Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti


The Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Apulia, southern Italy, 40 km south-west of the coastal city of Bari. In 1986 the territorial prelature of Altamura e Acquaviva delle Fonti was united with the diocese of Gravina. The present diocese is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto.
The seat of the bishop is at Altamura Cathedral, with Acquaviva Cathedral and Gravina Cathedral as co-cathedrals.
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History

Altamura

Altamura was once a territorial prelature, founded in 1232 and endowed by the Emperor Frederick II, who declared it to be free and exempt from all episcopal jurisdiction. It was governed by an archpriest. It was declared exempt from episcopal jurisdiction by Pope Innocent IV in 1248, and again by Pope Innocent VIII.
The Chapter of the major church of the territorial prelature of Altamura was composed of four dignities and twenty-four Canons, who had the right to use the cappa magna and rochet.

Acquaviva

Acquaviva delle Fonti, a town of the Campagna, was declared similarly exempt by Pope Pius IX and united with Altamura on 17 August 1848.

Diocesan Reorganization

Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, It also recommended the abolition of anomalous units such as exempt territorial prelatures. Pope Paul VI ordered a reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces in southern Italy, beginning with consultations among the members of the Congregation of Bishops in the Vatican Curia, the Italian Bishops Conference, and the various dioceses concerned.
On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a . Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. The Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese.
On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the diocese of Gravina be merged with the territorial prelatures of Altamura and of Aquaviva into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Dioecesis Altamurensis-Gravinensis-Aquavivensis. The seat of the diocese was to be in Altamura, where the prelatial church was to serve as the cathedral of the merged diocese. The cathedral in Gravina and the prelatial seat in Aquaviva were to have the honorary titles of "co-cathedral"; the Chapters were each to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in Altamura, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the suppressed diocese and territorial prelatures. To make the territories of the new diocese congruent, the town of San Teramo in Colle was detached from the archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto and added to that of Altamura. The new diocese was made a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto.

Prelates and Bishops

Territorial Prelature of Altamura

Erected: 1248

Latin Name: Altamurensis
  • Riccardo of Brindisi
  • Niccolò Barbara
  • Giovanni Correnti
  • Palmiro De Viana
  • Niccolò Catamarra
  • Giovanni
  • Guglielmo De Corbolio
  • Pietro De Lusarchiis
  • Roberto De Lusarchiis
  • Giovanni II
  • Giovanni III
  • Dionigi Juppart
  • Guglielmo De Venza
  • Pietro de Moreriis
  • Umberto De Montauro
  • Rostaino di Candole
  • Humfredo
  • Pietro De Moreriis
  • Giovanni De Moreriis
  • Dionigi De Merlino
  • Guglielmo Gallo
  • Pietro D'Anfilia
  • Antonio Berleth
  • Antonio Della Rocca
  • Pietro Di Gargano
  • Antonio D'Ajello
  • Pietro Miguel
  • Francesco Rossi
  • Fabio Pignatelli *
  • Niccolò Sapio
  • Vincenzo Salazar
  • Vincenzo Palagano
  • Maurizio Moles
  • Giulio Moles
  • Girolamo De Mari
  • Rodrigo D'Anaja e Guevara
  • Alessandro Effrem
  • Giovanni Montero Olivares
  • Giuseppe Cavalliere
  • Pietro Magri
  • Nicola Abrusci
  • Baldassarre De Lerma
  • Michele Orsi
  • Damiano Poloù
  • Antonio De Rinaldis
  • Marcello Papiniano Cusano
  • Giuseppe Mastrilli
  • Bruno Angrisani
  • Celestino Guidotti
  • Gioacchino de Gemmis
  • Federico Guarini, O.S.B.
  • Giandomenico Falcone
  • Luigi Marcello Pellegrini
  • Carlo Caputo
  • Tommaso Cirielli
  • Carlo Giuseppe Cecchini, O.P.
  • Adolfo Verrienti
  • Domenico Dell'Aquila
  • Giuseppe Della Cioppa

Territorial Prelature of Altamura ed Acquaviva delle Fonti

Name Changed: 17 August 1848

Latin Name: Altamurensis et Aquavievensis

Metropolitan: Archdiocese of Bari-Canosa
  • Salvatore Rotolo, S.D.B.
  • Antonio D'Erchia
  • Salvatore Isgró
  • Tarcisio Pisani, O.M.

Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti

30 September 1986: United with the Diocese of Gravina

Latin Name: Altamurensis-Gravinensis-Aquavievensis

Books

  • Giaconella, Francesco, "L’inedita cronaca di Altamura di Michele Santoro," Altamura: Rivista storica no. 61, pp. 115–138, at p. 123.
  • Lucarelli A., Notizie e documenti riguardanti la storia di Acquaviva delle Fonti,, Vol. I, Giovinazzo, 1904.
  • Serena, Ottavio., in: Rassegna pugliese di scienze lettere ed arti 19, nos. 11-12, pp. 322–337.