifical right, 3 male colleges and schools with 1,120 pupils, 5 female colleges and schools with 870 pupils, 5 charitable institutes with 358 inmates.

I. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TWO DIOCESES

When the Romans consolidated their dominion over Liguria, "Vada Sabatia" ("Sabata") was the terminal station of the Via Aemilia Scauri, later continued westward by the Via "Iulia Augusta". A few kilometers away, Savo was the port of the city (cf. E. Forcellini, Lexicon totius latinitatis, VI, Padua 1940, p. 598). On the Christian evangelization there are no particulars beyond what can be said in general of Liguria (v.). The episcopal see of the town must have been at Vado, but it is not named in Christian antiquity; perhaps it suffered destruction during the invasion of King Rothari in Liguria, in the 7th century. Vado must have had importance when the emperor Lothair mentions it on the occasion of the Edict concerning the schools (828). The bishop must have extended his jurisdiction over the whole territory of Vado, roughly within the present boundaries of the diocese of S.; nevertheless certain information is available only from the second half of the 9th century and, while throughout the 10th century the bishop styles himself now "of Vado", now "of Savona", with the beginning of the 11th century the see is definitively established in the castle of S., which had come into the possession of the bishops and was situated in a healthier and safer location. In the period of the Ottonians the bishops of S. exercised their dominion, including temporal, not only over the city but over a vast territory, and they preserved it even when the power of the Aleramici marquises Del Carretto was consolidated in the region, so that under the aegis of the bishops the men of S. prepared the advent of the free Commune. But immediately a period of bitter struggles began with Genoa, which claimed hegemony over all Liguria; and since Genoa was Guelph, S. always fought with the Ghibellines. Through the intervention of Genoa the diocese of N. arose, constituted in 1239, to the detriment of that of S. The men of N. too, having enriched themselves in overseas trade, had constituted themselves as a free Commune, but, in opposition to the Savonese, they had in 1202 sided with Genoa, receiving in exchange protection and franchises. At first united to that of Brugnato, the see of N. obtained total autonomy from Innocent IV in 1245; to endow the mensa the abbey of S. Eugenio of the island of Bergeggi was annexed to it, founded in 992 by Bernardo bishop of S. The diocese

of N. was a suffragan of the archbishop of Genoa, while that of S. remained until 1806 a suffragan of Milan. As a late compensation Sixtus IV annexed to S. the abbey of S. Quintino di Spigno, with an extensive fief, the last remnant of which, the village of Lodisio, was in 1784 ceded to the king of Sardinia in compensation for an allowance and for the title of prince to the bishop of S.

From 1809 to 1812 and again in 1814 Pius VII was relegated to S. as a prisoner of Napoleon. In the episcopal palace of S. the apartment that hosted the Pontiff is still preserved. In memory of this event, Benedict XV granted the bishops of S. the privilege of the pallium. Once the political reasons from which the diocese of N. had arisen ceased, Pius VII, with a bull of 9 Oct. 1820, united it "aeque principaliter" to that of S.: in this city the Curia and the Seminary for the two dioceses now have their seat, while at N. the cathedral Chapter has remained.

II. BISHOPS AND NOTABLE FIGURES

In the long series of Savona's bishops, the object of lively popular veneration is still the Bl. Ottaviano (1119-28), a Benedictine monk, who sustained the people of Savona with heroic charity and inspired the first free communal institutions. After the ruin of the city, which fell into the hands of the Genoese in 1528 and was largely destroyed, Msgr. Pietro Francesco Costa (1587-1624) earned particular merit, to whom the construction of the new grandiose Cathedral is owed. In the last century a deep mark was left by Msgr. Agostino M. De Mari (1833-40), promoter of the Savings Bank and of the Society for the Encouragement of Industry, founder of the Civic Library, inspirer of the Congregation of Evangelical Workers and of three religious congregations of women, among them that of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy, founded in 1837 by St. Maria Giuseppa Rossello and rapidly spread throughout Italy and in the two Americas. Rossello was then particularly supported by Msgr. Ottaviano Alessandro Riccardi di Netro (1842-67), a prelate of singular intelligence and soundly patriotic sentiments, whom Gioberti sent in 1848 as extraordinary ambassador to Pius IX, exiled in Gaeta, to offer him the mediation of Piedmont. The last bishops, Msgr. Giuseppe Salvatore Scatti (1898-1926) and Msgr. Pasquale Righetti (1926-48), gave a shining example of charity and pastoral virtues in very difficult times. Among the bishops of Noli, mention is due to Msgr. Antonio M. Arduini (1746-77), who endowed the city with a hospital and an aqueduct, and to Msgr. Benedetto Solari (1778-1814), whose name is linked to the events of the Synod of Pistoia and of Bishop Scipione de' Ricci. Savona gave the Church two popes, Sixtus IV and Julius II, around whom flourished a pleiad of cardinals, prelates, princes and captains of their family. The poet Gabriello Chiabrera, dear to Urban VIII, was born and lived almost always in Savona. In the last century Savona was the theater of the industrious charity of St. Maria Giuseppa Rossello.

III. MOST NOTABLE SANCTUARIES AND MONUMENTS

In the diocese of Savona is the sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy, which owes its origin to the apparition of the Virgin to the peasant Antonio Botta (18 March 1536) and drew crowds of pilgrims to the venerated Sanctuary, immediately subject to the Holy See, rich in works of art, flanked by hospices for pilgrims, orphans, and the poor. Pius VII, a prisoner, implored deliverance at the feet of the Virgin and on 10 May 1815 fulfilled his vow, crowning the image with his own hands. Pius X in 1904 granted the Sanctuary the dignity of a Basilica.

In the cathedral-basilica of Savona the image of Our Lady of the Column is deeply venerated, a fresco that detached itself on 14 March 1601 from a column being demolished. The primitive cathedral of Noli preserves a miraculous Holy Face and is dedicated to its fellow citizen St. Paragorius, a martyr, as is held, with three companions in the Theban Legion. Abandoned in 1572 because it was situated in an unsafe place outside the city walls, it was replaced by the present cathedral of St. Peter, in which are venerated the remains of St. Eugenius, an African bishop exiled by the Vandals and died on the island of Bergeggi.

At Finalmarina the remains of the ancient parish church of the 5th century were recently discovered. At Finalpia, beside a venerated

Marian sanctuary, the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary flourishes, a center of studies and of liturgical propaganda.

Notable at Varazze are the remains of the collegiate church of St. Ambrose of the 10th century and of the Cistercian monastery of St. Mary of Areneto in the Invrea region.

Lorenzo Vivaldo