The town's economy is based mainly on agriculture and herding. The karstic geology of the area has conditioned its main crops: grapes, olives, wheat, and almonds.
Established circa 900 as Diocese of Minervino (Italian) / Minerbium (Latin), with only two municipal components : Minervino itself and Montemilone (now in the administrative province of Potenza).
The see is documented first in a papal bulla in 1025 by Pope John XIX to archbishop Bisanzio of Bari, specifying the jurisdictions under the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bari, but the document is disputed
Locals tradition and a list of incumbents in the episcopal palace starts the apostolic succession with Bisanzio in 1069, but he may well have been bishop of Lavello instead
The bishopric was a suffragan of the Metropolitan of Bari no later than 1152, if not from the start, but disputed papal bullas suggest it may have been suffragan of the Archdiocese of Trani before
Sancio (1433.01.14 – 1434), previously Bishop of Diocese of Civita (Italy) (? – 1433.01.14)
Goffredo (1434.09.15 – death 1456)
Giovanni Campanella, Benedictine Order (O.S.B.) (1456.04.13 – death 1478?)
Marino Cieri (1478.10.05 – death 1491?)
Roberto de Noya, Dominican Order (O.P.) (1492.01.23 – 1497.05.15), next Bishop of Acerra (Italy) (1497.05.15 – 1504.04.15), Bishop of Naxos (insular Greece) (1504.04.15 – death 1515)
Bernardino Fumarelli (1528.08.07 – 1529.08.16), next Bishop of Alife (Italy) (1529.08.16 – 1532.11.04), Bishop of Sulmona (Italy) (1532.11.04 – 1547.06.05), Bishop of Valva (Italy) (1532.11.04 – death 1547.06.05)
Giovanni Francesco de Marellis (1529.08.16 – death 1536)
Gian Vincenzo Micheli (1545.03.02 – death 1596 as centenarian), participant at the Tridentine Council (1545-1563), previously Bishop of Lavello (1539.05.30 – 1545.03.02)
The diocese was nominally restored in 1968 as Latin Titular bishopric of Minervino Murge (Curiate Italian) / Minervium (Latin) / Minerbinen(sis) (Latin).
It has had the following incumbents, of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :
The medieval former cathedral, now Chiesa S. Maria Assunta, was built under Norman rule, but mostly rebuilt from 1519 until the consecration on 30 August 1608 by bishop Giacomo Antonio Caporali (1606.01.09 – 1616).
A document from 1667 specifies it has 43 ecclesiastical officials, including an archdeacon, an archpriest, a primicerius, a cantor, 10 canons, 26 other priests, a deacon and two subdeacons.
Ferdinando Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. VII, second edition, Venice 1721, coll. 745-748
Michele Garruba, Serie critica de' Sacri Pastori Baresi, Tipografia Fratelli Cannone, Bari 1844, pp. 965–966
Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni, Venice 1870, vol. XXI, pp. 82–85
Paul Fridolin Kehr, Italia Pontificia, vol. IX, Berlin 1962, p. 344
Norbert Kamp, Kirche und Monarchie im staufischen Königreich Sizilien, vol. 2, Prosopographische Grundlegung: Bistümer und Bischöfedes Königreichs 1194 - 1266; Apulien und Kalabrien, Münich 1975, pp. 640–642
Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, pp. 897–898
Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1, p. 343; vol. 2, pp. XXXI, 193; vol. 3, p. 245; vol. 4, p. 243; vol. 5, p. 269; vol. 6, p. 290
Papal Bulla 'De utiliori', in Bullarii Romani continuatio, Vol. XV, Rome 1853, pp. 56–61
Apulia
Sagliano Micca, Italy, since 2009
