He was intent on seizing the Exarchate of Ravenna and expelling the last remaining Byzantine officials from northern Italy.

On Holy Saturday, in the evening, they broke into the Cathedral, where the annual solemn baptismal service was in progress, and killed or threw into chains nearly the entire population.

[6] Pope Gregory wrote immediately to Charles Martel, complaining of the destruction and depredations of the Lombard kings, and seeking aid of the Franks.

[9] This action was done at the repeated request of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, whose political domain included the lands that became the diocese of Modigliana.

The Duke was unhappy to see persons under his temporal jurisdiction subject to an ecclesiastical authority (Faenza) which was outside of his domain.

[10] The new diocese was assigned to the ecclesiastical province of Florence, and the Collegiate Church of S. Stefano de Mutilano became a cathedral.

[14] In compliance with a Constitution of the Second Vatican Council, and following norms established by Pope John XXIII, after extensive consultations with all interested parties, and with the consent of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican Congregation of Bishops issued a decree on 30 September 1986, uniting the two dioceses of Faenza and Modigliana under one bishop, with one Curia, and with one seat, and one Cathedral Chapter, in Faenza.

In the Roman synod of Pope Eugene II of November 826, it was ordered that Canons live together in a cloister next to the church.

In 876, the Council of Pavia decreed in Canon X that the bishops should enclose the Canons: uti episcopi in civitatibus suis proximum ecclesiae claustrum instituant, in quo ipsi cum clero secundum canonicam regulam Deo militent, et sacerdotes suos ad hoc constringant, ut ecclesiam non relinquant et alibi habitare praesumant.

[19] According to tradition, the Canons and Canonry at Faenza were established by Bishop Paulus, a figure of the mid-tenth century.

[35] Cardinal Gianfrancesco Negroni, Bishop of Faenza (1687–1697) presided over a diocesan synod which began on 30 August 1694.