The Diocese of Albano () is a Latin suburbicarian see of the Diocese of Rome in Italy, comprising seven towns in the Province of Rome. Albano Laziale is situated on the Appian Way some from Rome.
Since 1966, it has both a titular bishop and a diocesan bishop.
Early history
The city of Albano is located at the fifteenth milestone from Rome on the Via Appia Antiqua, and two miles from the ancient Alba Longa. A villa of Pompey the Great and a villa of the Emperor Domitian were located in the area.Fraikin, p. 1373. It had an amphitheater by the second half of the first century A.D.Juvenal, Satires IV, 99. Cassius Dio Cocceianus, History of Rome, LXVI, iii. The Acilius Glabrio, who was compelled to fight a bear, is later included in a Christian group of the Flavian family as a molitor rerum novarum: Suetonius, "Life of Domitian", 10. In 197, the Emperor Septimius Severus created the Legio II Parthica, whose headquarters was at the Castra Albana, until they were disbanded by the Emperor Constantine (306–337).Graham Webster, The Roman Imperial Army, third edition Totowa: Barnes & Noble Books 1985), p. 94.
According to the Liber PontificalisUnder the name Pope Silvester, the Emperor Constantine I provided the city with a new basilica, that of Saint John the Baptist:
fecit basilicam Augustus Constantinus in civitate Albanensis, videlicet S. Joannis Baptistae.
He also presented the church with various vessels of silver and silver gilt, and endowed the church with a number of local properties, including the farm of Mola (a mile west of the town), possession of the lake of Albano, the Massa Mucii, all the abandoned houses in Albano, possession of gardens, and other properties.Liber Pontificalis, pp. 184, 200.
This Constantinian basilica was destroyed by fire toward the end of the 8th century, or at the beginning of the 9th, along with the bishop's residence.Liber Pontificalis, " Vita Leonis III"; in Louis Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis, Tome II (Paris: Thorin 1892), p. 32: "Episcopium vero m Albanense simul cum ecclesia quae in nomine beati Pancratii fundata est per quandam neglegentiam vel incuriam, per submissiones diabolicas1 post matutinis laudibus exusto a fundamentis usque ad summum tegnum combustum est." Ferdinando Franconi has established the identity of this basilica with the present Albano Cathedral, which still contains some remains of the edifice dedicated by Pope Leo III to Saint Pancras. The cathedral was restored in 1563, and again at the beginning of the 19th century.Fraikin, p. 1379. Under the basilica there was a crypt, or confessio, from which bodies were transferred to the cemetery nearby. The cathedral is administered by a Chapter consisting of two dignities, the Archpriest and the Archdeacon, and eight Canons.G. Cappelletti, Le chiese d'Italia I, p. 657.
The foundation of the episcopal see of Albano may be contemporaneous with the erection of the Constantinian basilica. It is alleged that the first known bishop of the see is Dionysius (d. 355).Cappelletti I, p. 658, who "sostenne vigorosamente contro gli Ariani la difesa del santo patriarca Atanasio." This is a mistake. Dionysius was Bishop of Milan, not Albano: C. J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church (tr. H. N. Oxenham) Vol. II (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark 1876), pp. 206-209. Bishop Ursinus is found on an inscription in the Catacomb of Domitilla; the consular date is either 345 or 395. In 463, sources attest to a bishop of Albano named Romanus.
Catacombs The importance of this early Christian community is apparent from its cemetery, discovered in 1720 by Giovanni Marangoni. It differs but little from the Christian cemeteries found in Rome. Its plan, clearly mapped out in the Epitome de locis ss. martyrum quae sunt foris civitatis Romae, is considered by Giovanni Battista de Rossi as the synopsis of an ancient description of the cemeteries, written before the end of the 6th century:
per eandem vere viam (Appiam) pervenitur ad Albanam civitatem et per eandem civitatem ad ecclesiam S. Senatoris ubi et Perpetua jacet corpore et innumeri sancti et magna mirabilia ibidem geruntur.
