The Archdiocese of Acerenza (Latin: Archidioecesis Acheruntina) is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church in southern Italy, included in the provinces of Lecce and Potenza. It has existed as a diocese since the fourth or fifth centuries. In the 11th century it was elevated to an archdiocese. In 1203 it was united with the diocese of Matera to form the Archdiocese of Acerenza and Matera. This was separated again in 1954, recreating the Archdiocese of Acerenza, which briefly became the Diocese of Acerenza in 1976 before reverting to an archdiocese in 1977. Its metropolitan is the Archdiocese of Potenza-Muro Lucano-Marsico Nuovo.

Acerenza was certainly an episcopal see in the course of the fifth century, for in 499 we meet with the name of its first known bishop, Justus, in the Acts of the Roman Synod of that year. The town was known in antiquity as the "high nest of Acherontia".

Acerenza was in early imperial times a populous and important town, and a bulwark of the territory of Lucania and Apulia. In the Gothic and Lombard period it fell into decay, but was restored by Grimoald II, Duke of Beneventum (687-689). An Archbishop of Acerenza (Giraldus) appears in 1063 in an act of donation of Robert Guiscard to the monastery of the Santissima Trinità in Venosa.

For a few years after 968 Acerenza adopted the Greek Rite in consequence of an order of the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Phocas (963-969), whereby it was made one of five suffragans of the archdiocese of Otranto, and compelled to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

On 16 June 1102, Pope Paschal II confirmed for the archbishop of Acerenza all his diocese's privileges and possessions, including the suffragan (subordinate) dioceses of Venosa, Gravina, Tricarico, Tursi, and Potenza, whose bishops he had the right of confirming and consecrating.

Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), Bartolommeo Prignano, was once Archbishop of Acerenza.

Acerenza Cathedral is known for a bust which has long been supposed to be that of Saint Canius, patron of the city, to whom the cathedral is dedicated, but which is now judged to be a portrait-bust of Julian the Apostate, though others maintain that it is a bust of the Emperor Frederick II, after the manner of the sculptors of the Antonine age.

Down to 'Joseph', the names and duration of the bishops are traditional and undocumented.

• at some point during the 11th century, before 1063, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese

• Stephan III (1029–1041)
• Stephan IV (1041–1048)
• Goderio I (1048–1058)
• Goderio II (1058–1059)

From 1203 to 1954 the archbishopric of Acerenza was joined to that of the Diocese of Matera to form the Archbishopric of Acerenza and Matera

Acerenza and Matera were separated again into two archdioceses on 2 July 1954

• Domenico Pecchinenna (1954–1961)
• Corrado Ursi (1961–1966) (also Archbishop of Naples)
• Giuseppe Vairo (1966–1979)
• Francesco Cuccarese (1979–1987)
• Michele Scandiffio (1988–2005)
• Giovanni Ricchiuti (2005–Present)

• Gams, Pius Bonifatius (1873). Series episcoporum Ecclesiae catholicae: quotquot innotuerunt a beato Petro apostolo (in Latin). Ratisbon: Typis et Sumptibus Georgii Josephi Manz. pp. 843–844.
• Eubel, Conradus, ed. (1913). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 1 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. (in Latin)
• Eubel, Conradus, ed. (1914). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 2 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana.
• Gulik, Guilelmus (1923). Eubel, Conradus (ed.). Hierarchia catholica (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 3 (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana.
• Gauchat, Patritius (Patrice) (1935). Hierarchia catholica. Vol. Tomus IV (1592-1667). Münster: Libraria Regensbergiana.
• Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1952). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi. Vol. Tomus V (1667-1730). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio.
• Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1958). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi. Vol. Tomus VI (1730-1799). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio.
• Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1968). Hierarchia Catholica medii et recentioris aevi (in Latin). Vol. VII (1800–1846). Monasterii: Libreria Regensburgiana.
• Remigius Ritzler; Pirminus Sefrin (1978). Hierarchia catholica Medii et recentioris aevi (in Latin). Vol. VIII (1846–1903). Il Messaggero di S. Antonio.
• Pięta, Zenon (2002). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi (in Latin). Vol. IX (1903–1922). Padua: Messagero di San Antonio. ISBN 978-88-250-1000-8.

• Kehr, Paulus Fridolin (1962). Italia pontificia. Regesta pontificum Romanorum. Vol. IX: Samnia – Apulia – Lucania. (in Latin) Berlin: Weidmann. pp. 452–467.
• Schwartz, Gerhard (1907). Die Besetzung der Bistümer Reichsitaliens unter den sächsischen und salischen Kaisern: mit den Listen der Bischöfe, 951-1122. (in German) Leipzig: B.G. Teubner. pp. 772–779.

• Diocese of Acerenza website: list of bishops (in Italian)

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