1. History
     Residential bishops  

2. Titular see

3. See also

4. Sources and external links

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fiorentino, named after its see (Castel) Fiorentino (di Puglia), in the present 'commune' (municipality) of Torremaggiore, was a medieval Latin Rite bishopric (1059-1391) and remains a titular see.

History

The bishopric was probably established in the early eleventh century by the Italian catapan (Byzantine governor) Basilio Boioannes, like castel Firentino and several dioceses in the Capitanata era, as Byzantine ring opposing the expansionist Longobard duchy of Benevento. It was documented first in 1018, with the neighbouring bishoprics of Montecorvino, Dragonara (also in present Torremaggiore!), Civitate and Lesina.

It started as a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, using its Greek rite, until Rome's Latin rite was introduced instead by the conquering (Catholic) Normans mid eleventh century. On 22 January 1055, Pope Victor II transferred those dioceses of the ex-Byzantine capitanate to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Benevento by papal bulla.

Its archeological site comprises a cathedral and one more of a dozen documented churches, including Santa Maria, San Cristoforo, San Giorgio and San Lorenzo, which had an archpriest; San Nicola, Santa Maria, San Donnino and Santissima Trinità, depending on the abbey of Torremaggiore; San Nicola and San Pietro; Santa Maria Coronata, which bishop Ramfredo conceded in 1205 to San Leonardo di Siponto; and San Leone, depending on the extramural monastery San Salvatore.

From the 14th century, the city was progressively abandoned, according to a 1313 Angevin chancellery document like other Capitanata cities, due to unhealthiness, tax burden and spoliation. The bishopric was suppressed in 1391 or (according to the source, formally?) after bishop Meglio's death in 1410, its territory merged into the Diocese of Lucera.

Residential bishops

TO ELABORATE

• Landolfo (menzionato nel 1061)[7]
• Roberto I (prima del 1071- dopo il 1087)[7]
• Roberto II (documentato dal 1179 al 1203), che partecipò nel 1179 al quarto concilio lateranense, nel 1182 prese parte alla consacrazione della chiesa abbaziale di Montevergine e nel 1197 alla consacrazione della cattedrale di San Marco a Bovino.
• Ramfredo (documentato dal 1205 al 1224)[9]
• Anonimo (16 ottobre 1236 - ?)[10]
• Ruggero I (documentato nel 1238 e nel 1239)[11]
• Anonimo (menzionato nel 1252 e nel 1254)[12]
• Guglielmo (menzionato nel 1304) [13]
• Giacomo (1321 - ?)
• Anonimo (menzionato nel 1331)[14]
• Ruggero II (? - circa 1344 deceduto)
• Matteo, O.S.B. (23 giugno 1344 - ?)
• Simeone (? deceduto)
  • uncanonical Elia (4 dicembre 1374 - ?) Giovanni † (2 febbraio 1389 - ?) (antivescovo)[15]
• Meglio (22 Hune 1391 - death 1410)

Titular see

The bishopric was nominally restored in 1968 as Latin Catholic titular bishopric of Fiorentino (Italian) / Florentinen(sis) (Latin adjective).

It has had the following incumbents, of the fitting episcopal (lowest) rank with an archiepiscopal exception :

• Titular Archbishop: Luigi Barbarito (1969.06.11 – death 2017.03.12) (Italian) as papal diplomat : Apostolic Nuncio (ambassador) to Haiti (1969.06.11 – 1975.04.05), Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso; 1975.04.05 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Niger (1975.04.05 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Senegal (1975.04.05 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Delegate to Guinea-Bissau (1975.04.05 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Delegate to Mali (1975.04.05 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Delegate to Mauritania (1975.04.05 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Cape Verde (1977 – 1978.06.10), Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Australia (1978.06.10 – 1986.01.21), Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Great Britain (1986.01.21 – 1993.04.13), Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain (1993.04.13 – 1997.07.31)
• Titular Bishop Bishop-elect Francisco Cota de Oliveira (2017.06.07 – ...), as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Curitiba (Brazil) (2017.06.07 – ...).

See also

• List of Catholic dioceses in Italy

Sources and external links

• GCatholic

Bibliography

• Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni, Venice 1864, vol. XIX, pp. 276–278
• Gaetano Schiraldi, Rinascimento cristiano in prospettiva umanistica. La diocesi di Lucera nel Quattrocento, in La Capitanata XLX (2012), pp. 171–185
• Maria Stella Calò Mariani, I "villages désertés" della Capitanata. Fiorentino e Montecorvino, in Atti del 27º convegno sulla preistoria-protostoria-storia della Daunia, San Severo 2007, pp. 43–55
• Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 892
• Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, p. 251; vol. 2, p. XXIV

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