SUTRI, Diocese of. - In Lazio, in the province of Viterbo, it is united with that of Nepi (v.).
S., of Etruscan origin, called "Sutrium" by the Romans, stood at the 28th mile of the Via Cassia, above two tuff hills, at the confluence of the Promonte and Rotoli streams. Having become a Roman colony in the time of Augustus (Colonia Iulia Sutrina), it did not decline even with the Lombard occupation and remained definitively under the dominion of the Church of Rome, after the restitution of it made by Liutprand to Gregory II.
It is a legend that the Christian faith reached S. with the supposed preaching of St. Romulus, who would have been sent there by the Prince of the Apostles himself, as the Passio s. Romuli claims, certainly not earlier than the 11th century (cf. Acta SS. Iulii, II, Paris 1867 p. 254; A. Cocchi, S. Romolo vescovo di Fiesole. Storia e leggenda, Florence 1905, p. 21). G. B. De Rossi in 1865 (Bull. d'arch. crist., 1 [1865], p. 27) illustrated a Christian sarcophagus from S., dating it to the 5th century. Some inscriptions existing in the cathedral of S. are known (CIL, XI, 1, nos. 3278-80), one of which is from 369. Before reaching S., coming from Rome, one finds a catacomb called that of St. Juvenal, discovered in the time of M. A. Boldetti, which would also mark the site of the ancient suburban Cathedral. A Passio, known to Usuard (9th century), places the burial of a martyr Felix "iuxta muros civitatis Sutrinae", that is, almost certainly, in the said catacomb. On 16 September there is venerated in S., as principal patroness, a St. Dulcissima (Acta SS. Septembris, V, Paris 1868, p. 313) whom F. Lanzoni tends to identify with St. Mustiola of Chiusi. It is not possible to indicate with exactness the date of the first evangelical preaching at S., but the topographical position of the Via Cassia, with to the south the posting station "ad Baccanas" and to the north Bolsena and Chiusi, which received the evangelical seed no later than the end of the 3rd century, taking into account the aforesaid elements, would suggest the pre-Constantinian age, even if this should be identified with the last great persecution.
In 728, Liutprand occupied the Castrum Sutriense, which following the protest of Gregory II he restored in the form of a donation (Lib. Pont., I, p. 407). In this donation has been seen the birth act of the Papal State. In reality it is nothing other than the simple restitution of a patrimonial good to its legitimate possessor (cf. O. Bertolini, Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai Longobardi, Bologna [1941], pp. 446-47).
The first in the chronological series of the bishops of S. known to us is Eusebius, who subscribed the acts of the Roman Synod of 465. Eugene IV, with the bull Romana Ecclesia of 12 December 1435, united S. to the diocese of Nepi (v.) and designated as first bishop of the united dioceses Luca Rossi de Tartaris, bishop of Nepi, a native of S. During the pontificate of Clement VII the dioceses were again temporarily separated. In the series of the bishops of Nepi and S. the most eminent figure is certainly the Dominican Michele Ghisleri, later St. Pius V (v.). Nepi and S. are immediately subject to the Holy See. - See plate CIX.
Bibliography14 works
Benedetto Pesci