The city of Vicenza and its territory have a rich history of religious tradition and culture. Over the centuries multiple expressions of popular faith have been translated into events and works of art, just as significant has been the presence of ecclesiastical institutions that, alongside civil ones, have influenced social life.
Centuries I B.C.-III A.D.
Pre-Christian cults
What is known of religious life in Roman Vicenza is based on the finding of dedications or inscriptions on stone, devotional statuettes, sacred altars, sacella and sacred grottos scattered throughout the countryside and valleys,. while no information is obtained from chronicles or written texts. Some elements of a local religiosity with characteristics dissimilar to those of the neighboring Verona and Padua emerge from the archaeological finds.
Although public celebrations of official deities and the deified figure of the emperor were certainly not missing, as in all Roman cities, the finds from the Vicenza area concern rather the private devotion of individual inhabitants of the city and the countryside.
Secondly, most of the finds concern female deities: Diana, Fortuna, Venus, Nemesis, the Nymphs, Isis,. all deities of Greek, Eastern or Egyptian origin whose cult had been imported and integrated into the Hellenistic-Roman pantheon. Lelia Cracco Ruggini points out that these are always goddesses of fertility, nature, hunting, and water, and thus hypothesizes that they represent the transposition into Roman culture of the more ancient cult of Reitiathe Venetian mother goddess of fertility whose votive plate was found in Vicenza in 1959or at any rate of indigenous female deities who were protectors of the forces of nature. This maintenance of a devotion prior to the conquest by Rome seems to be typical of populations where assimilation took place peacefully and gradually, as it did for Vicenza..
Centuries IV-VI
Early Christianity in Vicenza
It was Aquileia, a great city and commercial port, the center of the spread of Christianity in the X Regio Venetia et Histria;. the first followers of the new faith were not so much the common people, but the military, travelers, and merchants who had frequent contacts with the East and had cultural openness: it was among these few that presbyters were chosen in the second half of the third century.Bruna Forlani Tamaro, Da Aquileia a Venezia, Milano 1980, quoted by Probably the penetration of Christianity into Aquileiaand consequently into the Venetiascame about through relations with circles in Alexandria and the Judeo-Christian groups of the large Jewish colony residing in Aquileia; evidence of such relations would seem to be expressed in the formulation of the "Aquileian creed," as handed down by the 4th-century bishop Rufinus, and in the Sabbatarian cult practiced in the region.Guglielmo Biasutti, La tradizione marciana aquileiese, Udine 1959, quoted by
The fact that Christianity had already arrived in the territory of Vicenza towards the end of the 3rd century. would be attested by the martyrdomwhich occurred in 303-304 during the period of Diocletian's persecutionsof the two brothers Felix and Fortunatus, who were beheaded in Aquileia for not wanting to renounce their faith.
The community of believers in Vicenza grew rapidly, in part because of the favor granted to Christianity by the emperors after the Edict of Milan in 313, to the point that some authors speculate an early transfer of Felix's body to Vicenza in order to venerate his relics.. In any case, they were brought to the city before the end of the fourth century, when the first sacellum intended to house his remains was built, replaced a few years later by the basilica outside the walls, dedicated to Saints Felix and Fortunatus.
The building of a city church, which two centuries later would become the cathedral of Santa Maria Annunciata, also dates to the same period. Both churches were initially built with one nave and completely remade, larger and with three naves, in the mid-5th century. Toward the end of the same century the basilica of Saints Felix and Fortunatus was joined by a martyrion dedicated to Sancta Maria Mater Domini, in the name of the devotion to Mary, Mother of God that spread after the Council of Chalcedon in 451.. The findings therefore suggest that at that time the Christian community was flourishing and organized enough to afford the erection of two buildings of worship at the same time: the mosaic floors that can still be seen in San Felice, in which the names of donor families are inscribed, testify to the munificence and social status of the faithful.,
Because of these considerations, some historiansFirst Francesco Lanzoni, Le origini delle diocesi antiche d'Italia, Roma 1923, then and Mario Mirabella Roberti, in , have assumed that San Felice was already an episcopal see from the first construction. have speculated that the first ecclesiastical organization dated back to that time and that Vicenza was already an episcopal see in the fourth centuryas were many other cities of the Venetiaeof which, however, there is no mention in the available documentation. Indeed, among the numerous records of the presence of Venetian bishops at councils in northern Italy, there is no mention of a Vicentine until the late 6th century, when Orontius is mentioned.
The construction of two churches, one inside the city and the other outside the walls, might have corresponded to the needs of the Christian community at that time: community prayer, catechesis, and the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, which could be celebrated by the bishop of another city on a pastoral visit or by a priest delegated by him. It is likely that until the end of the 6th century the community of Vicenza referred to the bishop and diocese of Padua, a city on which it also gravitated civilly, and became autonomous only after the establishment of the Lombard Kingdom, of which Padua was not initially a part..
