[2][3] The episcopal see is in the cathedral of Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano, dedicated to the Holy Spirit (Sancta Columba).

The cathedral was staffed and administered by a Chapter, composed of two dignities (not "dignitaries"), the Provost and the Archdeacon, and twelve Canons.

One tradition, represented in a martyrological Passio written between the 8th and 12th centuries, makes him an Ephesian who came to Rome c. 290, and was consecrated a bishop by Pope Damasus I (366–384).

In another tradition, found in a codex of the 11th or 12th century, Christianity was first preached in Rimini by the priest Leo of Montefeltro and the deacon Marinus, in the time of Diocletian and Maximianus, who were followed by Gaudentius, who was consecrated to be the first bishop.

The Synod unanimously approved the decisions of Nicaea, especially the use of the expression ousia, pronounced the anathema upon each separate point of Arianism, and (on 21 July 359) declared Bishops Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, and Caius (Auxentius and Demophilus) to be heretics and deposed.

[14] Peter Damiani, in his book, Liber Gratissimus, addressed to Archbishop Henricus of Ravenna, pointed out Bishop Ubertus (1005–1015) as a simoniac, who had paid a large sum of cash for his bishopric, and yet was revered and respectable.

[15] Opizo was one of the bishops who installed and crowned the Antipope Clement III (Guiberto, 1075) in the Lateran in 1084; Ranieri II degli Uberti (1143) consecrated the ancient cathedral of St. Colomba; Alberigo (1153) made peace between Rimini and Cesena; Bonaventura Trissino founded the hospital of Santo Spirito; under Benno (1230) some pious ladies founded a hospital for the lepers, and themselves cared for the afflicted.

[16] In September 1409, having attempted without success to hold an ecumenical council at Cividale, in the diocese of Aquileia, he fled to Gaeta in the Kingdom of Naples, by ship.

[18] Giambattista Castelli (1574–1583)[19] promoted the Tridentine reforms and was nuncio at Paris, arriving there on 14 June 1581 and dying there on 27 August 1583.

[20] On 14 December 1604, Pope Clement VIII, reversing the centuries long policy of his predecessors, removed the diocese of Rimini from the direct supervision of the Holy See, and assigned it as a suffragan of the archdiocese of Ravenna.

[21] In March 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte was appointed commanding general of the French invasion of northern Italy.

[22] When the armies of the French Republic invaded the Romandiola in 1796, Bishop Vincenzo Ferretti (1779-1806) was forced to flee Rimini, with all his personal property.

But in the spring of 1798, the Directory of the Cisalipine Republic ordered a large reduction in the number of public religious festivals.

[29] Because of the damage caused by the earthquake of 1786, and subsequent tremors, the liturgical functions of the cathedral had to be transferred to the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista, popularly called S. Agostino.

When Bishop Vincenzo Ferretti was in Milan to attend the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as King of Italy, he obtained the decree allowing for the transfer of the episcopal seat to the Tempio Malatestiano (officially known as S.