Archdiocese of Milan

The **Archdiocese of Milan** (in Latin : Archidioecesis Mediolanensis ) is a metropolitan seat of the Catholic Church belonging to the Lombardy Ecclesiastical Region. In 2013 out of a population of 5,451,090 people counted 4,970,975 baptized . It is currently ruled by Archbishop Monsignor Mario Enrico Delpini successor to Cardinal Angelo Scola the 7 July 2017 .

The Diocese was profoundly marked by the pastoral activity of its main patron Saint Ambrose , archbishop from 374 to 397 , so much so that it was also called with the adjective Ambrosian . It is patron Saint Charles Borromeo , archbishop from 1560 to 1584 .

## Territory

The Archdiocese includes the provinces of Milan, most of the province of Varese, the province of Monza and Brianza and the province of Lecco excluding the upper San Martino valley, as well as some municipalities in the province of Como, province of Pavia and Treviglio in province of Bergamo.

Archiepiscopal see is the city of Milan, where the Cathedral of Santa Maria Nascente , Where the famous Duomo of Milan, is located .

The ecclesiastical province of Milan also includes the following suffragan dioceses:

Diocese of Bergamo

Diocese of Brescia

Diocese of Como

Diocese of Crema

Diocese of Cremona

Diocese of Lodi

Diocese of Mantua

Diocese of Pavia

Diocese of Vigevano

The Archdiocese of Milan, composed of 1108 parishes parishes all fall within the region of Lombardy. They are divided between the Province of Bergamo, the Province of Como, the Province of Lecco, the Province of Milan, the Province of Pavia, and the Province of Varese. and with a population of more than 5 million, is the largest in Europe

The parishes are grouped into 73 deaneries , in turn grouped into 7 pastoral areas .

## Ambrosian rite

*Main article: Ambrosian rite*

A strongly characteristic element of the Archdiocese of Milan is the Ambrosian rite , adopted in almost the entire archdiocese (with the exception of the deaneries of Monza , Treviglio and Trezzo sull'Adda , the parishes of Civate and Varenna in the pastoral area of Lecco and the non parish churches run by religious, in which the Roman rite is adopted ). It includes, among other peculiarities, the adoption of the lectionary, a missal and a liturgical calendar different from those of the Roman liturgical rite.

## History

### origins

The birth of the Archdiocese of Milan is indicated in the first century by the successive stratification of traditions aimed at tracing the first Christian preaching back to Saint Anathalon or even to Saint Barnabas the Apostle. Although such dating is unlikely, historians believe the chronology of the previous bishops Ambrose (of which the last, Aussentius , of Aryan confession ) to be reliable , although artificially expanded from the III to the I century. The Church of Milan is called for the first time "Ambrosian Church" during the episcopate of Ansperto ( 868 - 881). The first elected Cardinal Archbishop is Attone, bishop of the 11th century .

### Ambrose

*Main article: Saint Ambrose*

Starting from the 4th century , after the advent of Constantine the Great as Roman Emperor, news and dating became more reliable. Although the first to be called "Archbishop" was Theodore II , the elevation to an archdiocese is made to coincide with the episcopate of Ambrose , at which time the latter worked hard to restore the predominance of Roman doctrine over that arian and in which he acquired great political weight, also in correspondence of the imperial court's presence in Milan and taking advantage of the positions of relative weakness of the emperors of his time, Graziano and Valentiniano II. Despite the substantial acceptance of the Empire by Ambrogio, with Theodosius the contrasts were more heated, but were finally recomposed.

The history of the diocese of Milan is remain deeply linked to the figure of Saint Ambrose , bishop of the city from 374 to 397 .

Back in September of 600 Pope Gregory the Great spoke of the newly elected bishop of Milan, Deodato , not so much as a successor, but rather as "vicar" of St. Ambrose.[*citation needed*] In the year 881, instead, Pope John VIII defined for the first time the " Ambrosian " diocese , a term that still remains today to identify not only the Church of Milan, but sometimes even the city itself.

The legacy of Ambrose is delineated principally starting from his pastoral activity: the preaching of the Word of God combined with the doctrine of the Catholic Church , attention to the problems of social justice , acceptance of people from distant peoples, denunciation errors in civil and political life.

### The fall of the Empire and the Genoese exile

After Ambrose, in the final period from late antiquity to the reign of the Goths of Theoderic (between the fourth and first half of the sixth century ), with the transfer of the imperial court from Milan to Ravenna first, and with the fall of the Empire then, the archbishop increasingly assumed a civil role of "substitute" for the imperial institutions in decay, even managing to administer justice.