Centuries VI-VII
The period of the Schism of the Three Chapters The initial period of Lombard domination in the Veneto represented the time when different cultureswhich only in the 8th century would be partially integratedcharacterized also by the diversity of religious denominations were pitted against each other.
A few years before the invasionwhich took place in 568-569the Byzantine emperor Justinian, in order not to displease the Monophysites who were still numerous even after the Council of Chalcedon in the eastern regions of the empire, had condemned by his own edict some writings (chapters) of three theologians,Theodoret, Ibas of Edessa, and Theodore of Mopsuestia who, although accepted by the Council of Chalcedon, were accused by the Monophysites of being Nestorians who had enjoyed great authority at Chalcedon.
Many bishops of Northern Italyincluding those of Milan and Aquileiahad been unwilling to endure this imposition, and their dissent had deepened at the time of Pope Pelagius I, who had not only accepted the edict but had addressed an epistle to the Byzantine general Narseswho, however, did not want to obey the requestinviting him to crush the rebellion by force.Historia Langobardorum, III
At that point the Patriarchate of Aquileia became hierarchically independent and the bishops elected Patriarch Paulinus I to emphasize their autonomy. Aquileia no longer recognized the pope's authority and vigorously contested to the point of rupturehence the name Schism of the Three Chaptershis attitude, which they felt was wavering on the issue of the three condemned theologians, as it did not counter the interference of the Byzantine emperor's power in doctrinal matters.
At the time of their migration to Italy in 568-69, the Lombards were Christians of the Arian faith, a faith superficially superimposed on a substratum of well-established pagan traditions and values that constituted the identity of the ethnic group. When they arrived, preceded by a reputation as a fierce people, Paulinus moved his seat and relics to Grado (Aquileia Nova), which remained under Byzantine sovereignty like the rest of the coastal strip. Instead, most of the inland cities and their dioceses were incorporated into the new kingdom.
After Paulinus' death, the synod of Aquileia-Grado elected Elia in 571, who was also opposed to the orientations of the emperor and the pope. The Patriarchate was all with him: as a synod convened in Grado in 579 reiterated, the Tricapitoline Church remained strictly Chalcedonian, maintained the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, professed no Christological heresy and venerated Mary as "Mother of God." In 579 the new pope, Pelagius II, granted Elia the metropolia over the Venetias and Istria in an attempt to recompose the schism, which, however, had a large popular following; Elia's successor, Severus, then convened a synod at Marano in 590, which was attended by 10 bishopsincluding Orontius, the first bishop of Vicenza, as recorded by Paul the DeaconIn Historia Langobardorum, III, 26in which the easternmost cities of the Regio, in contrast to Aquileia and all the others who intended to persevere in the three-chapter position in separation from Rome, stood close to the pope.
Thus in 606, upon the death of Severus, the Patriarchate was divided into two sees, Aquileia and Grado. In Aquileia the patriarch Giovanni, a tricapitoline, was appointed with the support of the Lombards; in Grado, to whose see was reserved jurisdiction over territories under Byzantine domination, the patriarch Candidiano, a Catholic, was appointed, supported by the exarch.
Vicenza therefore, which had always maintained strong ties with Aquileia, remained steadfast in its tricapitoline faith throughout the first century of Lombard rule. There is no record of any Arian church being built in the city or territory, and there is no evidence whatsoever that the people of Vicenza adhered to the victors' creed.
The schism, initially favored by the Lombards in opposition to Byzantium and Rome, was resolved by the Lombards themselves. In the second half of the 7th century they gradually converted to Catholicism and came closer to the pope. After the Battle of Coronate in 689, in which the Catholic king Cunipert routed the Arian duke of Lombard Austria Alahiswho was also supported by many Romanic adherents of the Three-Chapter schismthe Catholic faith finally imposed itself on the dissenters. In 698, Cunipert convened a synod at Pavia in which the Catholic and tricapitoline bishops, including Peter I, Patriarch of Aquileia, recomposed “in the spirit of Chalcedon” their doctrinal and hierarchical communion.
Thus a new cultural climate matured, evidenced by a number of elements, such as the decorative renovation of churches and palacesalthough in Vicenza there is very little evidence of the Liutprandean Revivalthe abandonment of the use of grave goods, the mixing of names, whereby many Lombards took on names of Roman and Christian tradition and Romans took on Germanic names, and the sharing of the same language,. all demonstrating that the sense of identity of the lineage was fading.
8th-12th centuries: the early Middle Ages
The network of Benedictine abbeys After the conversion of the Lombards to Catholicism, and especially around the middle of the 8th century, many noblesin some cases the king himself or dukesfounded monasteries throughout Italysome even in the territory of Vicenzafinancing their construction and endowing them with considerable economic resources..