Roman Catholic Diocese of Biella

The baptistery of Biella.

Until 1772 Biella was under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Vercelli. In that year Pope Clement XI, at the request of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, established the Diocese of Biella by the papal bull Praecipua.[2]

The first bishop was Giulio Cesare Viancini, formerly Archbishop of Sassari in Sardinia. In 1803 Napoleon suppressed the diocese, which again fell under the jurisdiction of Vercelli, but was re-established in 1817 by Pope Pius VII who appointed as bishop the Observant Franciscan, Bernardino Bollati.

In the shrine of Maria Santissima d'Oropa, situated on a mountain near Biella,[3] the diocese preserves a memorial of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, who was banished to the Orient by Emperor Constantius for his defence of Catholicism against Arianism. St. Eusebius, according to tradition, upon his return from the East, is said to have brought three pictures of the Madonna painted on cedar wood, one of which, the image of Oropa, he placed in a small oratory he had built. In the tenth century the chapel was placed in charge of the Benedictines. When they abandoned the place, Pope Pius II, in 1459, made over the shrine to the Chapter of the Collegiate Church of San Stefano, now the Biella Cathedral, to which it has since belonged. In the sixteenth century, the inhabitants of Biella, in thanksgiving for their deliverance from the plague, built a church over the chapel. In the seventeenth century construction of the devotional complex known as the Sacro Monte di Oropa began.

Among the religious edifices of the city of Biella, the most notable is the Gothic cathedral, built in 1402.[4] Its beautiful choir is by Galliari. The baptistery, in the form of a small temple, is said to be an ancient Roman edifice. It is in fact a work of the eleventh century, erected on the site of a Roman tomb.[5]

The Chapter of the Cathedral is far older than the Cathedral itself. The Canons of the Collegiate Church of San Stefano appear already in the twelfth century.[6] The Chapter was composed of a Provost, a Treasurer and a Primicerius, among a total of twenty canons. There were also twelve chaplains.[7]

The diocese, which covers an area of 900 km², is divided into 114 parishes.[14] All but one are in the civil Province of Biella, the other falls within Province of Vercelli. A list of parishes by province and commune follows; locations (villages or neighbourhoods) within a commune are shown in brackets.[15]

At the end of 2004 the diocese had a population of 175,000 of whom 171,000 (97.7%) had been baptised into the Catholic Church.[16]

• Benigni, Umberto (1907), "Biella", The Catholic Encyclopedia, II, New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Bima, Palemone Luigi (1836). Serie cronologica dei romani pontefici e degli arcivescovi e vescovi del Piemonte estratta da accurati autori ed autentici documenti dall'erezione di ciascuna sede sino all'anno corrente [Palemone Luigi] (in Italian). Torino: dalla Stamperia Ghiringhello. p. 112.
• Cappelletti, Giuseppe (1858). Le chiese d'Italia: dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni (in Italian). Volume decimoquarto (XIV). Venice: G. Antonelli. pp. 649–671.
• Gabotto, Ferdinando (1896). "Biella e i vescovi di Vercelli". Archivio Storico Italiano (in Italian). 18: 3–57. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
• Gams, Pius Bonifatius (1873). Series episcoporum Ecclesiae catholicae: quotquot innotuerunt a beato Petro apostolo. Ratisbon: Typis et Sumptibus Georgii Josephi Manz. p. 813.
• Cheney, David M. (2007), "Diocese of Biella", Catholic-Hierarchy.
• Rando, Cincia, ed. (2002). Biella e provincia. Touring Club Italiano (in Italian). Milano: Touring Editore. ISBN 978-88-365-2570-6.
• Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1958). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi VI (1730-1799). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio. Retrieved 2016-07-06. pp. 133–134.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Biella". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

• Diocesi di Biella (in Italian) Official site.
• CCI (n.d.a), Chiesa Cattolica Italiana - CCI - Diocesi di Biella. Retrieved: 2016-10-07.
• CCI (n.d.b), Chiesa Cattolica Italiana - CCI - Parrochie .