The Diocese of Sulmona-Valva () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in central Italy, in the Abruzzi region, approximately 120 km (75 mi) directly east of Rome. Corfinio (Valva) is 14 km north-northwest of Sulmona.
The current configuration was created in 1986, through the union of the two dioceses into one. The combined single diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of L'Aquila. In 1818, the status of the Diocese of Sulmona and the Diocese of Valva was acknowledged, as two separate dioceses united in having one and the same person as bishop of both dioceses, aeque personaliter, an arrangement which stretched all the way back to the 13th century, and earlier.
History In the Lombard period Sulmona was subject to the Duchy of Spoleto; later it belonged to the counts of Marsi. When the Normans conquered the Abruzzi, Sulmona increased in importance. In 1233, Emperor Frederick II made it the capital of the "Gran Giustizierato" of the Abruzzi.Stuart Rossiter, Litellus Russell Muirhead (1964), Rome and Central Italy (E. Benn, 1964), pp. 443, 446. Roy Palmer Domenico, The Regions of Italy: A Reference Guide to History and Culture (London: Greenwood Press 2002), p. 6.
Fictional origins Legend associates the evangelization of the district with the name of Saint Britius, Bishop of Spoleto, in the second century.Umberto Benigni (1912). "Dioceses of Valva and Sulmona." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Retrieved: 5 January 2023. Lanzoni, pp. 427-429; 442-443: "Se il titolare del monastero spoletino di S. Brizio è il vescovo di Tours, come si è detto, Britius resta automaticamente espunto dai cataloghi episcopali di Bettona e di Foligno, e da quello di Spoleto ove venne collocato e duplicato." Local legend in Sulmona credits the evangelization with Saint Feliciano, Bishop of Foligno, in the middle of the third century. He is said to have reconsecrated the temple of Apollo and Vesta as the cathedral of S. Maria Regina de Caelo (Santa Maria in Bussi), which, at the beginning of the 9th century, had its name changed to S. Panfilo.Ignazio di Pietro (1804), pp. 56-57. The claim, however, has no evidence to support it.Piccirilli (1901), p. 337, quotes the unpublished treatise of Canon Donato Strozzi, "Ma se questo è facile ad asserisi, è impossibibile a dimostrarsi con appoggio istorico di quei tempi. Di fatto nessuno scrittore dell'età vicina a S. Feliciano ne ha giammai fatto parola veruna.... Gli autori sulmonesi citati dal Di Pietro non possono meritare la credenza di una saggia cricita...." Christianity was still an illegal cult in the 3rd century, and did not have the right to own property. Its meetings, if they began before dawn, were considered illegal assembly. It was not until after the Edict of Milan that public worship became possible.
Early bishops The first known Bishop of Sulmona is Palladius (499); in 503. Pamphilus of Sulmona, Bishop of Valva, died about 706; he was buried in Sulmona Cathedral.
Four or five other bishops of Valva are known, but none of Sulmona until 1054, when Pope Leo IX named as Bishop of Valva, the Benedictine Domenico, and determined the limits of the Dioceses of San Pelino (Saint Pelinus) (i.e., Valva) and San Panfilo (Saint Pamphilus) (i.e., Sulmona), which were to have only one bishop, elected by the two chapters.Ughelli I, p. 1361. Kehr IV, p. 253, no. 3. On 25 March 1138, Pope Innocent II wrote to Bishop Dodo, reconfirming his possessions and privileges, and mentioning in passing that the bishop had his throne at S. Pelini, in Corfinio (Valva): "Ecclesiam santi Pelini, ubi Episcopalis habetur sedes."Kehr IV, p. 255, no. 8. Orsini, p. 9. Kehr IV, p. 252: "Ecclesia cathedralis s. Pelini in comitatu Yalvensi in loco, ubi olim Corfinium surgebat, adhuc exstat penes oppidum Pentima." The body of S. Pelinus had been transferred to the church of S. Pelino in Corfinio (Valva) in 1124.Schwartz, p. 297.
Normans In 1143 King Roger II of Sicily invaded Campania and seized the monastery of Montecassino, all of whose treasures he confiscated. The territory of the Marsi surrendered to him.Anonymous "Annales Casinenses," (ed. G.H. Pertz), under 1143, in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptorum Tomus XIX (Hannover: Hahn 1866), p. 310: "Rex iterum ad hunc locum venit, Terra Marsorum se ei tradidit. Thesaurum huius loci omnem cum tabula ante altare tollit, praeter crucem maiorem cum cyburio et tribus tabulis altaris." His sons occupied the territory of Marsi, which included not only the County of Marsi, but the County of Valva. Bishop Dodo was already dead, having died (according to Di Pietro) in 1142.Di Pietro (1804), pp. 125-126. King Roger appointedKing Roger claimed that he, and his predecessors back to Robert Guiscard, had enjoyed the right to appoint bishops in their realms. Hubert Houben, Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West, (Cambridge University Press 2002), pp. 90-91. new bishops at Chieti and Valva.Donald Matthew, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge University Press 1992), pp. 54-55. Pope Innocent II had died on 24 September 1143, and Pope Celestine II reigned only from 26 September 1143 to 8 March 1144. The next pope, Lucius II, reigned only from 12 March 1144 to 15 February 1145.
