UDINE, Diocese of. - City and diocese in eastern Venetia on the borders with Yugoslav Carniola and Austrian Carinthia. It has a population of 534,700 inhabitants, of whom 534,500 are Catholics, distributed in 488 parishes, served by 816 diocesan priests and 80 regulars; it has two seminaries, 12 male religious communities and 140 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 437).
U. is mentioned for the first time among the castles donated by Otto II in 983 to the patriarch of Aquileia Rodoald. As a result of this it was governed by a patriarchal gastald, until the Savorgnan family of ministerial nobility acquired pre-eminence there. The walls of the castle descended into the plain below, expanding until in the 15th century they came to include some small villages. The patriarch resided there intermittently as in his other castles and favored the establishment of the Commune; the patriarch Bertold of Andechs granted the public market in 1248; it also had its own statutes in the 14th century, until it gradually became the major community of Friuli, when, especially with 1420, it became the residence of the lieutenant who governed the territory of Friuli in the name of Venice. At first it was nothing but a simple parish church of the patriarchal diocese, which had the castle church as its mother church; by the 13th century the parish church became a collegiate church and had its own church with cemetery on the plain near the old market. When in the 15th century the patriarchate was given in commendam, the patriarchal vicar resided there, and with the end of the 16th century the patriarch had his ordinary residence there. On 19 January 1753, as a consequence of the division of the patriarchate, decided by Benedict XIV, U. became the seat of an archbishopric that comprised the Venetian part of the ancient patriarchal diocese, retaining metropolitan authority over the Veneto-Istrian bishops already dependent on the patriarchate. With the Napoleonic reorganization U. was the administrative center of the department of Passariano and remained so during the Austrian dominion for the province of Friuli and then under the national government. Instead, following the Concordat of 1 May 1818 between Austria and the Holy See, U. was reduced to a simple bishopric in the ecclesiastical province of Venice, until Pius IX on 14 March 1847 made it once again an archbishopric, but without suffragans. Meanwhile, however,
Gregory XVI had detached Cadore from the diocese on 30 April 1846 in order to unite it with that of Belluno. Without taking account here of other territorial changes of lesser importance, it will suffice to recall that of the Tarvisio area, taken from the diocese of Gurk on 10 February 1933 and aggregated to that of U.
In the city, the Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral (begun in 1236) underwent a Baroque remodeling in the 18th century; the same happened to the two Gothic churches of St. Francis (formerly of the Conventuals) and of St. Peter Martyr (formerly of the Dominicans). In the 15th century the Commune built its loggia and Gothic-Venetian palace, and in the 16th it rebuilt opposite it the church of St. John with the clock tower and the elegant loggia. The marvelous paintings of the church of the Purità and those of the Archbishop's Palace are owed to Tiepolo. In the latter is preserved a library rich in rare works, incunabula and manuscripts. The municipal Library, besides modern works, preserves parchments, records and various documents, most important for the history of the country and of the city. Of great importance is the Capitular Archive with the parchments of the ancient patriarchate; to which must be added the Library of S. Daniele with its codices. A sanctuary much visited by the devout of all Friuli since the 15th century is, in the city, that of the Virgin of Graces.
Among the diocesan ecclesiastical institutions, the collegiate church of S. Maria Assunta of Cividale stands out, organized and endowed by the patriarch John in 1015 with the union of the two preceding canonries of S. Maria and of S. Stefano; it thereafter always had great importance in the cultural and religious life of the country (v. CIVIDALE). Dependent on it is the church of S. Maria del Monte, situated on an ancient castle and since the 13th century a goal of pilgrimages from all the country.
Besides the abbey of Sesto, of Lombard origin, the two Benedictine abbeys of Moggio and Rosazzo had great importance in the feudal Middle Ages; both were subject to the patriarch and, like Sesto, had a voice among the ecclesiastics in the Parliament of the Patria. S. Gallo of Moggio arose on a hill in the Fella Valley commanding the road that led into Carinthia, at the end of the 11th century, thanks to the donation of a local lord. It passed into commendam at the beginning of the 15th century, and for a short time Charles Borromeo was its commendatory. It was suppressed by the Venetian Senate on 2 January 1773 and the fief was sold at auction (cf. A. Battistella, L'abbazia di Moggio, Udine 1903). S. Pietro of Rosazzo was built on a wild hill not far from Cormons through the largesse of the Eppenstein dukes of Carinthia and the counts of Gorizia who had their burial there; it was first given to the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, but in 1019 it passed to the Benedictines who came from Millstatt; it had dependent on it the hospital of St. Giles near Aquileia for the poor and the lepers (cf. P. Paschini, Sulla fondazione dell'abbazia di Rosazzo, Udine 1912). It was given in commendam in 1392 to Card. Pileo (v.) of Prata, until in 1753 it was united to the archiepiscopal mensa of U. (cf. Memorie Storiche Forogiuliesi, 21 [1925], p. 109 ff.; 23 [1927], p. 23 ff.).
Venerated is the sanctuary of St. Anthony at Gemona del Friuli. The church dedicated to the Saint was already consecrated in 1247. Held by the Conventuals until 1769, in 1845, after having remained for a long period in the hands of the secular clergy, it passed to the Friars Minor who currently officiate it. - See pl. LXVII.
