History
The city of Vittorio Veneto includes the town of Ceneda which in ancient times was a castrum known as Ceneta and poetically as Acedum. The city is situated in the province of Treviso, 7 miles (12 km) north of Conegliano.
Ceneda was pillaged by Attila the Hun in 452, and a century later by Totila. After 568, during the domination of the Lombards, it was governed by a duke and then a count. Still later it became part of the marquisate of Treviso.
The Gospel is said to have been preached in the region in the first century by St. Fortunatus, deacon of bishop Hermagoras of Aquileia. His legend puts him, rather, in the 4th century. [3] Attesting to the presence of Christianity is one of the earliest pieve (parish) of the diocese, Sant'Andrea di Bigonzo, which dates from the fourth century.
However, the historical beginning of episcopal see of Ceneda is uncertain. There may have been a bishop present in Ceneda very soon after the Lombard conquest. The first reputed bishop seems to have been Vindemius who was present in 579 at the Synod of Grado which continued the Schism of the Three Chapters. He was, however, bishop of Cissa in Istria, not bishop of Ceneda. [4]
In 680, Bishop Ursinus was present at the Council of Rome convened by Pope Agatho against the Monothelites. [5] In 685, the Lombard duke Grumoaldo assigned to the bishop of Ceneda a large part of the territory that had formerly been under the care of Oderzo to counter the claims of Oderzo's bishop in exile. [6] The city of Oderzo had, in fact, been destroyed by the King Rotharius (636-652) and King Grimoaldus (662-671), and its people sought refuge with the Byzantines in the Venetian lagoon, at Forumjulii, Treviso, and Ceneda. [7] A patron saint of the diocese of Ceneda is actually a bishop of Oderzo, Titianus, whose body is said to have miraculously been carried up the Livenza River against the current and to have come to rest at the site of the present cathedral after being carried in a cart by a donkey. [8]
From 994 the bishop of that city became also its temporal lord, even after it was politically incorporated into the Republic of Venice in 1389. [9]
Bishop Sigifredo, during whose time there were many conflicts between Ceneda and the neighbouring towns, was allied with the bishop of Belluno and the people of Padua in a war against Trevento. In September 1179, Sigifredo promised his ally, the Count of Conegliano, that he would transfer the episcopal seat of Ceneda to Conegliano. [10] The damage to Ceneda and the neighboring territory was so serious that Pope Innocent III actually authorized Bishop Matteo on 25 March 1199 to remove of the episcopal seat from Ceneda to Conegliano, but the seat remained where it was. [11]
Other bishops were Antonio Correr (1409); Lorenzo da Ponte (1739), the last bishop to exercise temporal power, and Albino Luciani (1958–1969) who became pope John Paul I in 1978.
In 1586, Bishop Marco Antonio Mocenigo (1586–1597) and Cardinal Enrico Caetani, the papal legate in Bologna, conducted the foundation ceremonies for the episcopal seminary in Ceneda. [12]
Bishop Sebastiano Pisani (seniore) (1639–1653) presided over a diocesan synod in Ceneda on 11–13 September 1642. [13] Bishop Pietro Leoni (1667–1691) held a diocesan synod in Ceneda on 9–11 November 1670. [14] On 20–22 June 1695, Bishop Marco Agassi held a diocesan synod. [15] Bishop Francesco Trevisan (1710–1725) held a diocesan synod in 1721. [16] A diocesan synod was held by Bishop Lorenzo da Ponte (1739–1768) on 24–26 June 1743. [17]
Post-Napoleonic reorganization
The violent expansionist military policies of the French Revolutionary Republic, the First French Empire, and the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy had brought confusion and dislocation to the Po Valley. Following the redistribution of European territories at the Congress of Vienna (1815), the Papacy faced the task of restoring and restructuring the Church in various territories, according to the wishes of their rulers. Padua and Venice were under the control of Austria, and therefore a Concordat had to be negotiated with the government of the Emperor Francis. One of the requirements of the Austrian government was the elimination of several metropolitanates and the suppression of a number of bishoprics which were no longer viable due to the bad climate (malaria and cholera) and the impoverishment of the dioceses due to migration and industrialization; it was expected that this would be done to the benefit of the Patriarchate of Venice. [18]
Pope Pius VII, therefore, issued the bull "De Salute Dominici Gregis" on 1 May 1818, embodying the conclusions of arduous negotiations. Ceneda became a suffragan of Venice. [19]
The diocese of Ceneda also gained a number of parishes from the diocese of Udine. [20]
On November 22, 1866, soon after the Veneto was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy, Ceneda and Serravalle were joined into one municipality, which was called Vittorio, in honor of the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele. The Vatican, which had lost the Papal States to the new Kingdom of Italy, was not inclined to honor the king, and therefore kept the name Ceneda as the title of the diocese. In World War I, the last major campaign of Italian troops against the Austrian Empire was fought near Vittorio between 24 October and 4 November 1918. In commemoration of the victory, the name of the city of Vittorio was changed to Vittorio Veneto in 1923.
Just before the beginning of the Second World War, the Vatican recognized the change of name which had taken place 16 years earlier, and adopted the title of Diocese of Vittorio Veneto. [21]
