San Severino stands on the site of the ancient Septempeda, a city of Picenum. The saint from whom the city takes its name is commonly believed to have been Bishop of Septempeda, but his date is unknown. In the eighth century it was a fortress of the Duchy of Spoleto. The Church of San Severino gave its name later to a new town that grew up around it. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was at constant war with the neighbouring cities, especially with Camerino, and always supported the cause of the emperors, particularly of Emperor Frederick II. Louis the Bavarian named as vicar of San Severino Smeduccio della Scala, who, passing into the service of the Holy See, gave great help to the expedition of Cardinal Albornoz and became feudal lord of San Severino, a post held later by his son Onofrio. His nephew Antonio paid with his life for attempting to resist the arms of Pietro Colonna, the representative of Pope Martin V; his sons tried in vain to recapture the city, which remained immediately subject to the Holy See. In the Middle Ages San Severino was part of the Archdiocese of Camerino; the old cathedral was then a collegiate church. In 1566 there was a seminary in the town.
Creation of diocese
On 26 November 1586, by the Bull Superna dispositione, Pope Sixtus V made San Severino an episcopal see, a suffragan of the Archbishop of Fermo. The first bishop was Orazio Marzari. The cathedral was administered by a Chapter, with two dignities and thirteen Canons, one of whom was Theologus and another Penitentiary. A fourteenth was later added, under the patronage of the Tucci and Gentili families. In 1913, the diocese of Treia was removed from the supervision of the Archbishop of Camerino and assigned donec aliter provideretur, to Bishop Adam Borghini of San. Severino. On 20 February 1920, the Diocese of Treia was united to the diocese of San Severino by the Bull Boni Pastoris of Pope Benedict XV, in such a way that the bishop of San Severino was to be the Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Treia on a permanent basis. Bishop Dionigi Pieragostini held a diocesan synod in 1733.
End of diocese
The current configuration of the former diocese was arranged in order to conform to Italian civil law, which was embodied in the Concordat between the Vatican and the Italian Republic of 18 February 1984. After extensive consultations, Pope John Paul II decreed that the status of the bishop governing several dioceses aeque personaliter was abolished, and that the Diocese of Macerata-Tolentino was merged with the Diocese of Osimo e Cingoli, the Diocese of Recanati and the diocese of Treia to form a single diocese, albeit with a long name. The changes were embodied in a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops in the Roman Curia, promulgated on 30 September 1986. The seat of the merged dioceses was to be in Macerata. All of the cathedrals except Macerata were to have the status of co-cathedral. On the same day the diocese of San Severino was united permanently with the Archiocese of Camerino, under the new title Archidioecesis Camerinensis-Sancti Severini in Piceno. The former cathedral of San Severino was granted the honorary title of co-cathedral.
