Diocese of Alba Pompeia

Comprises eighty towns in the province of Cuneo and two in the province of Alexandria, in Italy. Heading the list of the bishops of Alba is a St. Dionysius, of whom we are told that after serving there for some years he became Archbishop of Milan. He was the Dionysius who so energetically opposed the Arian heresy, and was exiled in the year 355, by the Emperor Constans. Papebroch (Acta SS., VI, 40) disputes the reliability of this tradition, since a bishop of that period was forbidden to leave his diocese for another. A list of nine early bishops of Alba, from another St. Dionysius (380) down to a Bishop Julius (553) was compiled from sepulchral inscriptions found in the cathedral of alba towards the end of the fifteenth century by Dalmazzo Berendenco, an antiquarian. De Rossi, however, on examination proved it a forgery (Boll. di Arch. Crist., 1868, 45-47). The first bishop of Alba of whose existence we are certain is Lampradius who was present at the synod held in Rome (499) under Pope Symmachus. (Mansi, VIII, 235, Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Antiq. XII, 400.) In the series of bishops, Benzo is notable as an adversary of Gregory VII and a partisan of the Empire in the struggle of the Investitures. (Orsi, "Un libellista del sec. XI", in "Rivista storica Italiana", 1884, p. 427.) The diocese contains 101 parishes; 276 secular priests; 11 regulars; 403 churches and chapels; 10 seminaries.

UGHELLI, Italia sacra (Venice, 1722), IV, 281; CAPPELLETTI, Le chiese d'Italia (Venice, 1866), XIV, 159; GAMS, Series episcoporum Ecclesiæ catholicæ (Ratisbon, 1873), 809; SAVIO, Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia dalle origini al 1300, descritti per regioni (Turin, 1899), 49; VERNAZZA, Romanorum litterata monumenta Albæ Pompeiæ civitatem et agrum illustrantia (Turin, 1787); CAPPELLI, Notizie storiche della città d'Alba (Turin, 1788).

ERNESTO BUONAIUTI