SESSA AURUNCA, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in the province of Caserta. It has an area of 358 sq km with a population of 60,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed in 42 parishes served by 60 diocesan priests and 6 regulars; it has a seminary, 2 male religious communities and 7 female (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 375). It is a suffragan of Capua.
The origins of Christianity in S. A. are obscure. Among its bishops, excluding Sinisius or Sinecius mentioned in the Acta SS. Septembris, I (Antwerp 1746), p. 125, there are Sts. Castrensis and Rosius (Roscius or Rossius), mentioned in a Vita s. Castrensis (BHL, 1644-45) woven with improbable details drawn from another source. Of the former a translation is recorded under William II (1166-89); of the latter there remain a document of the church of Calvi and a bull of the Capuan bishop Atenolf of 1032 (Ughelli, X, p. 238, n. 12; VI, pp. 535-36).
Toward the end of the 5th century and the early years of the 6th the first known prelate appears, Fortunatus, present at the Councils of Pope Symmachus. There follow James, a Cassinese monk (assigned by some to after the 8th century, by others to the 12th) and John, who took part in the Roman Council of Gregory V in 998. Throughout the Middle Ages S. was always a papal domain, until Clement IV ceded it to Charles I of Anjou. From then on the city, following the fortunes of Naples, passed from John I to the count of Squillace and then to the Piccolomini, to the Consalvo of Cordova and to the Marzano. The series of bishops after the year 1000 is almost complete. Mentioned are Benedict (1032), who had the privileges of Archbishop Atenolf of Capua confirmed, after the diocese was assigned by John XIII to that metropolitan see; Herveus, present at the Lateran Council of 1177; John (1259), who executed the beautiful mosaic pavement of the Cathedral; Matteo Bruni (1363), deposed by Urban VI on suspicion of sympathy for the antipope Clement; and Angelo Geraldini d'Amelia, who held important offices under various pontiffs and died in retirement in his native land, punished with confiscation by King Ferdinand for not having complied with his banishment. In 1818, Pius 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 Sts. Cassius Castus and Secundinus, who are instead held to be African and not Campanian; the same may be said of St. Saturninus.
MONUMENTS
Of no interest are the few cemetery galleries (Nuovo Bull. di arch. crist., 3 [1897], p. 140), of Sts. Castus and Secondinus, in a garden of the civic hospital, which preserves the remains of a small basilica and a Hellenistic sarcophagus in which the body of St. Castus is said to have been kept. The major 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 three-arched narthex and a triapsidal presbytery. The building, erected on the primitive church of S. Angelo, is composed of materials taken from Roman buildings. The central arch of the pronaos, ogival, is adorned with reliefs (12th century) with scenes from the life of St. Peter and, at the sides, on the impost brackets, Noah on the right and Samson struggling with the lion on the left: at the top, the months of the year. The side arches have small brackets and rosettes. The three portals beneath the pronaos are of ancient material: the main one, with two beasts on the jambs, shows a relief architrave (two panthers facing a vase from which a vine springs) and in the lunette Jesus Christ between Sts. Peter and Paul. To the left of the Cathedral the portal of the episcopium reproduces the scheme of the main portal and, like the other, comes from the Roman theatre. The interior has three naves, divided by 18 ancient columns of varying form and material, with fine Corinthian capitals. Notable is the floor mosaic with geometric designs, also of 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). To Pellegrino belong the two reliefs of the pulpit with stories of Jonah and the candelabrum of the paschal candle, rich in carvings and mosaic ornaments, while the parapet of the choir loft with gold-ground mosaics, of excellent workmanship, which recall the precious decoration of the Norman, Sicilian and Campanian mosaics, is the work of Taddeo. Beneath the central nave extends the crypt supported by 20 Corinthian columns.
Of the other churches, of some interest are that of the Annunziata, with a Greek cross and dome, S. Agostino with its adjoining convent attributed to Vanvitelli, and the Baroque S. Germano, rich in stuccoes.