SESSA AURUNCA, DIOCESE of. — City and diocese in the province of Caserta. It has an area of 358 sq. km. and a population of 60,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 42 parishes served by 60 diocesan priests and 6 religious priests; it has one seminary, 2 male and 7 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 375). It is a suffragan diocese of Capua.
The origins of Christianity in S. A. are obscure. Among its bishops, apart from Sinisius or Sinecius, mentioned in the Acta SS. Septembris, I (Antwerp 1746), p. 125, there are the ss. Castrense and Rosio (Roscio or Rossio), mentioned in a Vita s. Castrensis (BHL, 1644-45), woven with improbable details derived from another source. Of the former, a translation of his relics under Guglielmo II (1166-89) is recorded; of the latter, there remain a document of the church of Calvi and a bull of the bishop of Capua Atenolfo from 1032 (Ughelli, X, p. 238, n. 12; VI, pp. 535-36).
Toward the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, the first known prelate appears, Fortunato, who was present at the Councils of Pope Simmaco. He was followed by Giacomo, a Cassinese monk (placed by some after the eighth century, by others in the twelfth), and Giovanni, who took part in the Roman Council of Gregorio V in 998. Throughout the Middle Ages S. was always papal territory, until Clemente IV ceded it to Carlo I d’Angiò. From then on, the city, following the fortunes of Naples, passed from Giovanni I to the count of Squillace and then to the Piccolomini, the Consalvo di Cordova, and the Marzano. The succession of bishops after the year 1000 is almost complete. Benedetto (1032) is recorded; he had the privileges of the archbishop Atenolfo of Capua confirmed, after the diocese had been assigned by Giovanni XIII
to that metropolitan see; Erveo, present at the Lateran Council of 1177; Giovanni (1259), who completed the fine mosaic pavement of the Cathedral; Matteo Bruni (1363), deposed by Urbano VI on suspicion of sympathy for the antipope Clemente; and Angelo Geraldini d’Amelia, who held important offices under various pontiffs and died in retirement in his homeland, punished with confiscation by King Ferdinando for failing to comply with his banishment. In 1818, Pio VII, having suppressed the diocese of Carinola, united it with S. A.
Many of the saints attributed to S. A. are legendary. Two late and unreliable Passions (BHL, 1649-50) mention the ss. Cassio Casto and Secondino, who instead are considered Africans and not Campanians; the same may be said of s. Saturnino.
MONUMENTS. – The few cemetery galleries of SS. Casto and Secondino, in a garden of the civic hospital, are of no interest (Nuovo Bull. di arch. crist., 3 [1897], p. 140); they preserve the remains of a small basilica and a Hellenistic sarcophagus in which the body of s. Casto was supposedly kept. The principal monument of S. A. is the Cathedral, consecrated in 1113 and disfigured in 1758 by Bishop Fr. Caracciolo d'Altamura; it has a basilical plan with a narthex of three arches and a three-apsed presbytery. The building, erected over the primitive church of S. Angelo, is composed of materials taken from Roman buildings. The central arch of the pronaos, pointed, is adorned with reliefs (12th century) depicting scenes from the life of s. Pietro, and on the sides, on the impost corbels, Noah on the right and Samson fighting the lion on the left; at the top are the months of the year. The lateral arches have small corbels and rosettes. The three portals beneath the pronaos are made of ancient material: the principal one, with two beasts on the jambs, displays a relief-carved architrave (two panthers facing one another across a vessel from which a vine rises), and in the lunette Jesus Christ between the ss. Pietro and Paolo. To the left of the Cathedral, the portal of the episcopal palace reproduces the design of the principal portal and, like the latter, comes from the Roman theatre. The interior, with three naves divided by 18 ancient columns of various forms and materials, has beautiful Corinthian capitals. Noteworthy are the geometric-patterned floor mosaic, dating from the 12th century; a superb Cosmatesque ambo resting on four lions, by Pellegrino da Capua, commissioned by Bishop Pandolfo (1224–59) and completed by Taddeo da S. A. under Bishop Giovanni III (13th century). Pellegrino produced the two reliefs of the pulpit with the stories of Jonah and the paschal-candle candelabrum, rich in carvings and mosaic ornament, while the balustrade of the choir loft, with its excellent gold-background mosaics recalling the precious decoration of Norman, Sicilian, and Campanian mosaics, is the work of Taddeo. Beneath the central nave extends the crypt, supported by 20 Corinthian columns.
Among the other churches, those of some interest are the Annunziata, with a Greek-cross plan and dome; S. Agostino, with its adjoining convent attributed to Vanvitelli; and the Baroque S. Germano, rich in stuccoes.
BHL: Ughelli, VI, pp. 531–47; X, p. 165; F. Granata, Ragguaglio istor. della fedeliss. città di S. sino all'anno 1760, Napoli 1763; Moroni, LXIV, pp. 249–57; C. Stornajolo, I rilievi dell'arco sul portico di S. A., Roma 1895; id., Sarcofago della basilichetta dai SS. Casto e Saturnino in S. A., in Solemne Praeconium Juanaario Aspremati Galante tributum, Napoli 1921; L. Pepe, La cattedr. di S. A., Trani 1898; E. Bertaux, L'art dans l'Italie mérid., Parigi 1904, pp. 354 sgg., 602 sgg. e passim; A. Di Lella, L'antica basilica crist. di S. A., le sculture ed i musaici, in Studi di st. e di arch. nell'arte mediev. neo-campana, Cassino 1904; G. M. Diamare, Mem. critico-stor. della Chiesa di S. A., 2 voll., Napoli 1906–1907; Lanzoni, I, pp. 178–85 e passim; P. Toesca, I, Il Medioevo, Torino 1927, pp. 595 sgg., 856 sgg. e passim; F. De Santa, Le orig. della dioc. e la basilica cattedrale di S. A., in Boll. auranco, 1933, pp. 13–23; P. F. Kehr, Italia pontificia, VIII, Berlino 1935, pp. 268–70; Cottinesu, II, col. 3019; M. Ingusnez e altri, Rationes decimarum Italiae, Campania (Studi e testi, 97), Città del Vaticano 1942, p. 101 sgg. e passim.