SAN SEVERINO (Septempeda), Diocese of. - City and diocese in the Marches, province of Macerata, on the right bank of the Potenza river.
It has an area of 45 sq km with a population of 20,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 29 parishes served by 45 diocesan priests and 31 religious: it has a seminary, 4 male religious communities and 7 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 361).
It is the ancient "Septempeda", in a locality inhabited, as various finds demonstrate, since the Paleo-Neolithic period; it is said to have been founded by the Greco-Siculi, or, according to others, by Sabine populations. After the Roman conquest of Picenum (486 B.C.) Septempeda became a colony, then a municipium; it had notable importance because of its position at the crossroads of roads with the Flaminia, whence it is mentioned by geographers and in the ancient Itineraries. Following its destruction by Totila (545), the inhabitants gathered on the nearby hill called Montenero, on which was built the Castle of S. S., named after the bishop, the last of the primitive series. This man, according to a tradition, would have been one of the 81 bishops consecrated by Pope Vigilius (537-55); he died in 543 and he is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 8 June: in Piceno sancti Severini episcopi Septempedani. There exists a Vita ss. Severini et Victorini by an anonymous author, composed between the 6th-9th century, in which Severinus appears as bishop, Victorinus as hermit. The historical existence of this bishop in the first half of the 6th century is certain. Benedict XIV, in the constitution Supremi Pastoris of 22 April 1748, recalls that S. S. had its bishops from the earliest times, among whom, in the 6th century, Sanctus Severinus... virtutibus et signis clarus. The Christian faith was preached in S. S. according to some by St. Apollinaris, but more plausibly by St. Maro, who is said to have cured the Roman procurator of dropsy. S. S. had its martyrs: Hippolytus and Justin. Having passed under the diocese of Camerino, it remained there until 1586, when Sixtus V, with the bull Suprema dispositione of 26 November of that year, re-established the diocese there, raising the Castle to the rank of city and the collegiate church to cathedral; first bishop: Orazio Marzari of Vicenza. Nevertheless the same Sixtus V, having wished to declare Fermo an archdiocese, with the bull Universis orbis ecclesias of 24 May 1589 included S. S. among the suffragans of the new archdiocese. S. S. underwent various dominations that succeeded one another in the region; that of the Smeducci until 1426; it had for a few years the lordship of Francesco Sforza, and finally, under various forms, passed into the definitive dependence of the Church, enduring civil strife between the Gentili and the Caccialupi (first half of the 16th century); it formed part of the apostolic delegation of Macerata and followed the fortunes of the rest of the Marches. The bishop of S. S., since 20 February 1920, has the perpetual administration of Treja (v.), held, already in the past, by the bishop of Camerino.
The cathedral of S. S., at first in the ancient church dedicated to the Saint, on the Castle, after various disputes, with the bull of Pius VII Cathedrales Ecclesias of 22 May 1821, was transferred to the church of St. Augustine (in the more recent part of the city, called the "Borgo") and consecrated on 28 June 1827. The diocese provides locally for the formation of the clergy with the minor Seminary (in a modern building) and with the regional Seminary of Fano. A small seminary for the clerics of the territory, with the subsidy of the citizens, existed in S. S. by concession of the bishop of Camerino, Berardo Buongiovanni, as early as the 16th century.
The diocese comprises two communes of the province of Macerata (S. S. and Poggio S. Vicino) with 29 parishes, of which 4 are urban, the others distributed among the localities: Aliforni, Colleluce, S. Elena, Serrone, Ugliano (Poggio S. Vicino). In S. S. there are various institutes of education and instruction, an orphanage. Several male communities have their seat there: Cistercians, Franciscan Minors, Capuchins, Sons of Providence (Don Orione); and female ones: Poor Clares, Benedictines, Sisters Convictresses of the Child Jesus, Daughters of Charity, of Providence, Blind Sacramentines. Patron of the city and of the diocese is St. Severinus.
MONUMENTS
S. S. is of interest for its churches and works of art, some of notable importance: S. Lorenzo in Doliolo, very ancient, whose first construction dates back to the 8th-9th century; the old Cathedral (S. Severino), the first church of the Castle, from the 10th century, rebuilt and remodeled several times: 14th-century facade with a Romanesque-Gothic bell tower, contemporary with it, 15th-century cloister; the new Cathedral, formerly S. Maria Maddalena, then (1260) S. Agostino, its interior renovated in 1776 and 1827; bell tower similar to that of the old Cathedral; in the sacristy, the celebrated Madonna della Pace, a masterpiece by Pinturicchio; S. Maria del Mercato or S. Domenico, founded, it is believed, by the Saint himself, interior renovated in the 17th century; S. Maria del Glorioso (from Grilloluso), a Renaissance reconstruction with an octagonal dome: there an image of the Madonna (the Pietà) is venerated, which in 1519 shed tears, whence the title "of the tears"; S. Maria dei Lumi, from the lights or splendors derived from an image of the Virgin (16th century); the Grotte di S. Eustachio, with remains of an ancient church of S. Eustachio di Domora (11th century), and others. The Town Hall is from the 18th century, with a rich picture gallery, in which works by Salimbeni, Vittore Crivelli, Nicola da Foligno (l'Alunno), Allegretto Nuzi, etc., are preserved.
NOTABLE FIGURES
Mentioned are St. Pacifico (1653-1721), of the noble Divini family, of the Reformed Observant Friars Minor, whose tomb is a destination for pilgrimages; the blesseds Masseo, Pacifico, and Domenico, called of Leonessa, born in the territory of the diocese; the blesseds Marchesina Luzio and Camilla Gentili; and others. In the church of the Most Holy Trinity, in the parish of St. Anna of Frontale, the body of St. Domenico Loricato, a monk of Fonte Avellana, who died at Frontale in 1660, is preserved.
At S. S. there flourished between the 14th and 15th centuries an important school of painting of the Sanseverino brothers Lorenzo (b. 1374) and Jacopo Salimbeni; there were also born the two painters L. d'Alessandro, of the 16th century; Domenico Indivini (16th century), an excellent wood carver; Ercole Rosa, sculptor (1846-93); the scientists Bartolomeo Eustachio, famous for anatomical discoveries (d. 1575); Eustachio Indivini, optician and mathematician (d. 1685); F. Panfilo, author of the well-known poem De laudibus Picens; Ireneo Aleandri, architect (1795-1885), author of the famous bridge of Ariccia (Castelli Romani) and of the monumental Sferisterio of Macerata, etc.; and Father Giovanni Severano.