Saint Senator of AlbanoLanzoni, p. 118. is inserted in the martyrology for 26 September (et in Albano Senatoris), without further specification. From this he passed to the Roman martyrology, where he is commemorated on the same day. But the first account of the martyrs of Albano is found in the Almanac of Philocalus (4th century) on 8 August:
VI Idus aug. Carpophori, Victorini et Severiani, Albano, et Ostense septimo ballistaria, Cyriaci, Largi, Crescentiani, Memmiae, Julianae, et Smaragdi.
The cemetery has frescoes, painted at various times by unknown artists, which show the various expressions of Christian funerary art from the fourth to the 9th century.
Pope Innocent I was a native of Albano.Liber Pontificalis, p. 220.
Later history
In the mid-19th century, the diocese of Albano contained only about 8,000 persons. It included ten castelli: Sabello, Riccia, Genzano, Cività-Lavinia, Nemi, Marino, Castelgandolfo, Pratica, Ardea, and Nettuno.Cappelletti I, p. 657. At the end of the century, it contained about 44,000 inhabitants, served by 60 secular priests and 124 priests of religious orders, and there were twelve parishes. The diocese had 67 churches, chapels, or oratories.Fraikin, p. 1379. There are now (2018) 77 parishes. There were three collegiate churches, with colleges of Canons, at Ariccia, Civita-Lavinia, and Nemi.Fraikin, p. 1378.
By the beginning of the 20th century, it had become apparent to the papacy that the suburbicarian bishops had become overburdened with the responsibilities of their curial and diocesan duties. The increase in commerce, in roads and travel, and the migration of people to the city,"hodie, multiplicatis commerciis, expeditioribus itineribus, auctoque proinde numero confluentium hominum, in quotidianum vocantur Fidei morumque discrimen." as well as the increased burden of duties in the papal administration because of the mass and complexity of problems affecting the Church,"Cardinalibus in Urbe negotia adeo sunt multiplicata, ut eorum paene mole obruantur, praesertim ob tot tantasque quibus Ecclesia nunc premitur necessitates... ingravescente praesertim aetate, tempus et vires interdum non sufficiant." made some sort of relief necessary. On his own initiative, therefore, Pope Pius X issued a decree, Apostolicae Romanorum Pontificium, granting the bishops of Ostia, Porto, Albano, Palestrina, and Frascati each a suffragan bishop to carry the burden of their pastoral duties in their dioceses. The pope appointed the suffragans, who had full powers inside the diocese, subject to the cardinal's approval, but not the power to ordain or consecrate, or the right to have a throne or display their coat-of-arms.The bishops of Sabina and Velletri already had suffragan bishops. Acta Apostolicae Sedis (Citta del Vaticano 1910), pp. 277-281. Further details were added by Pope John XXIII in his apostolic letter, Suburbicariis sedibus, defining the suffragan bishop as "Episcopus Ordinarius", with the same powers as other residential bishops, and enumerating the privileges of the cardinal bishop.Acta Apostolicae Sedis 54 (Citta del Vaticano 1962), pp. 253-256.
In 1914, Pius X took steps to regulate the irregularities in the incomes of the six cardinal suburbicarian bishops. On his own initiative, after consulting with the curial cardinals and with their agreement, he issued the decree Edita a Nobis, in which he ordered that in the future the incomes of the cardinal bishops should be placed in a single fund, administered by the Office of Economic Affairs, to which each cardinal must render an annual account. Each year, after 6,000 Lire was to be given to each suffragan bishop, the remaining money collected was to be divided into equal portions, the bishop of Ostia to receive two portions, and each of the other bishops one portion. The decree also ordered that the bishop of Ostia, when promoted to that position, should also retain his previous bishopric; the diocese of Velitrae was to be removed from his jurisdiction, and from that point the suburbicarian sees would be: Ostiensis, Portuensis et Sanctae Rufinae, Albanensis, Praenestina, Sabinensis, Tusculana, Veliterna.Acta Apostolicae Sedis 6 (Citta del Vaticano 1914), pp. 219-220.
