The Diocese of Rimini () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Emilia Romagna, Italy. From earliest times, it was a suffragan to the Holy See, despite repeated attempts by the Diocese of Ravenna to claim it as a suffragan diocese.Kehr IV, p. 158. Since 1604, however, it has been a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Ravenna-Cervia.
The episcopal see is in the cathedral of Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano, dedicated to the Holy Spirit (Sancta Columba). The cathedral was staffed and administered by a Chapter, composed of two dignities (not "dignitaries"), the Provost and the Archdeacon, and twelve Canons.Ughelli II, p. 410: "Cathedralis Ecclesia antiquissima est sub invocatione S. Columbae, cum XII canonicis, duabus dignitatibus ornatur, Praepositura scilicet atque Archidiaconatu, quibus rursus accedunt octo mansionarii, atque capellani quinque; Capitulum duo simplicia beneficia obtinet, mensaeque capitulari quinque curati junguntur...."
From 17 November 2022, Nicolò Anselmi is the 111º bishop of Rimini. He succeeded to Francesco Lambiasi who had reached the age of retirement.
History Rimini was probably evangelized from Ravenna. Among its traditional martyrs are: St. Innocentia and companions (who only became celebrated in the 15th century);Lanzoni, p. 707. Saints Juventinus, Facundinus, and companions; Saints Theodorus and Marinus. The see was probably established before the peace of Constantine.
Rimini's cathedral was dedicated to the Holy Spirit (Spirito Santo), and familiarly called S. Columba (the Holy Dove).Tonini, Storia di Rimini II, p. 510: "Hec aül illis fecimus ad honorē spiritus sci cui uocabulū est s(an)c(ta)e colūbe et ad honorē s(an)c(t)orum Facundini et Iuuentini et Peregrini felicitatisq(ue)." Kehr IV, p. 163.
The dates assigned to Gaudentius of Rimini, considered the city's proto-bishop, are controversial. One tradition, represented in a martyrological Passio written between the 8th and 12th centuries, makes him an Ephesian who came to Rome c. 290, and was consecrated a bishop by Pope Damasus I (366–384). In another tradition, found in a codex of the 11th or 12th century, Christianity was first preached in Rimini by the priest Leo of Montefeltro and the deacon Marinus, in the time of Diocletian and Maximianus, who were followed by Gaudentius, who was consecrated to be the first bishop.Lanzoni, p. 708. Bishop Gaudentius was later put to death by the Arians for having excommunicated the priest Marcianus.
The famous Council of Rimini against Arianism was held in May 359, presided over by Bishop Restitutus of Carthage, with more than 400 Western bishops present, some eighty of them Arians. It was an assembly intended by the Emperor Constantius to meet paralleled by the eastern bishops' council of Seleucia, as a substitute for one general ecumenical council. Pope Liberius, however, was neither present nor represented by delegates. The Emperor was represented by his Prefect Taurus. The Synod unanimously approved the decisions of Nicaea, especially the use of the expression ousia, pronounced the anathema upon each separate point of Arianism, and (on 21 July 359) declared Bishops Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, and Caius (Auxentius and Demophilus) to be heretics and deposed.
Bishop Stephanus was one of fourteen bishops at Constantinople with Pope Vigilius. He signed Vigilius' excommunication and deposition of Bishop Theodorus (14 May 553).J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus IX (Florence: A. Zatta 1763), p. 60.
Bishop Castor (591–599) was assigned a "Visitor", Bishop Leontius of Urbino, by Pope Gregory I, due to Castor's illness.Lanzoni, p. 713.
Bishop Agnellus (743) was perhaps the first bishop, according to sources in Rimini, to meddle with the magistrates of the city, on orders of the pope.Nardi, p. 44: "Agnello fu forse il primo Vescovo, secondo le memorie Riminosi, ed il Villani, che ebbe qualche ingerenza coi Magistrati di Rimino sul Temporale della Città a nome del Papa." That would have been Pope Gregory III (731-741) or Pope Zacharias (741–752).
Peter Damiani, in his book, Liber Gratissimus, addressed to Archbishop Henricus of Ravenna, pointed out Bishop Ubertus (1005–1015) as a simoniac, who had paid a large sum of cash for his bishopric, and yet was revered and respectable.Peter Damiani, Liber Gratissimus chapter 29 [Migne, Patrologia Tomus CXLV, p. 142. Nardi, pp. 79-80: "Sed dum haec aliquando cum religìosis quibusdam Episcopis agerem, ecce nunc in memoriam redit, quod Ubertus Ariminensis, reverendissimus vidélicet et honestissimus Praesul attulit. Aequivocus (Ubertus III), inquit praedecessor meus Ubertus Episcopus in sacrae sedis acquirendae commercio, teste provincia, nongentis Papiensis monetae libris (900 lb.) appendit, qui tamen postmodum B. Arduinum ... in presbiterum consecravit...."
Opizo was one of the bishops who installed and crowned the Antipope Clement III (Guiberto, 1075) in the Lateran in 1084; Ranieri II degli Uberti (1143) consecrated the ancient cathedral of St. Colomba; Alberigo (1153) made peace between Rimini and Cesena; Bonaventura Trissino founded the hospital of Santo Spirito; under Benno (1230) some pious ladies founded a hospital for the lepers, and themselves cared for the afflicted. At the end of the thirteenth century the Armenians received at Rimini a church and a hospital.
