This article is an attempt to address a range of problems related to the study of church property in Italy during the Ostrogothic domination (493–554). For a long time, these problems were on the periphery of scientific relevance and found their researchers only in the 20th century. This is largely due to the yet unresolved issues of our main source on the history of Ostrogothic Italy — Cassiodorus' «Variae». The lack of unanimity as to the time and place of its creation, intended audience, genre and overall representativeness of the material compels the researcher to resort to other sources, in particular to the Ravenna papyri, which largely supplement the data of the «Variae». The author focuses on three main aspects that define the structure of the article. The first part is devoted to the problem of the geographical distribution of ecclesiastical lands, as well as to the possibilities of estimating the size of the land plots belonging to the Church. The second section deals with the system of church property management. It demonstrates the general continuity in its structure from the beginning of the 5th century, and also reveals some peculiarities of this system, connected with the increased role of bishops and the functioning of the institution of defensores ecclesiae. The third part is dedicated to the legal status of ecclesiastical land. It is based on the critique of J. Durliat’s theory of subordination of the Church to the state in the matter of handling its land property and finance. The analysis of the vocabulary of ownership rights characteristic of the Roman law and reflected in the sources under study leads to the assertion that the Church had full ownership over its estates, and that ecclesiastical land plots were not part of the public land.