Constantine was destroyed by fire toward the end of the eighth century or in the beginning of the ninth (Lib. Pont., Leo III; ed. Duchesne, II, 32). Franconi has established (La catacomba e la basilica Constantiniana di Albano Laziale, Rome, 1877) the identity of this basilica with the present cathedral, which still contains some remains of the edifice dedicated by Leo III to St. Pancratius. Under the basilica there was a crypt, or confessio, from which bodies were transferred to the cemetery near by. The foundation of the episcopal see of Albano is very probably contemporaneous with the erection of the Constantinian basilica. However, the first bishop of the see of whom we have any knowledge is Dionysius (d. 355). It is more than a century later (463) that we meet with another Bishop of Albano, Romanus. To these is to be added Ursinus, whose name is found on an inscription in the Catacomb of Domitilla. The consular date is either 345 or 395. The importance of this early Christian community is apparent from its cemetery, discovered in 1720 by Marangoni. Being near Rome, it differs but little from the Christian cemeteries found there. Its plan, clearly mapped out in the "Epitome de locis ss. martyrum quæ sunt foris civitatis Romæ," is considered by de Rossi as the synopsis of an ancient description of the cemeteries, written before the end of the sixth century: "per eandem vere viam (Appiam) pervenitur ad Albanam civitatem et per eandem civitatem ad ecclesiam S. Senatoris ubi et Perpetua jacet corpore et innumeri sancti et magna mirabilia ibidem geruntur." The saints here named are not known. St. Senator is inserted without further explanation in the martyrology for 26 September (et in Albano Senatoris). From this he passed to the Roman martyrology, where he is commemorated on the same day. But the first account of the martyrs of Albano is found in the "Almanac of Philocalus" (fourth century) on the eighth of August: "VI Idus aug. Carpophori, Victorini et Severiani, Albano, et Ostense septimo ballistaria, Cyriaci, Largi, Crescentiani, Memmiæ, Julianæ, et Smaragdi." The cemetery has valuable frescoes, painted at various times by unknown artists, which show the progress of Christian art from the fourth to the ninth century. The series of titular Bishops of Albano contains many illustrious names: Peter II, afterwards Pope Sergius IV (1009–12); Boniface (1049) with whom the series of Cardinal-bishops begins; Blessed Peter Igneus (1074–92) of Vallombrosa, the stern associate of Gregory VII in his work of ecclesiastical reform; Nicholas Breakspear, afterwards Pope Adrian IV (1154–59); St. Bonaventure of Bagnorea (d. 1272), the Seraphic Doctor; and Rodrigo Borgia, afterwards Alexandre VI (1492–1503). This see contains 12 parishes, 67 churches, chapels, and oratories; 60 secular priests; 26 seminarians; 79 regular clergy; 45 lay brothers; 289 religious (women); 15 confraternities; 8 boys' schools (360 pupils); 3 girls' schools (180 pupils). Population, 41,000.
Ughelli, Italia sacra (Venice, 1722), I, 247; Cappelletti, Le chiese d'Italia (Venice, 1866), I, 657; Gams, Series Episcoporum Ecclesiæ Catholicæ (Ratisbon, 1873), XXII, 464; Marucchi, Di alcune inscrizioni recentement trovate e ricomposte nel cimitero di Domitilla, in Nuovo bull. di arch. crist. (1899), 24; Ricci, Memorie storiche dell' antichissima città di Alba Longa e dell' Albano moderno (Rome, 1787); Volpi, Latium Vetus, Profanum et Sacrum (Rome, 1726); Gioni, Storia di Albano (Rome, 1842); De Rossi, Le catacombe di Albano, in Bull. di arch. Crist. (1869); Leclercq, Albano (catacombe d'), in Dict. d'archéol. Chrét. et de lit. (Paris, 1904).
Albano, Cemetery of. See Catacombs.
Albany, The Diocese of, comprises the entire counties of Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Fulton, Greene, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren, Washington, and that part of Herkimer and Hamilton counties south of the northern line of the townships of Ohio and Russia, Benson and Hope, in the State of New York. It covers a territory of 10,419 square miles. Of the total population (852,471), 180,030 are Catholics. The majority are of Irish, German or French-Canadian origin, but other nationalities and races are also represented—Italian, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Greek, Austro-Hungarian, Slavs, Syrians, and some American Negroes.
Colonial Period.—Any general account of the early missions within the borders of the present diocese of Albany must include, with more or less detail, the labours of the Jesuits who came into it from Quebec with credentials first from the archbishop of Rouen (France), and afterwards from the bishop of Quebec itself, that ancient centre of Catholic life. From this point of view, the territory embraced in its limits has a unique history of apostolic zeal, undaunted courage, grievous hardships, and privations endured, blood shed for the truth, and for many years an apparently hopeless struggle with the most astute and resourceful of all the Indian tribes who lived on the flats of the Mohawk Valley, and whose cruel nature was finally subdued by the gentleness and perseverance of these French missionaries. Its history starts with the treaty of Saint-Germain des Prés (1632), when England at last restored Canada to France. Cardinal Richelieu first offered the Canadian missions to the Capuchins, who refused, and then to the Jesuits, who accepted them. Quebec and Montreal, founded in the first half of the seventeenth century, were the two foci of all missionary ardour and enterprise until the consecration of Bishop Carroll in 1790, not only for Canada and the Northwest, but also for all the country adjacent to Canada, including northern and central New York as far as the stockades of Fort Orange or Albany, which from the time of the English occupation in 1664 became subject to the vicar-apostolic of London. The pioneer missionary in the district now known as a part and parcel of the diocese of Albany was Father Isaac Jogues, who reached Ossernenon, or Auriesville, in Montgomery County, 14 August, 1642, as a captive of the cruel and treacherous Mohawks. Mutilated and dismembered, he escaped by the aid of the Dutch at Fort Orange, and, taking passage on a vessel bound for Holland, reached his own country on Christmas day. His successor in captivity and torture by the same tribe was Father Joseph Bressani, a Roman Jesuit (1644). The same year Father Jogues returned to Quebec, and was sent in May, 1646, into the Mohawk country, as an agent to ratify a peace with this tribe. On this journey he reached Lake George on the Feast of Corpus Christi and named it Lac St. Sacrament. Having received their promises of good will he returned to Canada, but, deceived and lured by their wily attitude of friendship, he retraced his steps at once to establish a mission among them. In October, 1646, he was tomahawked, beheaded, and his body thrown into the Mohawk river. In his footsteps and, some of them, in his sufferings followed Fathers Joseph Poncet, Le Moyne, and Jacques de Lamberville, who had the glory of baptizing, on Easter Sunday, 1675, Tegakouita, who is called Catharine in the baptismal record, and "The Lily of the Mohawk" by Catholic tradition.
Within the stockaded settlement of Fort Orange another current of history was running more tranquilly than through these blood-stained Mohawk chronicles. Without straining the verities of history, that foundation named Fort Orange, and surnamed Albany, merits the honour of being the oldest surviving European settlement in the original Thirteen States. Dutch in the beginning, it was wrested from the Dutch in 1664 by Charles II of England, who regardless of their claims, granted to his brother,
