CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE [CHÂLONS-EN-CHAMPAGNE], DIOCESE OF. - City and department of the Marne, in Champagne, suffragan of Reims. Formed by a vast plain watered by the Marne, the region of C. has been crossed several times over the centuries by armies that invaded northern France. In the 4th century C. was already one of the most notable cities of Belgica Secunda: Duro Catalaunos of the Antonine Itinerary. The Catalaunian Fields are known for the battle between Aetius and Attila in the year 451.
The spread of Christianity in the region of C. goes back to the 4th century. The diocese of C. has an episcopal list known from a copy by Mabillon which Delisle identified in a Sacramentary already existing in the episcopal library of C. Another text of the catalogue is preserved by Robert of Torigni. Mabillon's first-hand copy reached as far as Wido (1048), then continued to the 14th century, but it also records four bishops of the 17th-18th centuries. First in the list is Memmius, whose shrine is recorded by Gregory of Tours (In gloria confessorum, 65), indicated on 5 August in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, but his Passio (BHL, 5907-14) is without value. Famous are St. Alpinus, a disciple of St. Lupus of Troyes, and Hildegrim, bishop of C. in the year 802, who greatly cooperated in the evangelization of Frisia and Saxony; he inherited from his brother the abbey of Werden on the Ruhr, where he was buried in the year 827.
In the 9th century the bishops of C. became lords of the county. In 1111 the papal legate Cono assembled at C. a council against Henry V, excommunicated by Paschal II during the Investiture Controversy. Subsequently other synods were held at C. in 1559, 1631, 1647, etc. The beautiful Gothic-style cathedral is dedicated to the protomartyr St. Stephen, consecrated by Eugene III in 1147, restored in the 13th century, with additions of the 17th century; the interior has three naves with large stained-glass windows of the 13th, 14th, and 16th centuries.
Francis I fortified the city with powerful works, but C. suffered greatly during the wars of religion of the 16th century. The Parliament of Paris moved there in 1592.
Within the territory of the diocese is situated the shrine of N.-D. de l'Epine, recently honored with the title of minor basilica. The area of the diocese is 6,476 sq km and comprises the entire department of the Marne (less the arrondissement of Reims) with a population of 217,127 inhabitants, of whom 183,000 are Catholics (1948).
Suppressed by the concordat of 1801 and annexed to that of Meaux, the diocese was newly re-established in 1882, and as in the past, made a suffragan of Reims.
It is divided into 12 archpriesthoods and 5 deaneries with 475 parishes, 268 diocesan priests and 9 religious; patron of the diocese is St. Memmius. This zone, which its geographical situation dangerously exposes in the event of armed conflicts, is one of those dioceses of France where the war of 1914-18 accumulated the most ruins, recently increased by the last war, which destroyed the parishes of Hurlus, Le Mesnil-les-Hurlus, Perthes-les-Hurlus, Ripont, Tahure; there are 183 communes without a church.
Bibliography5 works
Antonio Soirat