Diocese of Ventimiglia

(VENTIMILIENSIS)

Located in the Province of Porto Maurizio, northern Italy. The city is situated on the Gulf of Genoa, having a small harbour at the mouth of the Roia. It contains a fine cathedral with a fifth-century baptistery. The Church of S. Michele is erected on the foundations of a pagan temple. Some antiquities are collected in the town hall. Ventimiglia is the ancient Albium Intemelium, the capital of the Intemelii, a Ligurian tribe which long resisted the Romans, but was forced in 115 B.C. to submit to Scaurus. In A.D. 69 the city was sacked by the army of Otho and Vitellius. In the Gothic wars it was besieged by the Byzantines and the Goths, and suffered from the raids of Rotharis, King of the Lombards, but flourished again under King Rodoaldo. In the tenth century it was attacked by the Saracens of Frassineto. Berengarius made his son Conrad first Count of Ventimiglia. In 1139 the Genoese attacked it by land and sea and forced it to surrender; the count continued to hold the city and countship as a vassal of the victors. The city rebelled more than once against the Genoese and sided with their enemies. It was thus temporarily held by the dukes of Savoy (1389 and 1746) and Ladislas, King of Naples (1410). In general it shared the fortunes of Genoa. The most ancient Christian mention of Ventimiglia is the alleged preaching of Sts. Marcelinus (Bishop of Embrn), Vincentius, and Dominus (fourth century).

It is probable that it had a bishop from the fifth century; the first known is Joannes (680). Among his successors were: Cardinal Antonio Pallavicino (1484) and Alessandro Fregoso, both more distinguished as warriors than as clerics; Filippo de'Mari (1519), who restored ecclesiastical discipline; Carlo Visconti (1561), later a cardinal; Carlo Grimaldo (1565), who distinguished himself at the Council of Trent: Girolamo Curlo (1614), who died by poison in Corsica, whither he had been sent as Commissary Apostolic: Gianfrancesco Gandoflfi (1622), who negotiated the peace between Savoy and Genoa; Antonio Maria Bacigaluppi (1773), who converted the episcopal residence into a seminary. The diocese, which has been suffragan to Genoa since 1775, contains 65 parishes, 96,000 inhabitants, 250 secular and regular priests, 6 houses of religious men, 37 convents of nuns, 3 educational institutions for boys, and 10 for girls. There are 4 religious periodicals published in the diocese.

CAPELLETTI, Le Chiese d'Italia; ROSSI, Storia della citta di Ventimiglia (Oneglia, 1888); SAVIO, I conti di Ventimiglia (Genoa, 1894).

U. BENIGNI