List of bishops
to 1000
Ursinus (395)Orazio Marucci, "Di alcune inscrizioni recentemente trovate o ricomposte, nella basilica di S. Petronilla e dei SS. Nereo ed Achilleo sulla Via Ardeatina," in: Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana 5 (Roma: Spithöver 1899), pp. 24-26. Fraikin, p. 1373. Romanus (attested 465)Bishop Romanus was present at the Roman synod held by Pope Hilarius on 19 November 465. Lanzoni, p. 120, no. 1. Cappelletti I, p. 658. Athanasius (attested 487)Bishop Athanasius was present at the Lateran synod held by Pope Felix III on 13 March 487. Lanzoni, p. 120, no. 2. Cappelletti I, p. 658. Chrysogonus (attested 495–502)Bishop Chrysogonua subscribed the acts of the Roman synods of 501, 502, and 504. Lanzoni, p. 120, no. 3. Fraikin, p. 1374. Homobonus (attested 592–601)Gams, p. XXII, column 1. Cappelletti I, p. 658.Lanzoni, p. 120, no. 4. Epiphanius (attested 649)Bishop Epiphanius signed the acts of the Lateran synod held by Pope Martin I in October 649. Cappelletti I, p. 658. J.D. Mansi (ed), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus X (Florence: A. Zatta 1764), p. 866. Juvenalis (649–682)Bishop Juvenalis signed the synodal letter of the Roman synod of 680, sent by Pope Agatho to the Third Council of Constantinople, which was read in the third plenary session. J.-D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus XI (Florence: A. Zatta 1764), p. 773. Andreas (721 – before 743)Bishop Andreas attended the Roman synod of Pope Gregory II on 5 April 721. Cappelletti I, p. 658. J.-D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus XII (Florence: A. Zatta 1764), pp. 262, 265. Tiberius (743–761) Leo (I) (761 – before 767) Eustratius (Eustathius) (761–769)Bishop Eustratius was one of the three cardinal bishops who consecrated the antipope Constantinus II on 5 July 767. Philipp Jaffé (second edition S. Loewenfeld), Regesta pontificum Romanorum I (Leipzig 1885), p. 283. Gams, p. XXII. Constantius (772 – before 826)Gams, p. XXII. Cappelletti I, p. 659 (on the authority of Cesare Baronio, Annales Ecclesistici). Benedictus (826 – before 844) Petronacio (853 – ca. 867) Paul (869 – before 898) Petrus (I) (898–?) Gregorius (963–985) Teobaldo (995–996) Joannes (996–1001)
1000–1200
Pietro Martino Boccapecora, (1004–1009), afterwards Pope Sergius IV (1009–12) Teobaldus (attested 1044)Tedaldus is known only from a bull of 1044. and Hüls, p. 88. Bonifatius (1049–1068)Hüls, pp. 89-90. [Basilios]Some sources mention cardinal Basilius ca.1072/73, e.g. Lorenzo Cardella, Memorie storiche de' Cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, vol. 1 (Roma:Pagliarini 1792). p. 147; Cappelletti I, p. 660; Gams, p. XXII; Salvador Miranda, The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Biographical Dictionary, "Basilios"; retrieved: 16 December 2021; However, his existence has not been ascertained (cf. Klewitz, p. 116 note 1). Hüls, pp, 89-90, passes over him in silence. His name is not in the subscription lists of Philipp Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum, Vol. I. Peter Igneus, (1072–1089)Petrus was a monk of Vallombrosa, a follower of Pope Gregory VII during the schism. Hüls, pp. 90-91. Gualterius (1091–1100)Hüls, pp. 91-92.