Archdiocese of Lecce


The Archdiocese of Lecce is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Apulia, southern Italy. The diocese has existed since the 11th century. On 28 September 1960, in the bull Cum a nobis, Pope John XXIII separated the diocese of Lecce from the ecclesiastical province of Otranto and made it directly subject to the Holy See. In the bull Conferentia Episcopalis Apuliae issued on 20 October 1980, Pope John Paul II created the ecclesiastical province of Lecce, with the Archdiocese of Otranto becoming a suffragan diocese.

History

Many years ago, Lecce was known as Lupiæ, Lupia, Lycia, and Aletium. Beginning around the year 1060, Lecce became the seat of a Norman count. One of its notable counts, Tancred of Lecce, contested Emperor Henry VI for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Another count was Gautier de Brienne, a cousin of Tancred.

Chapter and cathedral

The cathedral of Lecce, which was, like nearly all the cathedrals in the Kingdom of Naples, dedicated in honor of the assumption of the body of the Virgin Mary into heaven, was administered and served by a Chapter. The cathedral Chapter was composed of three dignities and twenty-four Canons. In 1671, there were twenty Canons. In 1741, there were again twenty-four Canons. In 1885, after the unification of Italy, there were four dignities ; there were sixteen other Canons. In 2019, there were ten Canons, and eight honorary Canons.
There was also a collegiate church, the Collegiata di Campi Salentino, which had twenty-seven Canons, headed by an Archpriest and four dignities.
The seminary building was built between 1694 and 1709, by Bishop Michele Pignatelli and Bishop Fabrizio Pignatelli, to designs by Giuseppe Cino. In 1885, the seminary had thirteen teachers and thirty clerics studying for the priesthood; in the previous five years there had been four ordinations and sixty deaths of priests.

Subject to the Holy See

Up until 1960, Lecce had been a suffragan of the archbishopric of Otranto. Reacting to the large increase in population, and to the fact that Lecce had been made a provincial capital by the Italian government, Pope John XXIII issued the bull "Cum a Nobis" on 28 September 1960, separating Lecce from its relationship with the diocese of Otranto and making it directly subject to the Holy See.

Metropolitan archdiocese

Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, the Episcopal Conference of Apulia petitioned the Holy See that Lecce be made a metropolitan and that a new ecclesiastical province be created. After wide consultations among all affected parties, Pope John Paul II issued a decree on 20 October 1980, elevating Lecce to the status of metropolitan see. He also created the new ecclesiastical province of Lecce, whose constituent bishoprics were to be: Brindisi, Otranto, Gallipoli, Nardò, Ostuno, and Uxentina-S. Mariae Leucadensis.

Bishops and Archbishops of Lecce

to 1500

  • Teodoro Bonsecolo
  • Formosus
  • Penetranus
  • Petrus Guarinus
  • Fulco Bellus
  • Robertus Volterico
  • Gualterus de Massafra
  • Robertus de Sancto Blasio
  • Petrus de Romana Bishop-elect
  • Ignotus
  • Gervasius
  • Godefredus
  • Robertus de Noha
  • Joannes de Glandis
  • Robertus
  • Antonius de Ferraris
  • Nicolaus de Tarento Avignon Obedience
  • Ludovicus Roman Obedience
  • Leonardus Roman Obedience
  • Antonius de Viterbo, O.Min.
  • Tommaso Morganti
  • Curello Ciccaro
  • Tommaso Ammirato, OSB
  • Guido Giudano, OFM
  • Antonio Ricci
  • Marc'Antonio de' Tolomei

    1500 to 1800

  • Giacomo Piscicelli
  • Pietro Matteo d'Aquino
  • Ugolino Martelli
  • Giovanni Antonio Acquaviva d'Aragona
  • Consalvo di Sangro
  • Alfonso di Sangro Bishop-elect
  • Giovanni Battista Castromediano
  • Braccio Martelli
  • Annibale Saraceni
  • Scipione Spina
  • Luigi Pappacoda
  • Antonio Pignatelli del Rastrello
  • Michele Pignatelli, CR
  • Fabrizio Pignatelli
  • Giuseppe Maria Ruffo
  • Scipione Sersale
  • Alfonso Sozi Carafa, CRS
  • Salvatore Spinelli, OSB

    1800 to present

  • Nicola Caputo de' Marchesi di Cerreto
  • Valerio Laspro
  • Salvatore Luigi Zola, CRL
  • Evangelista di Milia, OFM Cap.
  • Gennaro Trama
  • Alberto Costa
  • Francesco Minerva
  • Michele Mincuzzi
  • Cosmo Francesco Ruppi
  • Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio
  • Michele Seccia
  • Angelo Raffaele Panzetta

    Studies

  • De Leo, Pietro. "Contributo per una nuova Lecce Sacra," in: La Zagaglia: rassegna di scienze, lettere e arti, 57-58, pp. 3–24 ;
  • Kamp, Norbert. Kirche und Monarchie im staufischen Königreich Sizilien. I. Prosopographische Grundlegung: 2. Apulien und Kalabrien. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
  • Kehr, Paul Fridolin. Italia pontificia. Vol. IX: Samnium — Apulia — Lucania. Berlin: Weidmann.
  • Paladini, G.. Studii e memorie storiche sull'antica Lupiae o Sibari del Salente. Lecce: tip. Modernissima, 1932.