Roman Catholic Diocese of Gravina-Montepeloso

The diocese of Gravina and Montepeloso is a former ecclesiastical territory of the Roman Catholic Church in Apulia, southern Italy.

[1][2] Bishop Petrus of Hydruntum (968) was raised to the dignity of Metropolitan by Polyeuctus, Patriarch of Constantinople (956-970), with the obligation to establish the Byzantine Rite throughout the new ecclesiastical province, and the authority to consecrate bishops in the churches of Acerenza, Tursi, Gravina, Matera, and Tricarico, all previously dependent on the Church of Rome.

The Latin Church was introduced again after the Norman conquest, but the Byzantine Rite remained in use in several towns of the archdiocese and of its suffragans, until the sixteenth century.

[3] The first known bishop of Gravina is Leo;[4] other bishops of note are: Giacomo Orsini (1302), who replaced the Greek rite with the Latin (Roman) rite, by order of Gentile Orsini Archbishop of Acerenza; Vincenzo Giustianiani (1593), a Genoese nobleman, who founded the seminary, the church of the Madonna delle Grazie and the Capuccinelle convent; Domenico Cennini (1645), who rebuilt the episcopal residence; Fra Domenico Valvassori (1686), a patron of learning and founder of an Accademia Teologica.

[6] Ferdinando (Ferrante) and his wife, Giovanna Frangipane della Tolfa, also began the construction of S. Maria, called the "Purgatorio" in 1644.

According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished.

To make the territories of the new diocese congruent, the town of San Teramo in Colle was detached from the archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto and added to that of Altamura.