On 7 April 1168, the cathedral ChapterC.D. Fonseca, "La cattedrale e il suo Capitolo. Analisi comparata in prospettiva storica, ecclesiologica e canonistica," , in: Annali di Studi Religiosi Vol. 4 (2003), pp. 215-235. of S, Pelino and the cathedral Chapter of S. Panfilo entered into an agreement that both had the right to participate in the naming a bishop.Orsini, p. 9.
On 16 October 1256, Bishop Giacomo di Penne, a former monk of Casa Nova, presided over a meeting of the canons of the two cathedrals, at which it was agreed that the two chapters should unite in electing a bishop, as frequent disputes had arisen when they acted separately.Ughelli I, pp. 1377-1378: "Considerantes bonum statum Ecclesiae S. Pelini et S. Pamphili, ut pax inter praedictas Ecclesias praeserveturm unionem factam inter Capitula praedictarum Ecclesiarum super electione et nominatione et postulatione Valvensis epsicopi, et distinctione parochiarum praedictarum Ecclesiarum, confirmamus et ratificamus...."
In the winter of 1336/1337, a group of armed men stationed themselves in the cathedral of S. Pamfilo in Sulmona, in order (they said) to prevent others from attacking or occupying it. In the especially cold winter weather, they tore up the flooring of the episcopal palace next door, took out the wooden beams, and made fires to keep warm. The palace was severely damaged.Orsini, pp. 10-11.
Other bishops were: Pompeo Zambeccari (1547–1571), nuncio in Portugal from March 1550 to July 1560;Henry Biaudet, Les nonciatures apostoliques permanentes, jusqu' en 1648 (Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedakatemie 1910), pp. 118, 203. Francesco Boccapaduli (1638); and Pietro Antonio Corsignani (1738), the historian of the Abruzzi.M. Buonocore & G. Morelli (1987), Pietro Antonio Corsignani nel terzo centenario della nascita (1686-1986) . Atti del Convegno di studio (Celano, 8-9 novembre 1986), , L'Aquila: L.U. Japadre 1987). Pietro Antonio Corsignani, De viris illustribus Marsorum liber singularis, , Rome, 1712. Pietro Antonio Corsignani, Reggia Marsicana, ovvero memorie topographico-storiche di varie Colonie, e Città antiche e moderne, Napoli 1738.
Earthquakes In the earthquake of 5 December 1456, Sulmona was "for the most part destroyed".M. Baratta, I terremoti d'Italia (Torino: Bocca 1901), p. 72: "nella massima parte ruinata." On 3 November 1706, a major earthquake devastated Sulmona and Valva. The cathedral of S. Pamfilo in Sulmona was completely destroyed, along with its chapels, and the entire episcopal palace was levelled.Orsini, p. 14: "... per gl’infrangenti del terremoto, succeduto à 3 novembre del passato anno 1706, ... cadde tutta la nostra cattedrale nella sua lamia, e Cappelle nuovamente erette, assieme con tutto il palazzo vescovile...." Approximately 1,000 people died.M. Baratta, I terremoti d'Italia (Torino: Bocca 1901), p. 201. Major earthquakes also occurred in 1915, 1933, 1984, and 2009.F. Galadini & R. Carrozzo (2014), "I terremoti a Sulmona: sismologia storica per la microzonazione sismica," in: Quaderni di Geofisica, No. 118, Marzo 2014, ISSN no.1590-2595 pp. 4-30, at p. 13.
French occupation The see remained vacant from 1800 till 1818. From 1809 to 1815, Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon in France, and his policy was not to cooperate with the French in filling bishoprics.J.N.D. Kelly & M. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes, second edition (Oxford University Press 2010), pp. 307-308, When Napoleon did so on his own authority as King of Italy, it created havoc in one diocese after another.Umberto Benigni (1912). "Dioceses of Valva and Sulmona." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. Retrieved: 5 January 2023. The vacancy also saw the occupation of Sulmona by the French, beginning on 6 January 1799, and the suppression of all the religious orders in 1807.Orsini, p. 22. When the Congress of Vienna restored the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1815, disputes arose between the Holy See and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, involving matters of restoration of church property, and the issue of feudal submission of King Ferdinand to Pope Pius VII. Three years of negotiations were necessary. A concordat was finally 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.F. Torelli (1848), La chiave del concordato dell'anno 1818 I, second edition (Naples: Fibreno 1848), pp. 1-19. The re-erection of the dioceses of the kingdom and the ecclesiastical provinces took more than three years. 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).Torelli I, p. 9.
On 27 June 1818, Pius VII issued the bull De Ulteriore, in which, in the cases of several dioceses, Sulmona and Valva among them, no change was made from the status quo ante.Bulliarii Romani Continuatio Tomus 25 (Rome 1853), p. 57, § 30: "Episcopales autem ecclesiae Aversasa, Militensis, Valvensis, et Sulmonensis, Pennensis et Atriensis, Melphiensis et Rappollensis invicem respecti ve unitae, Trojana, Neritonensis, Triventina, ac Marsorum seu Marsicana in eo quo ad praesens reperiuntur statu etiam in posterum permanebunt....." The bull of 1818 does not say that Sulmona and Vulva were united as a single diocese. On 25 September 1818, Pope Pius granted the cathedral of S. Pamfilo in Sulmona the honorary title of "minor basilica".Bulliarii Romani Continuatio Tomus 25 (Rome 1853), pp. 118-119, no. DCCCXV.
Reorganization