Diocese of Conversano-Monopoli

The Diocese of Conversano-Monopoli is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Apulia. It has existed since 1986, when the diocese of Monopoli was united with the historic diocese of Conversano. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto.

History

is the ancient Cupersanum. After the invasion of the Normans, it was for a while the seat of a duchy; later, however, it became a fief of the dukes of Atri.
Local tradition preserves the name of a bishop, Simplicius, who attended the Roman synod of 487 and died in 492, but he belongs to legend, not history. Ferdinando Ughelli prints the narrative of Francesco Giuliano of Conversano concerning Simplicius, but states that it seems to him to be highly suspect, and maybe deliberately invented falsehoods or corrupt, since there are some things found in it which cannot be true.
The first alleged bishop of Conversano was Hilarius, present at the Roman synod of 501. His name however is a false reading of the acts of the synod; he actually belonged to Tempsa in the Abruzzi, not to Conversano in Apulia.
No other names are recorded up to the episcopate of Leo, mentioned in a document of 1088.
In 1670 the Chapter of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Body of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven was composed of four dignities and twenty-six Canons. In the city of approximately 7,000 inhabitants there were five religious houses for men and three monasteries for men.

Bishops