VERCELLI, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - It has an area of 1,658 sq km and a population of 198,500 inhabitants, divided among 139 parishes, of which 119 are in the province of Vercelli, 10 in that of Novara, 9 in that of Pavia and 1 in that of Alessandria. The diocesan clergy consists of 299 resident priests; 2 seminaries: the major one in the city, the minor one at Moncrivello. It also counts 7 male religious orders and congregations with 12 houses, 49 priests and 32 laymen; 126 female houses with 955 religious. The capital has 42,930 inhabitants (1951). Patron: St. Eusebius bishop, whose feast is celebrated on 1 August. An archiepiscopal see since 1817, it has as suffragans the dioceses of Alessandria, Biella, Casale, Novara and Vigevano. Its territory consists for 3/4 of plains predominantly cultivated with rice (about half of the national area and production), whence derives a particular social problem from the seasonal immigration of over 27,000 foreign rice-weeders, mostly women, at the time of the weeding (May-July) and of 16,000 outside reapers for the harvest.
I. CIVIL HISTORY
The city is the ancient Vercellae, situated near the river Sesia, almost at the confluence of the Roman roads that led from Pavia and from Milan to the passes of the Pennine Alps, founded by the Salluvii among the Libui or Libici (Pliny, Nat. hist., III, 21). Having entered the orbit of Rome perhaps at the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., V. became strong and powerful. Not far from it, at the Campi Raudii, in 101 B.C. Marius defeated the Cimbri. About thirty km. to the northwest, near Victimulum, there were the Vercelli gold mines mentioned by Strabo (V, 218, 12) and by Pliny (Nat. hist., XXXIII, 21). Included in the Augustan XI region (Transpadana), V., called by Martial (Epigr., X, 12) "Apollinean" from the pagan cult prevailing there, was since the times of Vitellius a "firmissimum municipium" (Tacitus, Hist., I, 70), ascribed to the Aniensis tribe. But afterward it declined so much that to St. Jerome it appeared by then "raro... habitatore semiruta" (PL 22, 327).
Capital of a duchy in the Lombard era, of a county in the time of the Franks, it passed to the jurisdiction of the bishops at the end of the 10th century. Having made itself progressively autonomous in the 11th-12th centuries and constituted as a free commune, it dominated a vast territory, bending even powerful feudal lords; it had in 1228 a Studium generale that lasted more than a century and proclaimed in 1243 the freedom of the serfs. In 1335 it fell under the lordship of the Visconti; Filippo Maria ceded it in 1427 to Duke Amedeo VIII of Savoy: Amedeo IX and Carlo II resided there and died there. It suffered ruinous sieges in 1617 and in 1638 at the hands of the Spaniards, who occupied it until 1659, and in 1704 at the hands of the French, who dismantled its fortifications.
II. RELIGIOUS HISTORY
Created a diocese around 345, V. had as its first bishop St. Eusebius (v.) and then comprised, it seems, the whole of Piedmont. But the address of the letter that Eusebius wrote from exile (ca. 356) to the clergy "et sanctis... plebibus Vercellensibus, Novariensibus, Hipporegiensibus, Augustanis, Industriensibus et Agaminis ad Palatium necnon etiam Derthonensibus" (according to the best reading: cf. BHL, 2748), seems to presuppose a situation already different for Turin and the other regions of Piedmont. The presence of Christian communities in minor localities far from the center, such as Industria (Monteu da Po) and Palatium (near Crescentino on the Roman road that, along the Po, joined Taurinum to Ticciuum), the institution of common life among the clergy (St. Ambrose, Epist., I, 63, 56) and the existence in V. of a monastery of virgins are signs of the rapid organization of the diocese through the work of Eusebius, favored by the strength of the pre-existing groups of the faithful. The apostolate carried out by his successors, St. Limenius, present at the Council of Aquileia of 381, and St. Honoratus (CIL, V, 6722), elected after internal conflicts through the intervention of St. Ambrose (Epist., I, 63: cf. Paulinus, Vita, 47), as well as by St. Gaudentius of Novara (v.) produced tangible results: around 389 the dioceses of Novara and Turin were detached from V., if indeed the latter had not been so already earlier, and, shortly afterwards, those of Ivrea and Aosta.
