VELLETRI, DIOCESE of. - It is one of the suburbicarian dioceses which, with the exception of the city and territory of V. Rome, extends over the northwestern portion of the province of Latina; immediately subject to the Holy See; area 479 sq. km.; inhabitants 90,451; Catholics 90,200; churches 52; parishes 29; secular priests 51; regular priests 24; minor seminary. Its patrons are: St. Clement and, since 1806, also Our Lady of Grace.
On the border of the Latium vetus, V. is the Volscian Velester, which, through alternating fortunes, remained continually at war with Rome until it was finally subdued in 338 B.C. by the consul C. Maenius. It then became Velitrae and a Roman municipium; but the well-known inscription on an encaustic tablet indicates that Volscian was still spoken there in the 4th century. It boasted many monuments that have entirely disappeared, including a 6th-century B.C. temple decorated with terracottas of high artistic value. With the invasion of Alaric, V. declined, and in the iconoclastic struggle and the Investiture Controversy it stood beside the Church, obtaining privileges. In 1181 it witnessed the election as pope of its cardinal-bishop Ubaldo Allucingoli (Lucius III), who continued to reside there, together with his court, until 1183.
But its autonomy was asserted when Gregory IX placed it under the authority of the Holy See, separating it from that of the commune of Rome. In 1299 the same Pope Boniface VIII was its podestà. During the Avignon period, however, Rome regained the upper hand, not without resistance from V., which was simultaneously torn apart internally by the factions of the Sheep (Guelphs) and the Wolves (Ghibellines). In the first half of the 16th century it passed definitively under the direct rule of the Church, with the cardinal-bishop becoming its protector and governor. The following events took place in its territory: the battle of 10 August 1774, an episode in the War of the Austrian Succession, in which the Austrian general Lobkowitz was defeated; the democratic movements, with the related popular uprisings, of 1798; and the clashes between Garibaldists and Neapolitan troops in 1849.
It remains uncertain when Christianity was introduced into V. In addition to the Christian marble sarcophagus (Wilpart, Sarcofagi, pl. 4, 3, pp. 3, 50, 131), several Christian inscriptions, perhaps dating from the 4th century, come from the local suburban cemetery, discovered in 1750 in the Palazzo district outside Porta Napoletana. Although its exact location has been lost, some chance discoveries made after 1910 suggest that its galleries, with loculi closed by tiles, should be sought on both sides of the Via Appia Nuova between V. and the railway (cf. Notizie di arch. st. ed arte di V., 1942, pp. 37; 41-43). Another Christian cemetery, probably from the 4th century, 4.5 km. from the city, in the Solluna district, was discovered in 1921. It seems, however, to have served rather the Christians of nearby Manio ad sponsas, on the Via Appia Antica, than those of V. case, the ancient titular saint of the Cathedral, St. Clement, has been arbitrarily regarded as the evangelizer and first bishop of the diocese. Thus far, however, the earliest known bishop remains Adeodatus (465).
The diocese of V. annexation, temporary in August 592 and definitive between the years 870 and 880, of the episcopal see of Tres Tabernae (v.) and, after 963, of the see of Norma, of which the only known bishop is Giovanni, present at the Council of Rome in November of that year. To protect it from barbarian incursions, a bull of Gregory I (February 592) permitted the temporary transfer of the Velitern episcopal see to the church of S. Andrea in Silice at Castelvecchio, today Le Castella. It reached its greatest splendor, however, around the year 1150, when, apparently under Eugene III, it was united with the diocese of Ostia, the see of the cardinal dean; this arrangement lasted until 5 May 1934.