The situation changed radically with the advent of the Lombards in Italy, less tolerant of the Goths (even if they were Arians like them) with respect to the pre-existing institutions of their domain. With the descent of Alboino and the occupation of 568 , the archbishop of the time, Onorato Castiglioni , even left Milan moving with all his followers to Genoa , where the curia remained for 80 years thus weakening the management of the diocese and indirectly favoring the to establish the tricapitolino schism in Milan . With the conquest by Rotari of Liguria , the then archbishopForte fled to Rome, leaving the post to John the Good of Milan (now venerated as a saint ) who in 649 returned the headquarters to Milan.

### The Carolingian period

The second half of the 7th century saw the return of the archbishop's role in a purely spiritual context, which allowed peaceful coexistence with the Lombard civil authorities. With the descent into Italy of Charlemagne , and the consequent defeat of the Lombards by the Franks , the situation underwent a further change. Given that Carolingian politics had strong religious connotations, the new ruling class preferred to favor the appointment of figures loyal to it the first of which was Pietro I Oldrati . There followed a series of archbishops increasingly active in the political sphere up to participating in the succession struggle for the Regnum Italiae between Ludovico il Pioand Berengar of Italy in which Anselmo I took the parts of the latter.

This episode induced the winning faction of the contest (that of Ludovico) to favor the election of successive archbishops of frank origin: Angilberto I and Angilberto II . The latter, in particular, assumed a prominent political role that led him to become an intermediary in the conflict that arose between Lotario (then King of Italy) and Emperor Louis. The success of this mediation meant that Angilberto acquired, in addition to considerable political prestige, also numerous feudal donations in the areas of influence of Pavia and the Canton Ticino .

Angilberto was a prominent figure even during the empire of Ludwig II and left a very prestigious situation to his successors. It was then Ansperto Confalonieri , also a trusted man of Ludovico II although of Lombard origins, who definitively consolidated the political power of the archdiocese.

Ansperto became a messenger of Ludovico II and entered into the merit of the succession of the emperor who, having no sons, had designated his uncle Ludovico or one of his sons. On the contrary, Pope John VIII supported the candidacy of Charles the Bald , belonging to the French branch of the family. Ansperto, whose opinion turned out to be decisive, sided with the Pope and Carlo the Bald was crowned. Obviously Ansperto's support was repaid with new imperial donations which, both in terms of wealth and military strength, brought Milan back to a position of pre-eminence in northern Italy.

### From the IX century to the time of the Municipality

The political influence of the archdiocese remained strong even after the abandonment of Milan by the Carolingian dynasty . Archbishop Valperto de 'Medici received several donations of castles in the Lombard area from Emperor Ottone , but his successors sought to limit the power of bishops by working to favor the election of figures closest to them. This strategy culminated with the election of Landulf II, who, however, was forced by the citizens to leave the city. In this period the struggle between the religious authority, represented by the curia, and the civil one, represented by the comitial families loyal to the emperor, began to take shape for the supremacy of the government of the cities, a contrast that will result later in the struggle for investitures .

Two important figures of this period were Arnolfo II and Ariberto da Intimiano . The first was very close to Otto III , so much so that he gave his military support to his son Henry II in his fight against Arduino d'Ivrea , obtaining honors and rewards; with the second, the archdiocese of Milan managed to keep much of the territory delimited by the Po , Adda and Ticino under the control of Henry II .

But it was precisely this presence of Aribert that caused the neighboring and antagonistic cities and the feudal lords of the city to turn against the archbishop. These complaints were supported by Conrad II, who saw an opportunity to reduce the weight of Aribert. However, the archbishop succeeded in reassembling the city with the specter of the loss of autonomy of Milan with respect to the empire; he resisted the empire until the death of Corrado and was reconciled with his successor Henry III . When the common danger that had gathered the components of the Milan of the XI century , the most powerful families returned to try to free themselves from the power of the archbishop to govern the city autonomously through the municipal institutions .

### The municipal period

In the following period the Milanese archbishops were involved in the investiture struggle and in the Patarini uprising . Elections were thus alternated, not always considered legitimate, often dictated by the emperor or by the Patarines (supported in an anti-imperial key also by Pope Gregory VII ) such as those of Guido da Velate , Goffredo da Castiglione and Attone . These figures often had to face revolts so much that they had to support excommunications , accusations of simony and sometimes even be forced to flee as happened to Tedaldo da Castiglione .

After this period of disorder, the Milanese Church returned to play an important role in the politics of northern Italy, managing to exploit the intention of the papacy to make it an outpost against the empire. The first archbishop who assumed this role was Anselmo III da Rho . He did not, however, want to definitively break relations with Henry IV , whose gifts he accepted , which according to the rules established by Gregory VII should have cost him excommunication. His position, however, was lightened with the election of Gregory's successor, Urban II , whose most pragmatic policy advised him to limit himself to having him retired for a time in a Lombard convent and then reinstated him in his post.

