Roman Catholic Diocese of Acquapendente


The Italian Roman Catholic diocese of Acquapendente was an ecclesiastical territory in Lazio. The seat of the bishop was in the cathedral of Acquapendente, dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre. The diocese was established in 1649, when it was created in the place of the suppressed diocese of Castro. In 1986, along with other dioceses, it was merged into the diocese of Viterbo, Acquapendente, Bagnoregio, Montefiascone, Tuscania e San Martino al Monte Cimino.

History

In 1649, in consequence of a conspiracy, Cristoforo Girarda, a Barnabite of Novara and Bishop of Castro, was assassinated in the Second War of Castro. In punishment of this crime, Pope Innocent X ordered Castro to be destroyed, and raised Acquapendente to the dignity of an episcopal city, directly under the Holy See. Its bishops, however, retained the appellation "post Castrenses." The first incumbent of the new See was the Hieronymite Pompeo Mignucci of Offida, who had been Archbishop of Ragusa. He took possession on 10 January 1650.
Bishop Nicolò Leti held a diocesan synod in Acquapendente on 9–10 May 1660, and published the Constitutions of the synod. Bishop Florido Pierleoni, C.O. held a diocesan synod in 1818.
By the middle of 1986, papal policy in the selection of bishops had concentrated in the person of Bishop Luigi Boccadoro: the Diocese of Viterbo e Tuscania, the diocese of Acquapendente, the diocese of Montefiascone, and the Administratorship of the diocese of Bagnoregio ; he was also the Abbot Commendatory of Monte Cimino. On September 30, 1986, Pope John Paul II moved to consolidate these several small dioceses by suppressing them and uniting their territories into the diocese of Viterbo e Tuscania, whose name was changed to the Diocese of Viterbo. The diocese of Acquapendente ceased to exist.
The title of Acquapendente, though not the diocese structure, was revived in 1991, to serve as a titular see. It is currently the episcopal title of an auxiliary bishop.

Bishops of Acquapendente