TRIVENTO, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the province of Campobasso. It covers an area of 1,500 km² with a population of 98,300 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, distributed across 61 parishes served by 35 diocesan priests and 27 regular clergy; it has a seminary, one male religious community, and seven female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 432).
The bishop of Trivento certainly appears in the conflicts between the Lombards and the Byzantines during the 10th century, which led to the establishment of the metropolitan see of Benevento. In 947, Pope Agapitus II summoned to Rome a certain Leo, who had been elected bishop of Trivento—just as Benedict had been at Termoli—in violation of the rights of the metropolitan of Benevento (Jaffé-Wattenbach, no. 3636). In a bull of John XIV from 983 (ibid., no. 3822), issued on the occasion of the granting of the pallium to Alaneo of Benevento, Trivento is listed among the 13 dioceses subject to that metropolitan see, as it is also in another bull of Gregory V from 908, issued on the occasion of the pallium granted to Archbishop Alfano (ibid., no. 3884). The late legend concerning a St. Castus of Trent (Acta SS. Novembris, III, Brussels 1910, p. 341) has no historical foundation: it likely refers to one of those African martyrs whose cult spread widely in the cities of southern Italy. It is also highly doubtful that the Dominicus Trive or Trivensis who attended the Roman Council of 861 under Nicholas I (Jaffé-Wattenbach, I, p. 343) and that of Ravenna in 877 (ibid., p. 394) can be assigned to Trivento. A plausible hypothesis (Lanzoni, I, p. 378) suggests that the see of Trivento succeeded that of Aufidenia, mentioned in the letters of Gelasius I at the end of the 5th century, which lay within its territory.
In 1176, Rao confirmed a donation made by Rainaldo, lord of Turre, to the monastery of St. Michael (Cottineau, II, col. 3219); three years later, Pontius (or Pozio, d. 1189), who attended the Lateran Council of Alexander III (Mansi, XXII, 460), obtained from the Pope that the diocese be detached from Benevento and placed directly under the Holy See; this exemption was confirmed by Sixtus IV for Bishop Tommaso Carafa in 1472 and remained in force. After Pontius, the series of bishops of Trivento is complete. Among them, Giulio Cesare Moriconi (or Moriconda: 1582–1606) and Alfonso Mariconda (1717–30) are noteworthy: the former built the semi
TRIVENTO, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the province of Campobasso. It covers an area of 1,500 km² with a population of 98,300 inhabitants, almost all Catholic, distributed across 61 parishes served by 35 diocesan priests and 27 regular clergy; it has a seminary, one male religious community, and seven female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 432).