TERAMO. - It has an area of over 2,000 sq. km and a population of 175,855, of whom 175,637 are Catholics distributed across 156 parishes, served by 161 diocesan priests and 34 religious; it has a seminary, 11 male religious communities and 32 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 420).
The ancient **Internamnia Praetutianorum** lies between the rivers Todino and Vezzola, at an elevation of 265 m above sea level; of Umbrian origin, it was conquered by M. Curius in 268 BC, incorporated into the fifth tribe Velina (Picenum), and became the centre of the Praetutii. Flourishing under the Empire, it declined with the invasions of the Goths, Lombards and Hungarians; it was part of the Duchy of Spoleto, then came under the rule of counts, over whom the bishop eventually prevailed. Around the end of the 11th century it was occupied by the Normans and then united to the Duchy of Apulia. It enjoyed notable splendour under the Angevins (14th century), but suffered greatly from the civil strife between the Melatino and Antonelli families. For some years it was held by Francesco Sforza, then retaken by King Alfonso of Aragon (1442–58) and thereafter followed the fortunes of the Kingdom of Naples.
It cannot be stated with certainty when Teramo had its own bishops: St Gregory the Great, in a letter of November 598, commissioned Passivus, Bishop of Fermo, to consecrate the oratory of St Peter founded by Count Anio in Castro Aprutino (PL 77, 1225–26); yet the same Pope, writing to the same Passivus in 601, deplores that Teramo has been without a bishop for too long and designates Opportunus for that office, to be consecrated after the necessary preparation (ibid., 1226–27). Ordinarily the series of Aprutine bishops is reckoned to begin with Opportunus, who is almost certainly the same person to whom St Gregory addressed a letter reproaching him severely for matters that displeased him (ibid., 1118). After a considerable gap the series resumes with Sigismund, present at the coronation of Louis III performed in 844 by Sergius II (844–47; Lib. Pont. II, pp. 89–90; 101–102, no. 9).
The bishops of Teramo bore the titles of «Prince of Teramo, Baron of Rocca S. Maria, Count of Bisegno», and among other privileges they were allowed to wear a sword slung over the chasuble during pontifical Mass and to display on the altar and credence, alongside sacred furnishings, various weapons, banners and military insignia. Bishop G. Silverii Piccolomini attended the Council of Trent in 1563 and celebrated Mass wearing the sword «more suorum antecessorum»; the custom appears to have lasted until 1639 under Bishop Girolamo Figini-Oddi. According to a local writer (De Jacobis), the series was not interrupted and there were eleven bishops after Opportunus down to Sigismund, making a total of ninety-two Aprutine bishops up to the present incumbent.
Among the bishops of Teramo are remembered: St Berard of Pagliara, of the counts of the Marsi, a Cassinese monk, from 1115 to 1122; Guido II (1123–70), who after the fire and destruction of Teramo by Count Robert Letrello (1155) rebuilt the city, encircling it with new walls; he then obtained the city as a fief from King William I with the title of principality; under him the territory of the diocese, already defined by Victor II in 1057, was confirmed by Anastasius IV (bull Sicut iniusta poscentibus, 28 Feb 1154), which stipulated that the church of S. Maria Aprutinensis should be considered the mother church and cathedral of the bishop. The present cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption, begun in 1158 and completed in the 14th century, was remodelled in 1739 and restored to its pristine state in 1935; Bl. Antonio Fatati, canon and vicar of St Peter’s in the Vatican (12 Dec 1450), to whom Ferdinand I of Aragon confirmed all ancient privileges by diploma of 20 July 1458; and the scholar and humanist Giovanni Antonio Campano (1463–77).
