Archdiocese of L'Aquila Archidioecesis Aquilana | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | Italy |
| Ecclesiastical province | L'Aquila |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 1,516 km2 (585 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2019) 117,413 (est.) 112,500 (guess) |
| Parishes | 148 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | 20 February 1257 |
| Cathedral | Cattedrale di SS. Massimo e Giorgio |
| Secular priests | 85 (diocesan) 24 (Religious Orders) 8 Permanent Deacons |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Archbishop | Antonio D'Angelo |
| Bishops emeritus | |
| Map | |
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| Website | |
| www.diocesilaquila.it (in Italian) | |
The Metropolitan Archdiocese of L'Aquila (Latin: Archidioecesis Aquilana) is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Italy.[1][2] It was erected as the Diocese of Aquila[3] on 20 February 1257 by Pope Alexander IV and promoted to an archdiocese by Pope Pius IX on 19 January 1876. Pope Paul VI elevated it to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese on 15 August 1972, with the suffragan sees of Avezzano and Sulmona–Valva.
The archdiocese's mother church and the seat of its archbishop is the Cattedrale di SS. Massimo e Giorgio. L'Aquila also contains the Basilica of San Bernardino da Siena, which was granted the honorific title of minor basilica by Pope Pius XII, in an Apostolic Letter "Uberrimos Sane Gratiae" of 20 May 1946.[4] It also contains the church of S. Maria di Collemagio, which was begun in 1283, and consecrated on 25 August 1288.[5]
- ^ "Archdiocese of L’Aquila" Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved November 30, 2016.[self-published source]
- ^ "Metropolitan Archdiocese of L’Aquila" GCatholic.org. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016.[self-published source]
- ^ The original name of the city was "Aquila." It was renamed "L'Aquila" by the Fascist government of Italy in 1939 for propaganda reasons. Jan-Jonathan Bock (2022), Citizens Without a City: Destruction and Despair After the L'Aquila Earthquake, (Indiana University Press, 2022), p. 10.
- ^ Acta Apostolicae Sedis 39 (Città del Vaticano 1947), pp. 390-391.
- ^ Luigi Serra, Aquila monumentale, (in Italian), (Aquila: Unione arti grafiche, 1912), p. 14.