Diocese of Novara


The Diocese of Novara is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Vercelli.

History

According to the hagiographical "Life of Gaudentius", written c. 700, he was born in Ivrea, and came to Novara, where a priest named Laurentius was preaching and baptizing. When Laurentius was killed, he took up the task of catechizing, with the blessing of Bishop Eusebius of Vercelli, in whose territory Novara was situated. There he was noticed as a future episcopal candidate by Bishop Ambrose of Milan during a visit to Novara. Gaudentius was consecrated a bishop by Ambrose's successor, Bishop Simplicianus. He served in Novara for twenty years.
In 972, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I granted the dominium of the town of Novara and twenty-four miles surrounding the town to Bishop Aupaldo and his successors, the Bishops of Novara. The bishops therefore enjoyed the title of Count as well as the same rights as a Count of the Empire.
In 1059, Pope Nicholas II summoned the archbishop of Milan and his suffragans to attend his synod, which met in Rome in April. Among the suffragan bishops who attended was Bishop Oddo of Novara.
In 1352, Bishop Guilelmo Amidano had all of the regulations concerning the Chapter of Novara collected and arranged in a single volume.
In 1394 and 1395, Bishop Pietro Filargi successfully negotiated with King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, the King of Rome, the recognition of Gian Galeazzo Visconti as Imperial Vicar and the first Duke of Milan. King Wenceslaus also granted Bishop Pietro of Novara the title of Princeps Sacri Imperii.
Novara lost part of its territory on 16 March 1530, when Pope Clement VII established the Diocese of Vigevano.
Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni, Cardinal of S. Giorgio in velabro, Bishop of Novara, did not attend the First Provincial Council of Milan on 14 October 1565, under the presidency of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan. Bishop Romolo Archinto attended the Fourth Provincial Synod of Milan in 1576, and signed the decrees. Bishop Pomponio Cotta attended and subscribed the decrees of the Fifth Provincial Synod of Milan in March 1579. Bishop Francesco Bossi was unable to attend the Sixth Provincial Synod of Milan in May 1582, but sent his Vicar General, Giovanni Paolo Albergono, as his procurator. Bishop Carlo Bescapè was present at the Seventh Provincial Synod of Milan in May 1609 and subscribed the decrees.

Synods

A diocesan synod was an irregularly held, but important, meeting of the bishop of a diocese and his clergy. Its purpose was to proclaim generally the various decrees already issued by the bishop; to discuss and ratify measures on which the bishop chose to consult with his clergy; to publish statutes and decrees of the diocesan synod, of the provincial synod, and of the Holy See.
Bishop Oldrado presided over a diocesan synod in the cathedral of Novara on 3 January 1365.
On 9 May 1568, Cardinal Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni held a diocesan synod. Bishop Cesare Speciano presided over a diocesan synod in 1590.
A diocesan synod was held by Bishop Giulio Maria Odescalchi in 1660. A synod was held in 1674 by Bishop Giuseppe Maria Maraviglia, and another in 1675.
Bishop Giovanni Battista Visconti presided over a diocesan synod on 6–8 July 1707. Bishop Marco Aurelio Balbis Bertone held a diocesan synod on 1–3 July 1778.
Cardinal Giuseppe Morozzo Della Rocca presided over a diocesan synod in Novara on 11–13 July 1826. In August 1856, Synodical Statutes of the diocese of Novara were issued under the auspices of Bishop Giacomo Filippo Gentile. Bishop Edoardo Pulciano held a diocesan synod on 4–6 September 1900. A diocesan synod was held by Bishop Giuseppe Castelli on 9–11 September 1936. On 20–22 October 1955, Bishop Gilla Vincenzo Gremigni held a diocesan synod.

French occupation

On 17 March 1805, the Emperor Napoleon established the Kingdom of Italy, and had himself crowned its king, on 23 May, in the cathedral of Milan by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara, the papal legate. Novara became part of the kingdom, and was made the capital of a "department" called Agogna. When Napoleon abdicated in 1814, the kingdom came to an end, and Milanese territory was occupied by the Austrians. The Kingdom of Sardinia was restored by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It included Novara.
Back in power, King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia requested Pope Pius VII, who had also returned to the restored Papal States, to restore the dioceses in the Piedmont. On 17 July 1817, the pope issued the bull "Beati Petri", which reconstituted de novo the ten dioceses which had been suppressed under the French. In addition, the pope created a new ecclesiastical province and elevated the diocese of Vercelli to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese, with the dioceses of Alessandria, Biella, and Casale as suffragans.
Upon further consideration and consultation with ecclesiastical authorities in Milan, Pius VII chose to make additional adjustments. In an apostolic letter to Cardinal Paolo Giuseppe Solaro, "Cum Per Nostras", he authorized the cardinal to remove two dioceses from the jurisdiction of the metropolitan archbishop of Milan, and transfer the diocese of Novara to the ecclesiastical province of Vercelli, in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Bishops

to 800

  • Gaudentius of Novara
  • Agapitus
  • Diogenes
  • Pascentius
  • Simplicius
  • Victor
  • Pagatianus
  • Honoratus
  • Opilius
  • Ambrosius
  • Filacrius
  • Agnellus
  • Spectabilis
  • Marcellus
  • Severus
  • Lupicinus
  • Probinus
  • Vigilius
  • Flavinus
  • Panfronio
  • Gratianus
  • Probus
  • Aureolus
  • Leo
  • Ambrosius
  • Gratiosus
  • Benedictus
  • Petrus
  • Sicardus
  • Tito Levita