The catalogue of the 40 pastors from Eusebius to Nottingus (ca. 1830), resulting from their portraits once painted in the old Cathedral, is now fragmentary: among them, 12 of whom were adorned with the title of saint, stand out St. Emilian I, around 501, who, besides an altar in the Cathedral, where his body is venerated, had several churches dedicated to him; St. Flavian (d. 541), presumed author of the Vercelli metrical inscriptions, of which the epitaph survives (CIL, V, 6728); Emilian II, to whom King Aripert II confirmed in 707 the monastery of St. Michael of Lucedio, recently founded, and the previous donations. With Liutward, archchancellor of Charles the Fat, the temporal power of the bishops took shape, if it did not begin, both by virtue of the disputed diploma of 16 March 882, and by another similar act. The massacre that on 13 Dec. 899 the Hungarians made of the city clergy, to whom Liutward too succumbed (cf. MGH, Script., I, p. 609), though perhaps on another date, brought to the Church of V. grave consequences still persisting at the time of the Synod of Ingone (964), although Attone (v.) had in the meantime carried out a firm pastoral action there.
Against the bishops St. Peter (d. 997) and Leo, Arduino of Ivrea (v.) waged a fierce struggle: he burned the corpse of the former, who was its victim, wherefore he was excommunicated, while Otto III stripped him of the goods that he assigned with the counties of V. and of Santhià to Leo by means of two diplomas of 7 May 999. Although these donations remained in part inoperative, together with those of 1000-1001 they mark the acme of the episcopal feudal lordship. Very soon, perhaps from the middle of the 11th century, the commune began to contest its exercise ever more in the city and in the county; in these struggles is framed the construction of borghi and castles by bishops, such as Uguccione (d. 1170) who founded the Piazzo of Biella and Ronsecco; precursors of the free borghi (v.), about thirty, later created with other aims in the 12th-13th centuries by the Commune. The latter in 1243 attempted to take possession of the residual episcopal domain, by then reduced to the sole places listed (after the pievi) in the bull of 1 June 1187, sent by Urban III, formerly bishop of V. (1182-84) to St. Albert (v.); the prelate Martino Avogadro (1244-68) resisted in vain. They were instead brought to an end by the cession of Biella to the Savoy duke Amedeo VI (1379) and the investiture of the pontifical fief of Masserano and Crevacuore to the Fieschi (1394). In the 15th and 16th centuries the Church of V. was governed by bishops of the Fieschi family of Lavagna for about 90 years and then by members of the Ferrero family (v.), from 1499 to 1572, when Cardinal Guido Ferrero exchanged it with G. Francesco Bonomi (v. BONHOMINI), abbot of Nonantola. Bonomi implemented the Tridentine reform there: he held 11 synods, consolidated the urban Seminary, erected the minor one, abolished the Eusebian rite and, from pastoral visits in the diocese, in Moriana and in the Val d'Aosta (1576), left accurate reports.
In 1474 the diocese of Casale (v.) was detached from V.; in 1772 that of Biella (v.). Under Napoleon, who in the city alone suppressed as many as 18 convents, the diocese was territorially conformed to the department of the Sesia (1805). The brief B. Petri Apostolorum of 17 July 1817, which raised V. to a metropolis, established its present boundaries. Among the pastors of the 19th century Alessandro D'Angennes (1832-69) shines for zeal.
III. PARISHES, CHAPTERS, MONASTERIES
In the 10th century the diocese was divided into 36 rural parishes (catalogues in cod. Vat. lat. 4322, ff. 34° and 108), almost all situated on ancient Roman roads and in archaeological zones. Besides the two city Chapters of S. Maria and S. Eusebio, which the bishops Norgaudo (ca. 844) and Alderico in 1040 brought back to the practice of common life, already from the 11th century there existed 7 others, among them those of Biella and Casale. There were nine historic abbeys: SS. Michele and Genuario of Lucedio, made illustrious by St. Bononio (v.); S. Stefano of V.; SS. Vittore and Corona of Grazzano (Casale), endowed in 961; SS. Salvatore and Giacomo of the Bessa (Biella); Sannazzaro (ca. 1040); Muleggio (11th century?), Benedictine nuns; S. Maria of Lucedio, Cistercian, founded in 1123, flourishing under the abbots Pietro (1184-1205) and Oglerio (v.), whose vast territory took the name of Grangie (v.) from the monks who reclaimed it; S. Maria of Vezzolano ([v.] now Asti); S. Andrea of V., founded in 1224 by Card. Guala Bicchieri (v.), who placed the abbot Tommaso Gallo (v.) over it.
IV. ILLUSTRIOUS FIGURES
The following were born in the diocese: St. William (v.); Bl. Varmondo (v.); Bl. John of V. (v.); Bl. Emilia Bicchieri, Dominican, foundress of the monastery of St. Margaret (d. 1314); Bl. Antonio of the church of St. Germanus, Dominican (d. 1459); Bl. Arcangela Girlani of Trino, Carmelite (d. 1494); Bl. Maddalena Panattieri (v.); Bl. Giacobino Canepaccio, Carmelite (d. 1508): all with a cult approved in the diocese; Rainero Avogadro, the bishop who carried out the crusade against Fra Dolcino (v.); Antonio da V. (v.); M. Gattinara (v.); R. Baranzano (v.); O. Ferrari (v.); Raimondo Recrosio, bishop of Nice (d. 1732); G. Fr. Marchini, Bollandist (d. 1774); E. Avogadro Della Motta (v.).
