Diocese of Parma (from the 2023 Diocesan Yearbook). DIOCESE OF PARMA. Brief historical notes. The Bishopric of Parma appears to have been founded in the second half of the fourth century. The first bishop mentioned in historical records is Urban, who was probably already bishop of Parma in 366. The Diocese of Parma was suffragan to Milan until the middle of the fifth century; it then became suffragan to Ravenna until 1582, when all the dioceses of Emilia were detached and placed under the authority of Bologna, which was then recognized as the metropolitan see. Pope Pius VII made it dependent on Genoa on May 26, 1806. Finally, on March 30, 1818, the same Supreme Pontiff immediately placed it under the jurisdiction of the Holy See. On December 8, 1976, it became a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan see of Modena.

The Bishop pro tempore of Parma was made Abbot of Fontevivo by Pope Leo XIII with a decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory on August 14, 1892; Grand Prior of the S.A.I. Constantinian Order of St. George by the Duchess of Parma Maria Luigia with a decree dated July 28, 1826. He Is also “ab immemorabili” Grand Chancellor of the Almo Collegio Teologico Parmense. The Bishopric of Parma is part of the Ecclesiastical Region of Emilia-Romagna. The Diocese of Parma has a population of 376,721 inhabitants and 56 new parishes grouped together and divided into 307 parishes spread over an area of 2,154.30 square kilometers.