AQUINO-SORA-PONTECORVO, DIOCESE OF. - In the province of Frosinone, immediately subject to the Holy See. It has 191,000 inhabitants, distributed among 88 parishes. The diocesan priests number 159. Residence of the bishop: Sora. Patrons: of A., St. Constantius; of S., St. Restituta (to be identified, according to Lanzoni, with the African martyr); of P., St. John the Baptist.

A., a colony of the Hernici, later a Roman municipium, was the birthplace of Juvenal; St. Thomas was born (1226) in the nearby castle of Roccasecca. The erection of the bishopric is certain from the 5th century. A. was several times destroyed by plagues and by the events of war; the last time in 1250, through the action of Conrad IV.

S., an ancient Volscian city, was a Roman colony and municipium, the birthplace of Attilius Regulus. From Byzantine rule it passed to that of the Lombards of Benevento and then (787) to that of the Popes, of the dukes of Spoleto and of the Normans. It was destroyed by Frederick II. The erection of the diocese is traced back to the 3rd century, but the episcopal list begins in 1221.

P., which arose at the end of the 9th century, passed, at the beginning of the 13th, to the Benedictines of Montecassino and later constituted a dependency of the territory of Benevento. In 1725 Benedict XIII elevated the collegiate church of P., where the bishop and the seminary already resided, to a cathedral, and united it, aeque principaliter, to A., by then deserted. In 1818, when the dioceses of the kingdom of Naples were reorganized, Pius VII united to it, on equal footing, the bishopric of S. The bishop bears the three titles united.

The Benedictine abbey of St. Dominic of S. was founded by St. Dominic of Foligno, who died there in 1031 and is buried there.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: Ughelli, I, coll. 394-402; F. Tuzli, Memorie istoriche massimamente sacre della città di S., Roma 1727; Cappelletti, XXI, pp. 351-64; Eubel, I, 2nd ed. 1913, p. 99 ff.; II, p. 92; III, p. 114; M. M. Cassoni, Sguardo storico sull'abbazia di S. Domenico di S., Sora 1910; R. Bonanni, Ricerche per la storia di A., Alatri 1922; id., Uomini illustri di A. e Diocesi, ibid. 1923; Lanzoni, p. 172.

Noemi Crostarosa Scipioni

@incollection{ec1_aquino_sora_pontecorvo_diocesi, author = {Crostarosa, Scipioni Noemi}, title = {Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1729}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aquino-sora-pontecorvo-diocesi-di} }

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Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo, Diocese of

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