SUTRI, DIOCESE OF. – In Lazio, in the province of Viterbo, it NEP (v.).
S., of Etruscan origin, called “Sutrium” by the Romans, stood at the 28th mile of the Via Cassia, on two tufa hills, at the confluence of the streams Promonte and Rotoli. 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 made by Liutprand to Gregory II.
It is legendary that the Christian faith reached S. with the supposed preaching of St Romulus, who is said to 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). In 1865 G. B. De Rossi (Bull. d'arch. crist., 1 [1865], p. 27) illustrated a Christian sarcophagus from S., dating it to the 5th century. Some inscriptions are known to exist in the cathedral of S. (CIL, XI, 1, nos. 3278-80), one of which dates to 360. 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 “iuxa muros civitatis Sutrinae”, that is, almost certainly in the said catacomb. On 16 September, a St Dulcissima (*Acta SS. Septembris*, V, Paris 1868, p. 313) is venerated in S. as its principal patroness, whom F. Lanzoni tends to identify with St Mustiola of Chiusi. It is not possible to indicate with precision the date of the first evangelical preaching in S., but the topographical position of the Via Cassia, with to the south the postal 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 above elements, would suggest a pre-Constantinian age, even if this were to coincide with the last great persecution.
In 728, Liutprand occupied the *Castrum Sutriense*, which, following the protest of Gregory II, he later returned in the form of a donation (*Lib. Pont.*, I, p. 407). This donation has been seen as the act of birth of the Papal State. In reality it is nothing more than the simple restitution of a patrimonial asset to its legitimate owner (cf. O. Bertolini, *Roma di fronte a Bisanzio e ai Longobardi*, Bologna [1941], pp. 446-47).
The first in the chronological series of bishops of S. known to us is Eusebius, who subscribed to the acts of the Roman Synod of 465. Eugene IV, with the bull *Romana Ecclesia* of 12 December 1435, united S. NEP (v.), and designated as the 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 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 pl. CIX.