From November 1408, Pope Gregory XII resided at Rimini, as the guest of its Lord, Carlo Malatesta, to whom he had fled from Siena, to which he had fled from Lucca on 14 July 1408. In September 1409, having attempted without success to hold an ecumenical council at Cividale, in the diocese of Aquileia, he fled to Gaeta in the Kingdom of Naples, by ship. He was banished from the Kingdom of Naples on 31 October 1411, and again sought protection from Carlo Malatesta at Rimini. On 4 July 1415, he resigned as pope. He died at Recanati on 18 October 1417.J. N. D. Kelly and M. J. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes, second edition (Oxford 2010). pp. 236-238.
Giovanni Rosa united eleven hospitals of Rimini into one. Under Bishop Giulio Parisani (1549) the seminary was opened on 18 March 1568.Cappelletti II, p. 421. Tonini, Compendio, p. 322. Giambattista Castelli (1574–1583)Eubel III, p. 118. promoted the Tridentine reforms and was nuncio at Paris, arriving there on 14 June 1581 and dying there on 27 August 1583.Nardi, pp. 290, 294, 295.
On 14 December 1604, Pope Clement VIII, reversing the centuries long policy of his predecessors, removed the diocese of Rimini from the direct supervision of the Holy See, and assigned it as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Ravenna.
French occupation In March 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte was appointed commanding general of the French invasion of northern Italy. His victory at Lodi, on 10 May 1796, placed him in control of the Piedmont and Lombardy, and by 30 May all of north Italy, except for Mantua, was in his hands.R. E. Dupuy and T. N. Dupuy, The Encyclopedia of Military History, second revised ed. (New York: Harper & Row 1986), pp. 684-688. When the armies of the French Republic invaded the Romandiola in 1796, Bishop Vincenzo Ferretti (1779-1806) was forced to flee Rimini, with all his personal property. He sought refuge in San Marino, which, up until that time had been part of the papal states. But when the French general Berthier sent a letter ordering the magistrates to arrest and hand over Ferretti, the magistrates replied that they would do everything they could to carry out the French order. In the meantime, Ferretti had escaped.
In February 1797, French forces invaded the Romagna (Romandiola); the Papal States were forced to surrender, and, by the Treaty of Tolentino of 19 February 1797, handed over to the French the "Three Legations" (Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romandiola), including Rimini.Tonini, Compendio II, p. 238. The tree of liberty was planted at Rimini on 6 April 1797.Tonini, Compendio II, pp. 230-237. By mid-April 1797, Bishop Ferretti was back in Rimini; there had been a violent disturbance in Rimini against the French on 13 April, and the bishop held a public banquet to placate the French officials.Tonini, Compendio II, pp. 237-238. On 29 June 1797, Bonaparte decreed the establishment of the Cisalpine Republic, with its capital at Milan, to which Rimini was annexed. Rimini became the capital of the new French-style department called "Rubicone".Tonini, Compendio II, pp. 240.
Laws based on those of the French Republic were immediately put in force. In July 1797, all the monasteries of Rimini were closed and the monks expelled. The mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, and Capuchins) were dissolved.Tonini, Compendio II, p. 239. On 20 December 1797, Bishop Ferretti published a pastoral letter in his diocese, declaring that God was the patron and protector of all liberty, and that God was as acquiescent in a monarchical as a democratic regime, provided that religious liberty was not interfered with. But in the spring of 1798, the Directory of the Cisalipine Republic ordered a large reduction in the number of public religious festivals.Tonini, Compendio II, pp. 241-242, 246.
Because of the damage caused by the earthquake of 1786, and subsequent tremors, the liturgical functions of the cathedral had to be transferred to the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista, popularly called S. Agostino. When Bishop Vincenzo Ferretti was in Milan to attend the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as King of Italy, he obtained the decree allowing for the transfer of the episcopal seat to the Tempio Malatestiano (officially known as S. Francesco).Nardi, pp. 319-320. Cappelletti II, p. 323. Tonini, Compendio II, p. 376.
Diocesan Synods A diocesan synod was an irregularly held, but important, meeting of the bishop of a diocese and his clergy. Its purpose was (1) to proclaim generally the various decrees already issued by the bishop; (2) to discuss and ratify measures on which the bishop chose to consult with his clergy; (3) to publish statutes and decrees of the diocesan synod, of the provincial synod, and of the Holy See. John Paul II, Constitutio Apostolica de Synodis Dioecesanis Agendis (March 19, 1997): Acta Apostolicae Sedis 89 (1997), pp. 706-727. Andrea Tilatti, "Sinodi diocesane e concili provinciali in italia nord-orientale fra Due e Trecento. Qualche riflessione," Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Moyen-Age, Temps modernes T. 112, N°1. 2000, pp. 273-304.
Bishop Giulio Parisani (1550–1574), who had attended the Council of Trent,Parisani was present at the sessions of January–September 1562, and July, November, and December 1563. Nardi, pp. 282-283. held diocesan synods, in accordance with the decrees of the council, on 17 June 1566 and again on 28 October 1572.Nardi, p. 283. Cappelletti II, p. 421. Bishop Giovanni Battista Castelli (1574–1583) held his first diocesan synod on 9 May 1577. On 19 June 1578, he held his second synod. He held his third diocesan synod on 16 June 1580. Bishop Giulio Cesare Salicini (1591–1606) presided over the diocesan synod of 10 June 1593; he held a second synod on 27 May 1596, and another on 9 May 1602.J. D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus XXXVIbis (Paris: Hubert Welter 1913), pp. 379-382; 402; 937.