Roman Catholic Diocese of Biella

The Diocese of Biella (Dioecesis Bugellensis) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church  in northern Italy, in the Piedmont region. The diocese was established in 1772. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Vercelli. Biella is a city in Piedmont, 42 km (25 mi) northwest of Vercelli.

History
From 1160, Biella was a fief, belonging to the bishops of Vercelli. In 1379, Bishop Giovanni Fieschi (1349–1379) of Vercelli was driven out, as a supporter of Urban VI, and Biella came under the control of Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy. Until 1772, the town of Biella was under the ecclesiastical 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.

The first bishop was Giulio Cesare Viancini, formerly Archbishop of Sassari in Sardinia.

Chapter and cathedral
Among the religious edifices of the city of Biella, the most notable is the Gothic cathedral, built in 1402. 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.

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. The Chapter was composed of a Provost, a Treasurer and a Primicerius, among a total of twenty canons. There were also twelve chaplains. In 2023, the Chapter was composed of twelve canons, one of whom was the President.

Sanctuary of Oropa
In the shrine of Maria Santissima d'Oropa, situated on a mountain near Biella, 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.

Bishop Bernardino Bollati (1818–1828) held a diocesan synod on 19–21 July 1825. A diocesan synod was held by Bishop Basilio Leto (1873–1885) in 1882. Bishop Carlo Rossi (1936–1972) presided over a diocesan synod in Biella on 24–25 October 1951.

Napoleonic Piedmont
From 1801 to 1814, Piedmont, and Biella along with it, was annexed to metropolitan France. A French department was established, called Sésia, with its capital at Vercelli. Biella became an "arondissement" within Sésia.

One of the policies of the Franch government was the reduction in the number of dioceses both in metropolitan France and in its annexed territories. The French pointed out that there were sixteen dioceses and one metropolitan (Turin) in the Piedmont, of which five were without bishops at the time and three whose bishops had just resigned. They demanded that the sixteen be reduced to eight with one metropolitan. In the bull "Gravissimis Causis" of 1 June 1803, Pope Pius VII authorized the papal legate to First Consul Bonaparte, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara, to suppress a number of dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Piedmont, including Biella. Caprara carried out his instructions in a decree of 23 January 1805.

After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna agreed to the restoration of the Kingdom of Sardinia. King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia invited Pope Pius VII to restore the good order of the Church in his kingdom, which had been disrupted by the French occupation. On 17 July 1817, the pope issued the bull "Beati Petri", which began by establishing de novo the ten dioceses which had been suppressed under the French, including Biella, and delimiting the extent of each in detail, In the same document, the pope also released the diocese of Vercelli from being a suffragan of the metropolitan of Turin, and elevated the diocese to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese. The new metropolitan archdiocese had as suffragans the dioceses of Alessandria, Biella, and Casale.

Bishops of Biella

 * Giulio Cesare Viancini (1772 – 1796)
 * Giovanni Battista Canaveri, Orat. (1797 – 1805)
 * Diocese suppressed (1805 – 1817)


 * Bernardino Bollati, O.F.M.Observ. (1818 – 1828)
 * Placido Maria Tadini (1829 – 1832)
 * Giovanni Pietro Losana (6 April 1834 – 14 February 1873 died) Losana was born in Vigone on 22 January 1793. He obtained a degree in theology from Turin in 1815, and was ordained in 1816. He joined the theological faculty at Turin in 1817; in 1818 he was Prefect of Studies in Casale-Monferrato. In 1819 and 1820 he was regent in Scripture and then in theology at the University. In 1824 he was granted the Abbey of S. Andrea in Savigliano. In 1826 Pope Leo XII named him titular bishop of Abydus and sent him to Syria as Vicar Apostolic of Aleppo and Delegate of the Holy See in Monte Lebano; his jurisdiction also extended to Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia and Syria as far as the Euphrates. During that time he became Administrator of the diocese of Baghdad, on the death of its bishop, Petrus Cuprié in 1832. In 1833 he was appointed titular Latin Patriarch of Constantinople.  Cappelletti, p. 670. Losana spoke against the idea of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Ecumenical Council:
 * Basilio Leto (1873 – 1885 resigned)
 * Domenico Cumino (1886 – 1901)
 * Giuseppe Gamba (1901 – 1906)
 * Giovanni Andrea Masera (1906 – 1912)
 * Natale Serafino (1912 – 1917)
 * Giovanni Garigliano (1917 – 1936)
 * Carlo Rossi (7 December 1936 – 15 February 1972 retired)
 * Vittorio Piola (15 February 1972 – 15 May 1986 resigned)
 * Massimo Giustetti (3 December 1986 – 13 July 2001 retired
 * Gabriele Mana (13 July 2001 – 2018 retired)
 * Roberto Farinella (27 July 2018 – )

Parishes
The diocese, which covers an area of 900 km2, is divided into 114 parishes. 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.