    800 to 1030

  • Attone
  • Adalgisius
  • Dodo
  • Druttemiro
  • Notingus
  • Lambertus
  • Ernustus
  • Chadultus
  • Liutherius
  • Garibaldus
  • Dagibertus
  • Rodulfus
  • Petrus
  • Aupaldus
  • Petrus

    1030 to 1300

  • Gualbertus
  • Riprandus
  • Oddo
  • Albertus
  • Anselmus
  • Eppo
  • Riccardus
  • Litifredus
  • Guilelmus Tornielli
  • Guilelmus Faleto
  • Bonifacius
  • Ottone
  • Pietro
  • Gerardo da Sesso, O. Cist.
  • Odelbert Tornielli
  • Odemar Busio
  • Sigebaldus Caballazio
  • Englesius Caballazio, O.Min.
  • Papinianus della Rovere

    14th-17th centuries

  • Bartolomeo Querini
  • Uguccione Borromeo
  • Giovanni Visconti
  • Guilelmo Amidano, O.E.S.A.
  • Oldrado
  • Pietro Filargis, O.F.M. Roman Obedience
  • Bartolomeo Visconti
  • Giacomo Filippo Crivelli
  • Bernardus de Rubeis
  • Giovanni Ardcimboldi
  • *Ascanio Maria Sforza, in commendam
  • Gerolamo Pallavicini
  • Cardinal Federico di Sanseverino Apostolic Administrator
  • Cardinal Matthäus Schiner
  • Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte
  • Ermete Stampa
  • Giovanni Angelo Arcimboldi
  • Cardinal Ippolito d'Este Administrator
  • Cardinal Giovanni Gerolamo Morone
  • Cardinal Giovanni Antonio Serbelloni
  • Romolo Archinto
  • Gerolamo Ragazzoni
  • Pomponio Cotta
  • Francesco Bossi
  • Gaspare Visconti
  • Cesare Speciano
  • Pietro Martire Ponzone
  • Carlo Bascapè, B.

    17th-19th centuries

  • Cardinal Ferdinando Taverna
  • Ulpiano Volpi
  • Giovanni Pietro Volpi
  • Antonio Tornielli
  • Benedetto Odescalchi
  • Giulio Maria Odescalchi, O.S.B.
  • Giuseppe Maria Maraviglia, C.R.
  • * Celestino Sfondrati
  • Giovanni Battista Visconti Aicardi, B.
  • Giberto Bartolomeo Borromeo
  • Bernardino Ignazio d'Asti, O.F.M. Cap.
  • Giovanni Battista Baratta, C.O.
  • Ignazio Rovèro
  • Marco Aurelio Balbis Bertone
  • Carlo Luigi Buronzo del Signore
  • Vittorio Filippo Melano di Portula, O.P.

    19th century and later

  • Cardinal Giuseppe Morozzo Della Rocca
  • Giacomo Filippo Gentile
  • Stanislao Eula
  • Davide Riccardi
  • Giuseppe Castelli
  • Leone Giacomo Ossola, O.F.M. Cap., appointed titular archbishop on retirement
  • Gilla Vincenzo Gremigni, M.S.C., Archbishop in 1958
  • Placido Maria Cambiaghi, B.
  • Aldo Del Monte
  • Renato Corti
  • Franco Giulio Brambilla

    Parishes

Of the 345 parishes, one is in the Lombard province of Pavia, while rest are divided between the Piedmontese provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and Vercelli.

Books

Studies

  • . Italia 1814.
  • Bascapè, Carlo. Novara: Apud H. Sessallum, 1612.
  • Bascapè, Carlo. .. Novara: Merati, 1878.
  • Della Sala, Stefano. . Novara: Diocesi di Novara: Ufficio Beni Culturi 2016.
  • Garone, Giuseppe. . Novara: Stamperia di Francesco Merati, 1865.
  • Kehr, Paul Fridolin. : sive, Repertorium privilegiorum et litterarum a romanis pontificibus ante annum 1598 Italiae ecclesiis, monasteriis, civitatibus singulisque personis concessorum. Vol. VI. pars ii. Berolini: Weidmann.
  • Lanzoni, Francesco. . Faenza: F. Lega.
  • Lizier, A.. , in: Bollettino storico per la provincia di Novara IV, pp. 211–255.
  • Schwartz, Gerhard. .. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner.
  • Stoppa, A.L.. Per una storia dei sinodi novaresi.. Novara 1986.
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