VALLO DI LUCANIA, DIOCESI of. — City and diocese in the province of Salerno. It has an area of 3,000 sq. km., with a population of 152,000 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 107 parishes, served by 90 diocesan and 25 religious priests; it has a minor seminary, 8 male and 38 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 418).
In the territory of Lucania there was originally the ancient diocese of Pesto, whose protector was the martyr Vito, who in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum is commemorated on 15 June in Lucania (p. 321; BBL, 8711). In 592 St. Gregorio Magno ordered Felice, bishop of Agropoli, to visit the dioceses of Velia, Buxentum (Capo della Foresta), and Blanda Iulia, which had remained without bishops. The names of the earlier prelates of the first and third are unknown; at Buxentum a Rusticus is known at the beginning of the sixth century, while at Blanda Iulia there is later known the bishop Romano, who was present at the Roman Synod of 5 July 595. L. Duchesne and F. Lanzoni held that Felice was the bishop of Pesto who had withdrawn to Acropoli because of the Lombard invasion; a bishop of Pesto was present in Rome at the Council of 649. Pesto was subsequently destroyed by the Saracens in 930; the diocese then transferred to Capaccio, but until the twelfth century its bishops retained the title; in 1159, with the bishop Leonardo, the title of Capaccio (Caputaquen) begins to be found. Later, the sees of Blanda Iulia and Acropoli were united with Capaccio. In 1568, however, the episcopal see was transferred to Diano; in 1851 Pope Pius IX, by the bull Cum propter insistiae dilectionem of 16 July, created the diocese of V. as a suffragan of Salerno, and on 12 October of the same year the local church of S. Pantaleone was elevated to cathedral status. On 24 November 1945 the title of the diocese was changed to V. di L. Besides those already mentioned, the following bishops may be recalled: Arnolfo, who took part in the Lateran Council in 1179; the Basilian monk Pietro Matta de Haro (1611); Cardinal Francesco Brancacci (1627); Tommaso Caraffa (1639); and Giovanni della Pace (1684). On Monte Sacro (1,705 m), which dominates the entire Cilento region, stands the much-venerated sanctuary of the Madonna di Novi Velia and of the S. Monte di Novi. The diocese included the two Basilian monasteries of S. Maria di Centola and S. Niccolò di Controne.
BBL.: Ughelli, VII, pp. 464–85; Cappelletti, XX, pp. 338–65; Eubel, I, p. 171; II, p. 132; III, p. 167; IV, p. 134; V, p. 142; L. Duchesne, Les évêchés d'Itai, et l'invasion lombarde, Roma 1906, p. 22; P. Fr. Kehr, Italia Pontificia, VIII, Berlino 1935, pp. 367–70. Enrico Josi