On 24 November 1586, the Latin rite Diocese of Montalto was established, on territory split off from the then Diocese of Fermo. In a bull of 18 December 1924, Pope Pius XI united the Diocese of Ripatransone with the diocese of Montalto ad personam episcopi. He appointed Luigi Ferri as Bishop of Ripatransone with Montalto, and ordered a change in the title of the bishop to Episcopus Montis alti et Ripanus. In 1980, the diocese of Montalto had a population of only 31,500 persons.
Restructuring
The Second Vatican Council, in order to ensure that all Catholics received proper spiritual attention, decreed the reorganization of the diocesan structure of Italy and the consolidation of small and struggling dioceses. It also recommended the abolition of anomalous units such as exempt territorial prelatures. These considerations applied to Montalto and to Ripatransone as the population migrated in the post-war period to jobs on the coast at San Benedetto. On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. Instead, the Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese. On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Ripatransone and Montalto be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Dioecesis Sancti Benedicti ad Truentum-Ripana-Montis Alti. The seat of the diocese was to be in San Benedetto del Tronto, and the church of S. Maria della Marina was to serve as the cathedral of the merged dioceses. The cathedrals in Ripatransone and Montalto were to become co-cathedrals, and the cathedral Chapters were each to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in San Benedetto del Tronto, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the former dioceses of Montalto and Ripatransone. The town is the site of the cathedral of Montalto delle Marche, dedicated to the taking up of the body of the Virgin Mary into heaven.
