Diocese of Sant' Angelo in Vado and Urbania

(SANCTI ANGELI IN VADO ET URBANIENSIS).

Diocese; S. Angelo in Vado is a city in the Marches, on the site of the ancient "Tifernum Metaurense", a town of the Umbrian Senones, near the River Metaurus, believed to have been destroyed by the Goths. Later there arose a new burg called, from the Church of S. Michele, Sant' Angelo in Vado, which in 1635 became a city and an episcopal see. Urbania is situated on the River Candiano near S. Angelo, on the site of the ancient Aleria, considerable ruins of which still remain. It was destroyed at an unknown date, and rebuilt under the name of Castel Ripeggiano, but, in 1280, being in favor of the Guelphs it was demolished by the Ghibellines. It was restored again through the munificence of the. Dominican bishop, Guglielmo Durante and called Castel Durante; it was included in the Duchy of Urbino, and contained a magnificent ducal palace. It is uncertain whether the Tifernate bishops Eubodius (Euhodius?), Marius, and Innocent, who assisted at the Roman Councils of 465, 499, and 500 belonged to Tifernum Tiberiacum (Citta di Castello) or to S. Angelo. At the beginning of 1635 S. Angelo was an archpresbyterate nullius, subject to the Abbot of the Monastery of S. Cristoforo of Castel Durante to whom the Archpresbyterate of Castel Durante was also subject. In that year Urban VIII erected the two towns into dioceses, changing the name of Castel Durante to Urbania, and uniting them aeque principaliter under Onorato degli Onorati, who governed it for forty-eight years. Other bishops were: Gian. Vincenzo Castelli, O.P. (1711), who restored the cathedral of Urbania, and Paolo Zamperoli, O.P. (1779) sent into exile under Napoleon, dying there. The diocese is a suffragan of Urbino and has 78 parishes with about 20,000 souls, a Capuchin convent, and 8 houses of nuns.

CAPPELLETTI, Le chiese d'Italia, III (Venice, 1857).

U. BENIGNI