In the 12th century the successors of Anselmo III, Arnolfo III and Anselmo IV from Bovisio , continued the policy of the predecessor by opposing Henry IV also through the support given to Conrad of Lorraine , his "rebel" son. Anselmo IV was also the promoter of the 1101 Crusade called by Urban II, so much so that he gathered armed forces and left for the Holy Land to never return.

The subsequent appointments were conditioned by Pope Paschal II (who was then at war with the emperor Henry V ) whom he first made to elect Grossolano , and then have him subsequently deposed in favor of Giordano da Clivio . However, these appointments ended up producing, as a century before, the detachment and hostility of the Milanese society towards Rome, which preferred to change its attitude so as not to exacerbate the contrasts with the most important diocese of northern Italy.

As soon as the control of the papacy was loosened, Archbishop Anselmo V Pusterla supported the Milan war against Como (even participating in military actions) which caused a strong "cooling" of relations with Rome, which culminated in Anselmo's coronation V of Conrad of Swabia as King of the Romans in opposition to Lothair , whose appointment as emperor had been favored by the Pope. The situation became even more confused in 1130 , the year in which the death of Pope Honorius II led to a schism with the election of Innocent II and the antipope Anacletus II. The latter sought and obtained the support of Anselmo, but with the final affirmation of Innocent II, the archbishop was excommunicated and deposed.

After another period of instability, with the election of Oberto da Pirovano , the unity of the Milanese society was reformed. Oberto, although close to the papacy, had managed to maintain the traditional closeness of the archdiocese with the empire. However, the situation was destined to change with the ascent to the throne of Federico Barbarossa . In fact, he decided to reduce Milan's influence in northern Italy, welcomed the protests of nearby cities and immediately proved hostile to the metropolis. Later to the dispute between Alexander III and Victor IV (supported by Federico), who disputed the papal throne on the death of Hadrian IV, Oberto decided to support Alessandro against Vittore, thus putting himself definitively at odds with the imperial authority. Thus an open conflict was created between Alexander III and Milan on one side and Federico, Vittore IV and the antagonistic cities of Milan on the other. This conflict led to sieges and the surrender and total destruction of Milan by Barbarossa in March 1162 . Oberto took refuge in Genoa from Alexander III and never returned to Milan.

The destruction of Milan became the symbol of the imperial domination of northern Italy and in opposition to it the opposition to Federico was organized, which later materialized in the Lombard League . This opposition was supported by Alexander III and when, following the Battle of Legnano and other defeats suffered, Federico stipulated the Treaty of Constance , Milan could again enjoy its autonomy (though formally recognizing the authority of the empire). The archbishop of Milan thus became the reference figure for relations between Milan and Federico (and therefore between the papacy and the empire).

The successor of Oberto, Galdino della Sala (now venerated as a saint ), took on this important task, becoming the referent of Alexander III and one of the most influential figures of his time throughout northern Italy: he took care of the alliances formed in the Lombard League and also on his initiative the city of Alessandria was founded to oppose the Marquisate of Monferrato , faithful to Federico. His pastoral work was such that Galdino was soon appointed co-patron of the city together with Ambrogio, both for his work of defensor civitatis (defender and even "reconstructor" of Milan after the destruction of the city), and for that of pater pauperum("father of the poor") through works of charity and assistance aimed specifically at the poor and at those who had ended up in prison for unpaid debts.

After the end of the schism with the definitive affirmation of Alexander III, Milan in 1185 signed a treaty with Federico in which she was allowed to expand her influence towards the south (Pavia and Cremona ), provided she committed herself to supporting the empire in her struggle for the re-acquisition of the assets that he had lost in Italy during the schism and whose possession was not defined by the previous treaties.

Milan was therefore again between empire and papacy. For this reason, the Milanese clergy elected archbishop Cardinal Uberto Crivelli , a decisive supporter of the papacy, as archbishop . The figure of Uberto turned out to be so strong that it also imposed itself in the succession to the papal throne after the death of Pope Lucius III , the cardinal archbishop thus became pope with the name of Urban III, but without leaving the archdiocese of Milan for this. The city was thus, despite having signed a treaty that bound it to the empire, to be the seat of one of the archdioceses most involved in the anti-imperial struggle. This caused the municipal bodies to mark their progressive detachment from the curia. In response, Urban III gave his support to Cremona (an opponent of Milan and the empire). The contrast between the curia and the Municipality came to a halt only with the death of Urban III, which was followed by the election as archbishop of Milone da Cardano , former bishop of Turin .

