Civate

Civate belongs to the archdiocese of Milan, but in church the Ambrosian rite is not used: the Roman rite is, as it always has been here on account of the foundation of the abbey of San Pietro al Monte, which stands above the village. When Carlo Borromeo came on pastoral visitation in 1571 the question was raised, along with that of giving the village a parish priest chosen from the secular clergy; the rite, however, stayed as it was, and Civate has gone on professing it to honour the basilica that stands over its head.

Four thousand and nineteen inhabitants in the province of Lecco, at the foot of Monte Cornizzolo and looking out over the lake of Annone, whose isthmus it occupies. The name is said to come from the Latin clavis, key, because this was the compulsory passage for taking the road that came from Aquileia. The history of the village is the history of its abbey: abbot Algiso sided with Frederick Barbarossa and, once Milan had been destroyed in 1162, obtained from him a diploma confirming his possession of the monastery — a freedom that did not last, because the archbishop of Milan soon took authority back. In 1470 the last remaining Benedictine died, and the monks returned only in 1566.