The Diocese of Rimini () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Emilia Romagna, Italy. From earliest times, it was a suffragan to the Holy See, despite repeated attempts by the Diocese of Ravenna to claim it as a suffragan diocese. Since 1604, however, it has been a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Ravenna-Cervia.
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.
Bishop Francesco Lambiasi is the current diocesan bishop.
History
Rimini was probably evangelized from Ravenna. Among its traditional martyrs are: St. Innocentia and companions (who only became celebrated in the 15th century); Saints Juventinus, Facundinus, and companions; Saints Theodorus and Marinus. The see was probably established before the peace of Constantine.
Rimini's cathedral was dedicated to the Holy Spirit (Spirito Santo), and familiarly called S. Columba (the Holy Dove).
The dates to be assigned to Bishop Gaudentius are controversial. 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 of Montetitano, in the time of Diocletian and Maximianus, who were followed by Gaudentius, who was consecrated to be the first bishop. Bishop Gaudentius was later put to death by the Arians for having excommunicated the priest Marcianus.
The famous Council of Rimini against Arianism was held in May 359, presided over by Bishop Restitutus of Carthage, with more than 400 Western bishops present, some eighty of them Arians. It was an assembly intended by the Emperor Constantius to meet paralleled by the eastern bishops' council of Seleucia, as a substitute for one general ecumenical council. Pope Liberius, however, was neither present nor represented by delegates. The Emperor was represented by his Prefect Taurus. 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.
Bishop Stephanus was one of fourteen bishops at Constantinople with Pope Vigilius. He signed Vigilius' excommunication and deposition of Bishop Theodorus (14 May 553).
Bishop Castor (591–599) was assigned a "Visitor", Bishop Leontius of Urbino, by Pope Gregory I, due to Castor's illness.
Bishop Agnellus (743) was perhaps the first bishop, according to sources in Rimini, to meddle with the magistrates of the city, on orders of the pope.
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.
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. At the end of the thirteenth century the Armenians received at Rimini a church and a hospital.
From November 1408, Pope Gregory XII resided at Rimini, as the guest of its Lord, Carlo Malatesta, to whom he had fled from Siena, to which he had fled from Lucca on 14 July 1408. 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. He was banished from the Kingdom of Naples on 31 October 1411, and again sought protection from Carlo Malatesta at Rimini. On 4 July 1415, he resigned as pope. He died at Recanati on 18 October 1417.
Giovanni Rosa united eleven hospitals of Rimini into one. Under Bishop Giulio Parisani (1549) the seminary was opened on 18 March 1568. Giambattista Castelli (1574–1583) promoted the Tridentine reforms and was nuncio at Paris, arriving there on 14 June 1581 and dying there on 27 August 1583.