Province of Biella

 * Andorno Micca
 * S. Giuseppe (San Giuseppe di Casto)
 * S. Lorenzo


 * Benna
 * S. Pietro


 * Biella
 * S. Antonio
 * S. Bernardo
 * S. Biagio
 * S. Cassiano
 * S. Giacomo
 * S. Maria Assunta e S. Quirico
 * S. Paolo
 * S. Stefano
 * S. Giovanni Battista (Cossila)
 * S. Grato - (Cossila)
 * S. Giuseppe - (Favaro)
 * S. Carlo (Pavignano)
 * Santi Giovanni e Defendente (Vaglio e Colma)
 * Nostra Signora di Oropa (Villaggio Lamarmora)


 * Bioglio
 * S. Maria Assunta


 * Borriana
 * S. Sulpizio


 * Callabiana
 * S. Maria degli Angeli


 * Camandona
 * Santi Grato e Policarpo


 * Camburzano
 * S. Martino


 * Campiglia Cervo
 * Santi Bernardo e Giuseppe


 * Candelo
 * S. Lorenzo
 * S. Pietro


 * Casapinta
 * S. Lorenzo


 * Cavaglià
 * S. Michele


 * Cerreto Castello
 * S. Tommaso


 * Cerrione
 * S. Giovanni Battista
 * SS. Annunziata
 * S. Giorgio (Vergnasco)


 * Coggiola
 * S. Giorgio
 * S. Grato


 * Cossato
 * Gesù Nostra Speranza
 * S. Defendente
 * S. Maria Assunta
 * S. Pietro (Castellengo)


 * Crosa
 * Santi Cosma e Damiano


 * Donato
 * Santi Pietro Paolo e Giovanni Battista


 * Dorzano
 * S. Lorenzo


 * Gaglianico
 * S. Pietro


 * Gifflenga
 * S. Martino


 * Graglia
 * S. Fede
 * Santi Grato e Defendente


 * Lessona
 * S. Lorenzo


 * Magnano
 * Santi Giovanni Battista e Secondo


 * Massazza
 * S. Maria Assunta


 * Mezzana Mortigliengo
 * S. Bartolomeo


 * Miagliano
 * S. Antonio


 * Mongrando
 * S. Lorenzo
 * S. Maria Assunta
 * S. Rocco


 * Mosso
 * S. Maria Assunta


 * Mottalciata
 * Beata Maria Vergine del Carmine


 * Muzzano
 * Santi Giuseppe e Bernardo
 * S. Eusebio


 * Netro
 * S. Maria Assunta
 * SS. Annunziata


 * Occhieppo Inferiore
 * S. Antonino


 * Occhieppo Superiore
 * S. Antonio
 * S. Stefano


 * Pettinengo
 * S. Bernardo
 * Santi Stefano e Giacomo


 * Piatto
 * S. Michele


 * Piedicavallo
 * Santi Michele e Grato


 * Pollone
 * S. Eusebio Prete


 * Ponderano
 * S. Lorenzo


 * Portula
 * Immacolata Concezione di Maria
 * S. Maria della Neve


 * Pralungo
 * S. Eurosia
 * S. Maria della Pace


 * Pray Biellese
 * S. Antonio


 * Quaregna
 * S. Martino


 * Ronco Biellese
 * S. Michele


 * Roppolo
 * S. Maria del Rosario e S. Michele


 * Rosazza
 * Santi Pietro e Giorgio


 * Sagliano Micca
 * Santi Giacomo e Stefano


 * Sala Biellese
 * S. Martino


 * Salussola
 * S. Maria Assunta
 * Natività di Maria
 * S. Bartolomeo


 * San Paolo Cervo
 * S. Eusebio


 * Sandigliano
 * S. Maria Assunta


 * Selve Marcone
 * S. Grato


 * Soprana
 * S. Giuseppe


 * Sordevolo
 * S. Ambrogio


 * Strona
 * Natività di Maria


 * Tavigliano
 * Santissima Trinità e San Carlo


 * Ternengo
 * S. Eusebio


 * Tollegno
 * S. Germano


 * Torrazzo
 * S. Maria Assunta


 * Trivero
 * Santi Quirico e Giulitta
 * Visitazione di Maria
 * Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano (Bulliana)
 * Sacro Cuore di Gesù (Ponzone)
 * Santissima Trinità (Ponzone)
 * S. Giuseppe - (Pratrivero)


 * Valdengo
 * S. Biagio


 * Vallanzengo
 * Santi Orso e Brigida


 * Valle Mosso
 * Cuore Immacolata di Maria (Campore)
 * S. Eusebio
 * Santi Antonio e Bernardo (Croce Mosso)


 * Valle San Nicolao
 * S. Nicolao


 * Veglio
 * S. Giovanni Battista


 * Verrone
 * S. Lorenzo


 * Vigliano Biellese
 * S. Maria Assunta
 * S. Giuseppe Operaio (Villaggi)


 * Villanova Biellese
 * S. Barnaba


 * Viverone
 * S. Maria Assunta


 * Zimone
 * S. Giorgio


 * Zubiena
 * S. Nicolao
 * Santi Cassiano e Carlo


 * Zumaglia
 * Santi Fabiano e Sebastiano

Province of Vercelli

 * Carisio
 * S. Lorenzo

Sources, and further reading

 * p. 813.
 * Mullatera, Giovanni Tommaso (1778). Memorie cronologiche e corografiche della città di Biella. . Biella: Cajani, 1778.
 * Negro, Flavia (2008). "Scheda storico-territoriale del comune di Biella." [self-published]
 * pp. 133–134.
 * p. 813.
 * Mullatera, Giovanni Tommaso (1778). Memorie cronologiche e corografiche della città di Biella. . Biella: Cajani, 1778.
 * Negro, Flavia (2008). "Scheda storico-territoriale del comune di Biella." [self-published]
 * pp. 133–134.
 * pp. 133–134.