SUTRI, DIOCESE of. — In Latium, in the province of Viterbo, it NEP (v.).
S., of Etruscan origin and called “Sutrium” by the Romans, stood at the twenty-eighth mile of the Via Cassia, on two tuffaceous 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 under Lombard occupation and remained definitively under the dominion of the Church of Rome after Liutprand’s restitution of it to Gregory II.
It is a legend that the Christian faith reached S. through the supposed preaching of s. Romolo, who is said to have been sent there by the Prince of the Apostles himself, as claimed by the Passio s. Romuli, certainly not earlier than the eleventh century (cf. Acta SS. Iulii, II, Parigi 1867 p. 254; A. Cocchi, S. Romolo vescovo di Fiesole. Storia e leggenda, Firenze 1905, p. 21). In 1865 G. B. De Rossi (Bull. d’arch. crist., 1 [1865], p. 27) illustrated a Christian sarcophagus from S., dating it to the fifth century. Several inscriptions existing in the cathedral of S. are known (CIL, XI, 1, nn. 3278-80), one of which dates from 369. Before reaching S. from Rome, one encounters a catacomb called that of S. Giovenale, discovered in the time of M. A. Boldetti, which would also mark the site of the ancient suburban Cathedral. A Passio, known to Usuard (ninth century), places the burial of a martyr named Felice “iuxta muros civitatis Sutrinae,” that is, almost certainly, in the said catacomb. On 16 September, a s. Dulcissima (Acta SS. Septembris, V, Parigi 1868, p. 313) is venerated in S. as its principal patroness; F. Lanzoni tends to identify her with s. Mustiola of Chiusi. It is impossible to indicate precisely the date of the first evangelical preaching in S.; however, the topographical position of the Via Cassia, with the post station “ad Baccanas” to the south and Bolsena and Chiusi to the north, which received the evangelical seed no later than the end of the third century, would, in view of the foregoing evidence, suggest the pre-Constantinian period, even if this were to be identified with the last great persecution.
In 728, Liutprand occupied the Castrum Sutriense, which, following Gregory II’s protest, he returned in the form of a donation (Lib. Pont., I, p. 407). This donation has been regarded as the birth act of the Papal States. In reality, it is nothing other than the simple restitution of a patrimonial possession to its legitimate owner (cf. O. Bertolini, Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai Longobardi, Bologna [1941], pp. 446-47).
The first known figure in the chronological series of the bishops of S. is Eusebio, who subscribed the acts of the Roman Synod of 465. With the bull Romana Ecclesia of 12 December 1435, Eugenio IV united S. NEP (v.) and appointed as the first bishop of the united dioceses Luca Rossi de Tartaris, bishop of Nepi and a native of S. During the pontificate of Clemente 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 s. Pio V (v.). Nepi and S. are immediately subject to the Holy See. — See plate CIX.