V. ARCHIVES
Of the ancient Schola S. Eusebii, attached to the Cathedral, few records survive; but its importance can be inferred indirectly from the precious collection of 220 codices in the Capitular Archive (many of them illuminated, several from the 9th-11th centuries, about fifty liturgical, some of which with ancient musical notation; famous codices: the Vercellensis a of the vetus latina of the 4th century; the Anglo-Saxon one, Vercelli Book, of the 10th century; De advocatis of the Imitation of Christ ([v.] of the 13th-14th century; no. 39 containing the works of Atto, of the 10th century, etc., with documents from 707 onward). Also noteworthy are the Archives: archiepiscopal (papers from 1145 onward); civic, for the Biscioni collection (acts from 882 onward); of the hospital (the papers from the 12th century to 1500 are calendared); of the Archiepiscopal Curia (acts of pastoral visitations from 1553 onward). Of the papers of the ancient suppressed monasteries, some have been dispersed, some are in the State Archive of Turin. The Libraries of the Seminary, the Agnesiana (ecclesiastical) and the civic one are good.
VI. MONUMENTS
Belonging to the Romanesque period are the bell tower (of ca. 1152) of the Cathedral, rebuilt on various occasions from 1572 to 1860 on a design by P. Tibaldi and, for the facade and the atrium, by B. Alfieri (v.), which preserves a Crucifix of embossed silver leaf (11th century) and a treasure of great artistic value, including among other things a silver-leaf covering with embossing (9th century), donated by King Berengar I for the codex of the Gospels of St. Eusebius, and another of gold with enamel and hardstone ornaments for an evangeliary (11th century: v. plate 89 of vol. IX); the portal and the floor mosaics of S. Maria Maggiore (now in the Museo Leone together with the epigraphic material recovered in the demolition of the same and of the Cathedral), mother church of Vercelli, rebuilt in the 12th century and consecrated by Eugene III on 17 June 1148, demolished in 1777; the front part of S. Bernardo; the bell towers of S. Michele and S. Vittore. The architectural fervor of the 11th-12th centuries is confirmed by the surviving Romanesque churches scattered throughout the diocese, such as the ancient parish churches of S. Michele di Balocco; S. Michele di Clivolo at Borgo d'Ale; Lenta; S. Maria di Rado at Gattinara; the abbey church of S. Genuario, of the 11th century; the churches of Naula at Piane Sesia (there the epitaph of the priest Candidianus: 7th century); S. Michele di Trino (an important religious center, birthplace of the Giolito and of other famous printers who printed in Venice from 1480 and locally from 1508); S. Pietro di Robbio; S. Lorenzo di Oldenico; S. Pietro di Tronzano, etc. of the 12th century.
The most distinguished monument of the city is the basilica of
(courtesy of Msgr. A. P. Frutua)
VERCELLI, ARCHDIOCESE of. - St. Eusebius sets out for exile. Detail of the reliefs of the choir of the Cathedral, work by G. B. Bernero on a design by F. A. Meyer (18th century).
S. Andrea in Gothic style with Antelamic elements, built in the years 1219-27 under the care of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri; typical expressions of the Gothic are also the churches of S. Francesco, of S. Marco (reduced to a public market), of Sennazzaro and the monastic buildings of S. Maria di Lucedio. Of the 1700s noteworthy are the 2nd courtyard of the Seminary completed on a design by Juvarra and the parish church of Borgo d'Ale (1770) of Vittonian inspiration.
Toward the end of the 1400s and in the 1500s the Vercelli school of painting held a preeminent place in the artistic movement of Piedmont, made illustrious by the names of Spanzotti, of Sodoma (v.), who soon moved to Siena, of Gaudenzio Ferrari (v.), of the Oldoni, of the Giovenone and of Bernardino Lanino; the many panels and frescoes existing in the Museo Borgogna, in the episcopal palace and in various churches of the city (S. Cristoforo, S. Paolo, S. Francesco, S. Giuliano, etc.) and of the diocese document its prolific activity. Rich and esteemed are the city museums: Leone (archaeology) and Borgogna (picture gallery). A private individual preserves the chest of Cardinal Bicchieri with Limoges enamels of the 13th century. - See plate CXXX.
Bibliography40 works
Giuseppe Ferraris