The prelates of V. belong to the cardinals of the Order of Bishops, and the following should be remembered among them: St. Geraldo Moroveo (1146), who freed V. from the Saracens; Ugolino de' Conti (Gregory IX); Rinaldo de' Conti (Alexander IV); Pietro da Tarantasia O. P. (Innocent V); Latino Malabranca Orsini (1278), great statesman and diplomat; Niccolò Boccasini O. P. (Benedict XI); Niccolò da Prato (1304), pacifier of Tuscany; Pietro d'Etain (1377), legate in Italy; Guglielmo d'Estouteville (1461), to whom the construction of the episcopal residence is owed; Giuliano della Rovere (Julius II), restorer of the Cathedral; Alessandro Farnese (Paul III); Gian Pietro Carafa (Paul IV); Bartolomeo Pacca (v.); Luigi Micara (1844);
Basilio Pompili (1920), who provided the Seminary with a healthful summer residence, and Clemente Micara (since 1946), who restored the Cathedral, damaged by aerial bombardments in 1943-44.
Among others, the following were born there: Giovanni da V., distinguished bishop of Florence (1205-30); the painters Andrea Velletrano (14th century), Giovanni (15th century), Luciano (15th century), and Lello (16th century) da V.; Antonio Mancinelli (1462-1505), humanist and disciple of Pomponio Leto; Ruggero Giovannelli (1560-1625), musician and successor to Palestrina; Cardinal Marzio Ginnetti (1585-1670), diplomat and learned patron of the arts; Bonaventura Teoli O. F. M. Conv. (1596-1670), apostolic vicar of Constantinople, historian and founder of the Accademia degli Estinti in place of that of the Gonfirotri, and in competition with the other contemporary academies, acclaimed and buried by the celebrated Accademia Volsca Veltterna (1765-1839), of European renown; Alessandro Borgia (1731-1804), archbishop of Fermo and friend of L. A. Muratori; Cardinal Alessandro Borgia, prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, historian and Orientalist; Clemente Cardinali, a renowned archaeologist; Canon Ignazio Galli, illustrious meteorologist and seismologist, who died in 1920; and Msgr. Attilio Gabrielli (1876-1927), a respected researcher and disseminator of municipal history.
MONUMENTS. — The cathedral of S. Clemente, already mentioned in 496, was rebuilt in the Romanesque period, to which belong, besides the crypt, the apse with its fresco decoration from 1500 and its gabled superstructures; it was transformed in 1660 and contains the notable chapel of the Madonna delle Grazie (1637). The adjoining Capitular Museum preserves, among other things, a Madonna col Bambino by Gentile da Fabriano (1426); a Madonna attributed to Antoniazzo Romano; fragments of a richly illuminated parchment roll of the Exullet, perhaps produced in the school of Montecassino (11th–12th centuries); the exceptionally rich Byzantine cruciform reliquary (8th or 9th century), donated by Alessandro IV; and precious sacred vestments. Also noteworthy are the remains of the Teatro della Passione, where the Mysteries were performed from 1499 to 1675; the church of S. Maria del Trivio by C. Maderno (1622), with a classical-style façade (1840); the imposing Romanesque bell tower of 1353, with double bifora windows and double monofora windows; the monumental Palazzo Ginnetti, with the celebrated panoramic staircase by Martino Longhi il Vecchio, destroyed by the war; the Palazzo comunale by G. Della Porta (1575), with a library of great local historical interest; the Bramantesque church of S. Maria del Sangue (17th century); the church of S. Michele Arcangelo (12th century); and the church of S. Martino, mentioned in 1665, rebuilt on a Greek-cross plan (1772), with a tetrastyle pronaos on the façade (1825). In the diocese, besides the imposing Cyclopean walls of Norma and Cori, one may admire in this city the so-called temple of Hercules; the collegiate church of S. Maria della Pietà, with one of the oldest candelabra (12th century) for the Paschal candle; the small church of the Annunziata (15th century); as well as the unusual church with cloister of S. Oliva (15th century); and at Ninfa, where Pope Alessandro II was crowned (1152), the evocative medieval and Renaissance ruins of the town, abandoned in the 17th century.
Southeast of Cisterna, the place-names recall the vanished Castello di Tivera (Tiberio), the preferred residence of Pope Pasquale II. — Vedi tav. CXXI.