The
Diocese of Cava was established by
Pope Boniface IX (
Roman Obedience) on 7 August 1394 (centered on the monastery of
La Trinità della Cava), on territory split off from the Metropolitan
Archdiocese of Salerno. To facilitate the change, Liguori Majorini, the abbot of Santissima Trinità di Cava, was named Archbishop of Salerno, and in the vacancy Francesco d'Aiello, a canon of Salerno, was appointed the first bishop. The abbey church became the Cathedral of the diocese, and monks of the abbey formed the Cathedral Chapter, whose head was the Prior. In 1513 the diocese lost territory to establish the
Territorial Abbacy of Santissima Trinità di Cava de' Tirreni.
Concordat of 1818 Following the extinction of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the
Congress of Vienna authorized the restoration of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Since the French occupation had seen the abolition of many Church institutions in the Kingdom, as well as the confiscation of most Church property and resources, it was imperative that
Pope Pius VII and
King Ferdinand IV reach agreement on restoration and restitution. Ferdinand, however, was not prepared to accept the pre-Napoleonic situation, in which Naples was a feudal subject of the papacy. Lengthy, detailed, and acrimonious negotiations ensued. In 1818, a new concordat with the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies committed the pope to the suppression of more than fifty small dioceses in the kingdom. In the bull "De Utiliori" of 27 June 1818,
Pope Pius VII permanently suppressed the diocese of
Diocese of Nocera de' Pagani (Nuceria Paganorum), and its territory was assigned to the diocese of Cava de'Tirreni. At the same time
Pope Pius VII reduced the cathedral of
Sarno to the rank of co-cathedral, and united the diocese of Sarno with that of Cava
aeque principaliter (two separate dioceses, each governed by one and the same bishop, the result to be known as
Diocese of Cava and Sarno. On 7 December 1833, in the Bull
In vinea Domini,
Pope Gregory XVI restored the diocese of Nocera de' Pagani, and assigned it the territory which it had lost fifteen years earlier to the diocese of Cava. On 21 September 1850 the diocese of Cava lost territory to establish the
Diocese of Diano–Teggiano.
Suppression of diocese Following the
Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the council's decree,
Christus Dominus chapter 40, Pope Paul VI ordered a reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces in southern Italy. Subsequently, a revised Concordat was agreed between the Vatican and the Italian Republic on 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 other changes were ordered. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops, with the approval of the pope, the diocese of Cava was suppressed on 30 September 1986. The cathedral of Cava de' Tirreni was renamed a co-cathedral, and its Chapter retitled the Chapter of the co-cathedral.The priests and deacons of the former diocese were incardinated in the Archdiocese of Amalfi-Cava de'Terreni. The territories of the former diocese of Cava were divided. Cava de Tirreni merged with the Metropolitan
Archdiocese of Amalfi as
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Amalfi-Cava de' Tirreni, while the territory of the former diocese of Sarno merged with the restored diocese of Nuceria Paganorum to form the
diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno. == Bishops ==