[2] Local legend in Sulmona credits the evangelization with Saint Feliciano, Bishop of Foligno, in the middle of the third century.

[7] In 1143 King Roger II of Sicily invaded Campania and seized the monastery of Montecassino, all of whose treasures he confiscated.

[13] In the winter of 1336/1337, a group of armed men stationed themselves in the cathedral of S. Pamfilo in Sulmona, in order (they said) to prevent others from attacking or occupying it.

In the especially cold winter weather, they tore up the flooring of the episcopal palace next door, took out the wooden beams, and made fires to keep warm.

[14] Other bishops were: Pompeo Zambeccari (1547–1571), nuncio in Portugal from March 1550 to July 1560;[15] Francesco Boccapaduli (1638); and Pietro Antonio Corsignani (1738), the historian of the Abruzzi.

From 1809 to 1815, Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon in France, and his policy was not to cooperate with the French in filling bishoprics.

The right of the king to nominate the candidate for a vacant bishopric was recognized, as in the Concordat of 1741, subject to papal confirmation (preconisation).

[25] On 27 June 1818, Pius VII issued the bull De Ulteriore, in which, in the cases of several dioceses, Sulmona and Valva among them, no change was made from the status quo ante.

[26] On 25 September 1818, Pope Pius granted the cathedral of S. Pamfilo in Sulmona the honorary title of "minor basilica".

On 15 August 1972, a new ecclesiastical province was created, with L'Aquila, which had previously been directly subject to the Holy See, as the new metropolitan archbishopric.

Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation.

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

[33] Postnominal initials: Benedictine = OSB, Dominican = OP, Cistercian = OCist, Franciscan = OFM, Minorite = OFMC, Augustinian = OESA, Oratorian = CO, Olivetan = OSBOliv