VIGEVANO, DIOCESI di. — City and diocese in the province of Pavia, suffragan of Vercelli.
It has an area of 1,509 sq km, with a population of 170,800 inhabitants, of whom 170,000 are Catholics, distributed among 83 parishes served by 192 diocesan priests and 14 religious priests; it has 3 male and 4 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 447).
On the right bank of the Ticino, along one of the most frequented routes between Lombardy and Piedmont, it was a Roman emporium, and the battle of the Ticino between Hannibal and Scipio was fought in its vicinity. Centre of the Frankish county called Bulgaria and a pieve, it received a diploma of immunity from Henry IV (1065); it was the object of a centuries-long dispute between Pavia and Milan, until the latter, under the Torriani, gained dominion over it, which then passed to the Visconti: Luchino built the castle there. Upon the death of Filippo Maria, V. Republic, and for this reason endured a harsh siege by Francesco Sforza, which ended with an honourable capitulation on 5 June 1449. From then on it followed the fortunes of the Duchy of Milan through its successive dominations.
V. diocese, at the request of Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan, by Clement VII with the bull Pro excellenti praeminentia at Bologna on 16 March 1530. It was supposed also to include Lomellina, which depended on the bishop of Pavia, but the latter refused to surrender the territory. Thus the new diocese remained limited to V. S. Albino in Mortara and S. Gaudenzio in Gambolò. The first bishop was Mgr Galeazzo Pietra, from Pavia, who was commendatory abbot of the Cistercian abbey of S. Maria di Acqualunga; at the request of this commendatory abbot, the Pope assigned part of this abbey to the episcopal mensa. For his part, the Duke guaranteed, from the revenues of the Villa Sforzesca (later replaced by Charles V, by his order, with those of Zeme), the endowment of the episcopal mensa and the canonical prebends, and ordered the demolition of the pre-existing collegiate church of S. Ambrogio, to replace it with the solemn Bramante-style Cathedral begun by Ambrogio di Lonate (1532), whose perfectly restored wooden model is preserved; he enriched it with gifts of precious tapestries, gold and silver furnishings, Gospel and Epistle books (signed by the brothers Decio and Agostino Ferrante), illuminated missals, 14 illuminated parchment volumes (choir graduals), panels of great
(from G. Chierici, Il battistero di Lomello, in Atti della Pont. acc. rom. di arch., II [D.B-II], fasc. III-IV, fasc. 3)
VIGEVANO, DIOCESI di. — Overall view of the baptismal font of Lomello (8th–9th centuries).
value, among them the altarpiece of the Crucifix, signed by Cesare Magni, bearing the portrait of Mgr Pietra, kneeling, S. Ambrogio, S. Girolamo, etc. Work on the Cathedral proceeded very slowly; the façade had to await the genius of Caranuel (1673–82), and the dome was not completed until the episcopate of Mgr Cattaneo (1712–30).
With the bull of foundation, Clement VII granted the Duke and his successors the right of nomination for the bishop and for all the benefices of the city, both canonries and parishes. This right subsequently passed to Charles V and his successors, the kings of Spain, until the death of Filippo in 1714; with the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt, which assigned V. Austria, patronage passed to the German Emperor. Finally, with the Treaty of Aachen, which granted V. to the House of Savoy, this right was regularly exercised by the Kings of Sardinia and Italy. No government ever imposed, for the administration of the churches, the establishment of parish church boards or any other analogous institution. On 18 February 1801, Mgr Maria Giuseppe Scarampi died, and on 28 March a Commissioner of the Cisalpine Republic ordered the suppression of the Chapter, which was nevertheless restored in 1805. On 17 August 1817, when the new ecclesiastical province of Vercelli was created, the diocese of V. was also enrolled in it, having previously been subject to Milan. Moreover, through the express intervention of King Vittorio Emanuele I, Lomellina was united to the diocese of V., and thus the number of parishes increased from 5 to approximately 70. In addition, in 1830 the Vigevano parish of Gravellona was exchanged for the Novara parish of Sozzago.
The Seminary, begun by the second bishop, Maurizio Pietra, in 1565, immediately after his return from the Council of Trent, was suitably organised by Mgr Sormani Marino (1688–d. 1702), who assigned to its service the little church of S. Anna and built its first premises of its own, still preserved and joined to the large Palace commissioned by Bishop Mgr Toppia (1818–28). Since he was unable to complete during his lifetime everything he would have wished, he left to his successor, Mgr Accusani (1830–43), the task and the means of erecting a building capable of housing as many young men as were required by the diocese’s great expansion.
Mgr De Gaudenzi (1871–91) opened the Minor Seminary with internal grammar-school classes and built the adjoining church, which he dedicated to the Sacred Heart and had frescoed by Morgari.
SHRINES. — The diocese of V. possesses near Garlasco an important and much-revered shrine, the Madonna della Bozzola, consisting of a grand temple, the work of the Milanese architect Cesare Nava, together with recently constructed buildings. Worthy of special mention is the Madonna inter vineis near V., of very ancient origin, being mentioned in several documents of the twelfth century.