Pius VII, by the bull *Utiliori Dominicae vineae* of 28 June 1818, aggregated the suppressed diocese of Campli (previously governed by St Pius V in 1570 and united with Ortona by Clement VIII) to Teramo. Pius XII, by the apostolic constitution *Diocesum circumscriptiones* of 10 July 1949, separated the diocese of Atri from that of Penne and united it *aeque principaliter* with the see of Teramo (AAS, 42 [1950], pp. 135–37). The Sacred Consistorial Congregation, by decree of 24 January 1950, dismembered 27 parishes from the diocese of Pescara and added them to Teramo (ibid., pp. 554–55).
Teramo and Atri, dioceses of – Façade of the cathedral of Teramo, begun in 1158 and completed in the first half of the 14th century.
ATRI
It has an area of over 150 sq. km and a population of 26,375, almost all Catholics, distributed across 9 parishes served by 18 diocesan priests and 4 religious; it has 1 male religious community and 8 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 420).
It is the ancient **Hatria Picena**, said by some (Cluverius) to be of Etruscan origin, by others to have been founded or repopulated by Dionysius of Syracuse; it fell under Roman dominion and was enrolled in the tribe Maecia of Region V. It was devastated by Hannibal; it flourished under the Empire. It belonged to the Duchy of Spoleto and later came under the rule of the Acquaviva family from the 12th century until 1775, when it passed to Ferdinand IV of Naples of the Two Sicilies. The diocese of Atri was established (or, according to some, restored) by Cardinal Pietro Collemezzo at the mandate of Innocent IV and approved by him with the bulls *Licei* and *Quod a nostro mandato fiunt* of 15 March 1252 and *Honorem Ecclesiae* of 21 August of the same year, and was united *aeque principaliter* with that of Penne (5th century), now separated from Atri and transferred to Pescara. Clement VII, by the bull *Super universas Ecclesias* of 1 June 1526, raised the Church of Chieti to metropolitan status and assigned it as suffragans, besides Lanciano, Penne and Atri; these were restored to their original condition by Paul III (bull *Inter caetera*, 18 July 1539). The cathedral, in Abruzzese Romanesque style with three naves and piers, dates from the 13th–14th centuries. — See plate CXL.
BIBL. for Teramo: CIL, IX, no. 5074, pp. 819 ff.; Ughelli, I, cols. 342–73; Cappelletti, XXI, pp. 427–33; Moroni, LXXIV, pp. 63–69; VII, pp. 146–47; LXVIII, p. 10; Lanzoni, I, p. 399; Iaffé-Wattenbach, nos. 1596, 1855; Eubel, I, pp. 94–95; II, pp. 101–102; III, p. 125; IV, p. 88; V, p. 91; De Iacobis, *Cronaca della città di T.*, Teramo 1700; P. Savini, *S. Maria Aprutinensis ovvero l’antica cattedra di T.*, Rome 1828; id., *Gli edifici teramani nel medioevo*, 1807 (reprint); N. Palma, *Storia ecclesiastica e civile della regione più stretta del Regno di Napoli (Aprutino) oggi città di T. e diocesi aprutina*, 6 vols., Teramo 1832–36; P. Fr. Kehr, *Italia Pontificia*, IV, Berlin 1909, pp. 309–16; A. Riccoboni, *Vicende e fasti del duomo di T.*, in *Teramo*, 2 (1933); V. Gilla Gremigni, *S. Berardo di Pagliara*, Teramo 1947. For Atri: Ughelli, I, cols. 1111–53; VI, cols. 755–58; Cappelletti, XXI, pp. 443–48; Moroni, III, p. 94; LII, pp. 81–83; Potthast, II, p. 1199; Lanzoni, I, pp. 370–71; *MGH, Epistolae saeculi XIII e regestis Pontificum Romanorum selectae*, ed. C. Rodenberg, III, Berlin 1894, pp. 115–17; Eubel, I, pp. 413–14; II, p. 236; III, p. 289; IV, p. 276; V, p. 310; P. Fr. Kehr, *Italia Pontificia*, IV, Berlin 1909, p. 307; V. Gentili, *Quadro della chiesa di Penne*, Naples 1832. Carlo Carletti