History
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The earliest events of the Christian history of Venosa are contained in the mythological martyrdoms of the Twelve Brothers [3] (286) and, in 303, of Felix, bishop of Thibiuca in Africa proconsularis, near Carthage. Francesco Lanzoni has shown that there are five different versions of the martyrology, sometimes with different companions, and different destinations to the place of execution. The first recension is assigned to the sixth century. The second recension of the martyrology mentions Venosa, but to do so two emendations of two different nonsensical place names are required. The third recension has the bishop executed at Nola, though his body ends up in Milan, or Nola (through an emendation of the text). [4] Lanzoni agrees with most scholars in placing Bishop Felix's death in Africa near Carthage, under the proconsul Annulinus. [5]
Stephanus (498) is the first Bishop of Venosa whose date is known accurately.
The names of other bishops up to the Norman conquest in the 11th century have not been preserved.
The Benedictine abbey of Santissima Trinità di Venosa was founded in 1043, under the patronage of the Norman Duke Drogo. [6] The abbey became the mausoleum of the family of Duke Robert Guiscard. [7]
It is alleged that a bishop of Venosa in the first half of the 13th century was assassinated by a cleric. Bishop Bono (1223) is usually named as the victim. [8] The only source for the incident is the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, whose remark is preserved in a document in which he responds to a number of questions put to him by four bishops, sent as nuncios by Pope Gregory IX. [9] The bishops complained that clerics were being thrown into imperial prisons and executed. Frederick, in a reproach to the laxity of church authorities, replied: "[The Emperor] is also aware of killings, because the Church of Venosa weeps over the death of their bishop, killed by a monk, because of the lack of punishment of clerics and monks. [10]
A diocesan synod was held in Venosa by Bishop Giovanni Gerolamo Maneri (1585–1591) on 17 September 1589. [11] Andrea Pierbenedetti (1611-1634) held a diocesan synod in Venosa on 2 April 1614. [12] Bishop Pietro Antonio Corsignano held a diocesan synod in Venosa on 4–6 April 1728. [13]
Bishop Lamberto Arbaud (1509) embellished the cathedral, [14] which was demolished a little later to permit the erection of fortifications.
The Napoleonic disruption and restoration
From 1801 to 1818 the see of Venosa remained vacant. From 1806–1808, Naples was occupied by the French, and Joseph Bonaparte was made king, [15] after Napoleon had deposed King Ferdinand IV. Joseph Bonaparte was succeeded by Joachim Murat from 1808 until the fall of Napoleon in 1815. Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon in France from 1809 to 1815, and was both unable and unwilling to make new episcopal appointments. The French expelled all monks, nuns, and Jesuits from the kingdom, and closed the monasteries and convents; colleges of canons were also closed. [16]
Following the extinction of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the Congress of Vienna authorized the restoration of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Since the French occupation had seen the abolition of many Church institutions in the Kingdom, as well as the confiscation of most Church property and resources, it was imperative that Pope Pius VII and King Ferdinand IV reach agreement on restoration and restitution. Ferdinand, however, was not prepared to accept the pre-Napoleonic situation, in which Naples was a feudal subject of the papacy. Neither was he prepared to accept the large number of small dioceses in his kingdom; following French intentions, he demanded the suppression of fifty dioceses. [17] Lengthy, detailed, and acrimonious negotiations ensued. [18] On 17 July 1816, King Ferdinand issued a decree, in which he forbade the reception of any papal document, including papal bulls, without prior reception of the royal exequatur. This meant that prelates could not receive bulls of appointment, consecration, or installation without the king's permission. [19]
A concordat was finally signed on 16 February 1818, and ratified by Pius VII on 25 February 1818. Ferdinand issued the concordat as a law on 21 March 1818. [20] The re-erection of the dioceses of the kingdom and the ecclesiastical provinces took more than three years. The right of the king to nominate the candidate for a vacant bishopric was recognized, as in the Concordat of 1741, subject to papal confirmation (preconisation). [21] On 27 June 1818, Pius VII issued the bull De Ulteriore, in which the metropolitanate of Acerenza was restored, with Anglona e Tursi, Potenza, Tricarico, and Venosa as suffragans; the diocese of Lavello was permanently suppressed and united to the Church of Venosa. [22]
In 1818, the diocese of Lavello, suffragan to the archdiocese of Bari, was suppressed and its territory united to the diocese of Venosa. The city of Lavello was founded in 1042, when the Norman count Arniclino [23] fixed his seat at Lavello. [24]
Modern Developments
Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, [25] Pope Paul VI ordered a reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces in southern Italy. The decree "Eo quod spirituales" of 12 September 1976 created a new episcopal conference in the region called "Basilicata", to which were assigned all of the dioceses that belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Potenza; they had formerly belonged to the episcopal conference of "Apulia". [26]
On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered the unification of the dioceses of Melfi, Rapolla, and Venosa, into a single bishopric, to be named "Dioecesis Melphiensis-Rapollensis-Venusina", with its headquarters in Melfi. The cathedral of Melfi was designated the diocesan cathedral, and the cathedral of Venosa became a co-cathedral, and its Chapter became the Chapter of a co-cathedral. The diocese of Venosa was suppressed, and its territory united to the territory of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa. The diocese of Rapolla had been suppressed in 1528, and its territory united to the diocese of Melphi. [27]
The diocese of Melfi is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo.