Milone, who was part of the Curia Milan already at the time of its destruction by Barbarossa and had been in the wake of Alexander III, proved to be more diplomatic than his predecessor, managing to recompose the disagreements created previously with the noble class that dominated the Municipality . Even his successors, continuing on the same line, came closer and closer to the dominant class and were drawn into conflicts with the then-emerging People's Party, thus losing authority even in the ecclesiastical field. Only in the second half of the 13th century , with the rise of Ottone Visconti and the definitive defeat of the People's Party, did the power of the archdiocese in Milan reaffirm, albeit in a totally different form, linked to the Lordships .

### The age of the Visconti

After the death of Leone da Perego in 1257 , which had tried in vain to reconstruct the internal differences between the faction of the nobles and the popular one (so much so as to be forced into exile in Legnano ), the election of the successor turned out to be problematic.

The prominent political figure of Milan at that time was Martino della Torre , Captain of the People and successor of his brother Pagano , who was in fact the first of Milan's regents to give the town the form of lordship . Of Guelph inspiration , however, to maintain a broad consensus within the city, he named the Ghibelline Oberto Pallavicino as a militia captain, closer to the noble faction.

This appointment caused a certain friction with Rome and ended up preventing the election as archbishop of both Raimondo della Torre (Martino's nephew), supported by the populace, and Francesco da Settala supported by the nobles, so in 1262 Pope Urban IV appointed Archbishop Ottone Visconti .

The Della Torre reaction expressed itself in the confiscation of the assets of the archdiocese and in the attack by the Pallavicino of the numerous castles and possessions of the Visconti in the Lake Maggiore area . In this way, however, Ottone became the reference point for the opponents of the Della Torre and the People's Party. The clashes lasted for years, well beyond the death of both Urban IV and Martino della Torre and of Pallavicino.

In 1277 the battle of Desio marked the definitive victory of Otto who defeated the party of the people and reduced the then lord of Milan, Napoleon of the Tower , to imprisonment , thus obtaining the lordship over the archbishopric. The affirmation of Ottone had as effect the approach of the curia to the noble faction, he in fact with the Matricula nobilium familiarum sanctioned that the access to the major ecclesiastical offices of the Milanese clergy should be reserved to who came from the circle of the local nobility. In 1287 Ottone then pointed to his nephew Matteo as captain of the people, effectively establishing the Visconti domination over Milan.

Otto's death coincided with a momentary return to the top of the Della Torre that could count on the support of Raimondo (meanwhile become Patriarch of Aquileia ), but the control obtained by the Visconti on Milan allowed them to overcome the interlocutory moment culminated with the expulsion from Milan by Matteo Visconti and the election as archbishop of Cassono della Torre . After a few years the archdiocese returned to the Visconti in the person of Giovanni Visconti .

In the second half of the nineteenth century Archbishop Ballerini was prevented by the civil authority from exercising his pastoral activity; the diocese was in fact governed by Msgr. Carlo Caccia Dominioni ( 1859 - 1866 ) in his dual capacity as vicar capitular to the Italian state and vicar general of Msgr. Dancers in front of the Holy See.

## List of Bishops

*Main article: List of Archbishops of Milan*

## Bibliography

* Illustrated history of Milan. Ancient and medieval Milan , Franco della Peruta (edited by), Sellino Editore, Milanoanno = 1993 , ISBN 8881297531
* Adriano Caprioli , Antonio Rimoldi , Luciano Vaccaro , Religious history of Lombardy - Diocese of Milan , Editrice La Scuola, Brescia , 1990
* ( SD ) Konrad Eubel , the hierarchy of the Catholic Middle Ages, or sermon, S [oly] R [Oman] E [cclesiae] Cardinal churches antistitum series. E Accountants Especially Vatican documents are collected, Digest, Volume cap. From the year 1431 to the year 1503 reached vol. 2 Padua Il Messagero di S. Antonio, 1901 , 1968, p. 188 URL consultato il 05-12-2018

## Specific References

1. ↑ Delpini, messa in Sant'Ambrogio: "'Mi scuso se ho rubato la scena'". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 9 September 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
2. ↑ "Metropolitan Archdiocese of Milano" GCatholic.org. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016
3. ↑ Source for parishes: CCI (2008), Parrocchie, Chiesa Cattolica Italiana, archived from the original on 2008-03-10, retrieved 2008-03-14.
4. ↑ Milano laica e religiosa by L'Osservatore Romano
5. ↑ www.chiesadimilano.it
6. ↑ I Compatroni dei milanesi: San Galdino e San Carlo