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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sant'Agata de' Goti was an ecclesial jurisdiction of the Latin Church, part of the larger Catholic Church, located in the Province of Benevento, Campania, southern Italy. It was a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Benevento from its creation in 969. In 1986, it was merged into the Diocese of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant'Agata de' Goti, which continued as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Benevento.[1][2]
The bishops of Sant'Agata de' Goti were also barons of Bagnoli, from the 12th century to the 19th. From 1818 to 1854, the bishop of Sant'Agata de' Goti was also Bishop of Acerra.
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The castle of Sant'Agata was held by a Lombard gastaldo, dependent upon the duchy of Benevento, who was promoted to the rank of count by Duke Arechis II of Benevento in 758.[3] In 866, Emperor Louis II captured it from the Byzantines, who had taken it from the Longobard Duchy of Benevento.
The fief of Sant'Agata was held, around the end of the first millennium, by the Lombard prince of Capua, Landolfo. In 1066 it fell into the hands of the Normans. Even at the beginning of the Norman rule, it remained in the hands of a Lombard, Rainulfo II (1181), who was named Count of S. Agata by King William II of Sicily.[4]
When the French conquered the kingdom of Sicily, King Charles I granted the county of S. Agata to the Artus family,[5] which held the fief until Ladislaus d'Artus was killed in 1411 in a rebellion against King Ladislaus of Naples. Subsequently, the fief passed to the Orilia family, then the Della Ratta, the Acquaviva, and the Ram. In the 1500s it became a duchy under the Cossa, and then in 1674 under the Carafa, who held it until the abolition of feudalism in the mid-19th century.[6]
The name Sant'Agata de' Goti of the See is derived by tradition from a body of Goths who took refuge there after the battle of Vesuvius (552);[7] the church of the Goths in Rome, too, was dedicated to St. Agatha.[2] In the diocese, there are also parish churches called Sant'Agata sopra la Porta and Sant'Agata de Marenis.[8]
The consecration of a bishop for Sant'Agata is first mentioned in the papal bull of 970, by which Pope John XIII elevated the diocese of Benevento to the status of Metropolitan Archdiocese of Benevento. The bull authorized the new metropolitan to nominate and consecrate the bishops of the assigned suffragans, including Santa'Agatha. The bull describes precisely the territory of Benevento.[9] In December 970, Archbishop Landulf of Benevento issued a bull in favor of Bishop Madelfridus of Sant'Agata, defining the diocesan limits.[10]
Around 1100, under the patronage of Count Robert,[11] the city began the construction of the monastery of San Menna, a 6th-century hermit, whose remains had been discovered in 1094.[12] The church was personally consecrated by Pope Paschal II on 4 September 1110.[13]
In 1181, Count Rainulf II of S. Agata granted Bishop Urso the local fief of Bagnoli, which brought with it the temporal rank of Baron. The bishops continued to enjoy the title until the abolition of feudalism in the 19th century.[14] By 1714, the castle of Bagnoli was nearly deserted, due to banditry and pestilence.[15]
The city was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1456.[16]
In 1703, there were some sixty priests in the city, and twenty-five clerics. The population was 3,164.[17] In 1885, the city of Sant'Agata claimed a population of 8,014; the entire diocese had 34,812 Catholics.[18] In 1980, just before its suppression, the diocese had a Catholic population of 36,332.
Two diocesan synods were held by Bishop Feliciano Ninguarda, O.P. (1583–1588) in 1585 and in 1586.[19] Bishop Giacomo Circio presided over a diocesan synod in the cathedral of Sant'Agata on 12–14 August 1681.[20] Bishop Filippo Albini (1699–1722) held a diocesan synod in 1706.[21]
The cathedral in Sant'Agata de' Goti is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, with the commendation of S. Stephen the Protomartyr and S. Agatha.[22]
The cathedral is administered and served by a corporation called the Chapter. In 1703, the Chapter consisted of thirty members, headed by five dignities (the Archdeacon, the Dean, the Penitentiary, two Primicerii, and the Treasurer). The Treasurer acted as the parish priest of the cathedral parish. There were six other parishes in the city and immediate suburbs. There were two religious houses for men inside the city, one of the Conventual Franciscans, the other of the Brothers of S. John of God, who had a hospital. The abbey of S. Mennas no longer had its own abbot, or even a commendatory abbot, but was under the administration of the Scottish College in Rome; the Rector was obliged to swear obedience to the bishop and accept his visitation.[23]
Following the expulsion of the French and the restoration of the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a concordat was 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.[24] 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).[25] On 27 June 1818, Pius VII issued the bull De Ulteriore, in which he reestablished the metropolitan archbishopric of Benevento and its suffragans, including Sant'Agata de' Goti.[26] The diocese of Acerra and the diocese of Sant'Agati de' Goti were united under one and the same bishop, aeque personaliter.[27]
On 30 November 1854, following the death of Bishop Francesco Iavarone of Sant'Agata and Acerra (1849–1854), Pope Pius IX reversed the action of Pius VII with regard to the union of those two dioceses aeque personaliter, and separated them again into two distinct and different dioceses, each complete with all the powers of its own bishop and the institutions of its own diocese. Sant'Agata continued as a suffragan of Benevento; Acerra became (again) a suffragan of Naples.[28]
Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40,[29] Pope Paul VI ordered a reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces in southern Italy, beginning with consultations among the members of the Congregation of Bishops in the Vatican Curia, the Italian Bishops Conference, and the various dioceses concerned.
On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. The Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese.
On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Diocese of Telese-Cerreto Sannita and S. Agatha Gothorum be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Dioecesis Cerretana-Thelesina-Sanctae Agathae Gothorum. The seat of the diocese was to be in Cerreto, whose cathedral was to serve as the cathedral of the merged diocese. The cathedral in S. Agatha Gothorum was to have the honorary title of "co-cathedral"; the Chapter was to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in Molfetta, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the suppressed diocese. The new diocese was a suffragan of the archdiocese of Benevento.[30]
Erected: 10th Century
Latin Name: Sanctae Agathae Gothorum
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