Ascoli, Satriano, and Cirignola, an Italian diocese, suffragan to the Archdiocese of Beneventum, comprising six towns and two villages, in the Province of Foggia. In 969, Ausculum Appulum appears as an episcopal city amongst the suffragan sees of Beneventum, but the first bishop of whom we have any knowledge is Maurus, present at the consecration of the Church of St. Angelo at Volturno (1059). Cirignola on account of its relative importance, must have been formerly a diocese, but history is silent in the matter. When Pius VII reorganized the ecclesiastical provinces of the Neapolitan Kingdom, on the occasion of the Concordat (16 February, 1818) with Ferdinand I, King of the two Sicilies, he restored Cirignola to its ancient episcopal dignity and united it a@que principaliter to the Diocese of Ascoli. At the end of the year 1905 this diocese contained 11 parishes; 62 churches, chapels, and oratories; 98 secular priests; 60 seminarians; 8 regular clergy; 4 lay brothers; 46 religious (women); 18 confraternities; 3 girls’ schools with an attendance of 140. Population, 70,115.
Uae, [Italia Sacra (Venice, 1722), VIII, 224; CAPPELETTI, Le chiese d'Italia (Venice, 1866), XIX, 140; Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesie catholicæ (Ratisbon, 1873), 855; KIRIATTO, Memorie istoriche di Cerignola (Naples, 1785).
Ernesto Buonaiuti.