Jesi

Jesi

(ÆSINA)

Diocese in the Province of Ancona, Italy, immediately subject to the Holy See. The city is situated on a pleasant eminence, and was anciently known as Æsis, the name likewise of the River Esino, which flows near the city and forms the boundary between Umbria and Piceno. Little or nothing remains of the ancient buildings, temples, baths, etc., still preserved in the fourteenth century. After the Lombard invasion Jesi formed part of the Pentapolis, afterwards called the March of Ancona. In the conflicts between pope and emperor for the possession of the Marches, Jesi was Ghibelline. Frederick II, who was born there, used the city as the base of his operations. Saint Septimius, martyred in 307, is venerated as the first Bishop of Jesi. Saint Florianus, who was cast into the Esino in the Diocletian persecution, is also venerated (perhaps he is confounded with Saint Florianus who was cast into the Enus or Anisus). Other holy bishops of antiquity were Saints Martianus (c. 500), Calumniosus (c. 647), Honestus. The relics of these three were discovered in 1623. In 1245 Innocent IV deposed the intruder Armannus and placed in his stead the Franciscan Gualtiero, an Englishman and a friend of John of Parma, general of the order and patron of the "Spirituals", spoken of by Salimbene as "bonus cantor, bonus prædicator, bonus dictator". Bishop Severinus in 1237 laid the foundations of the new cathedral, a magnificent structure; the old one, now San Nicola, was outside the city, and in the eighteenth century had fallen into ruin. Gabriele del Monte (1554) introduced the reforms of the Council of Trent, which he had attended; he founded the seminary, and distinguished himself by his charity, especially during the plague of 1583. His successors were Cardinal Camillo Borghese (1597), afterwards Pope Paul V; Cardinals Tiberio Cenci (1621) and Alderano Cibò (1656), noted for their benefactions to churches, monasteries, and the seminary; Antonio Fonseca (1724), who restored the cathedral and founded a hospital. Cardinal Caprara (afterwards Archbishop of Milan), who concluded the Concordat with Napoleon, was Bishop of Jesi (1800-02). He was succeeded by Antonio M. Odescalchi, deported to Milan by the French in 1809. The diocese has twenty-six parishes with 54,000 souls; six religious houses of men and thirteen of women; two schools for boys and six for girls.

Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia, VII (Venice, 1857); Baldassini, Notizie historiche della regia città di Jesi (1703).

U. BENIGNI