DIJON, Diocese of. - Capital of the department of the Côte-d'Or in France, it is situated at the confluence of the rivers Ouche and Suzon on the Bourgogne canal. The diocese extends over 875,344 sq. km. and has a population of 335,602 inhabitants (census of April 1946), of whom 325,000 are Catholics. D. Divio, or Castrum Divionense, was in the Gallo-Roman period a city of the territory of the Lingones. It later belonged to the Kingdom of the Burgundians; from 1015 it formed part of the duchy of Burgundy until 1477, when Louis XI united it to the Kingdom of France. It underwent the Swiss siege in 1513. The diocese was created by Clement XII on 9 April 1731, by dismemberment from that of Langres.
By virtue of the Concordat of 1802 it comprised the departments of the Côte-d'Or and of the Haute-Marne because the diocese of Langres was then suppressed; when the latter was re-established in 1817, it comprised, as it still does, certain parts that had formerly belonged to the dioceses of Langres, Autun, Chalon and Besançon. The diocese is divided into three archdeaconries: the first of St. Benignus, which comprises 15 deaneries and 190 parishes; the second of St-Vorles with 6 deaneries and 78 parishes; the third of Notre-Dame is subdivided into the two archpriesthoods of Beaume and of Semur, and comprises 16 deaneries and 253 parishes. In total 727 parishes served by only 337 diocesan priests and 73 regulars (1948). It is a suffragan of Lyons. Patron of the diocese: St. Benignus.
Christianity penetrated into D. at a very early date. St. Gregory of Tours (In gloria martyrum, 50) relates that the po-
The people went to venerate in a crypt the tomb of an unknown man whom they believed to be a saint; the bishop of Langres, Gregory (505-39), tried to oppose this, but one night the Saint appeared to him and Gregory had the sarcophagus isolated, restored the crypt, built the basilica and founded a monastery. Only a few years later some pilgrims returning from Italy are said to have brought the bishop the passio of St. Benignus.
Fr. Van Hoof pointed out (Acta SS. Novembris, I, Paris 1887, p. 138) that this passio is modeled on that of the saints of Saulieu, Andochius, Thyrsus and Felix (ibid., p. 155); he was followed both by Duchesne (Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, p. 51 and following) and by Delehaye (Les origines du culte des Martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, pp. 86, 354).
The basilica and the monastery received donations from King Guntram in 584; the restorations were carried out around 870 by Isaac, bishop of Langres. Nothing remains of the rotunda built in 990 by Abbot William. In 1001 it was modified into a Romanesque building, which was consecrated by Paschal II. In 1106 the tomb of an unknown St. Pascasia was perhaps also included in the new church. Everything was modified again in 1280 and restored several times thereafter. At present very few ancient remains are visible: inside, the crypt, where in 1858 the tomb of St. Benignus was found; outside, part of the portal, which Bouchardon later decorated with the martyrdom of St. Stephen; some architectural elements of the old monastery also survive. The central spire, 95.59 m high, was erected in 1742. Outside the castrum too stood the church and Benedictine abbey of St. John; it is now a parish church; there were buried the bishops of Langres, Gregory, whose sepulchral poem was composed by Fortunatus, and Tetricus (539-72; E. Le Blant, Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, I, Paris 1856, p. 5, no. 2; p. 6, no. 3).
The church of St. Stephen is certainly the intramural basilica mentioned by Gregory of Tours. The adjoining abbey, at first Benedictine, passed in 1113 to the Augustinians; it became a cathedral in 1731, then a grain depot in 1792 and then a commodity exchange in 1897. Other abbeys were those attached to the churches of St. Michael and of the Most Holy Trinity. St. Michael was an abbey around the year 1000; on the outside it appears Gothic, while the interior is classical. The Carthusian abbey of the Most Holy Trinity was founded at Champmol by the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, in 1383; consecrated in 1388, it was suppressed by the Revolution (F. Mercier, La Chartreuse de Champmol, Dijon 1920).
The following churches are of Gothic style: Notre-Dame of Dijon (1252-1334); Notre-Dame de Samur; the abbey of St. Sequanus (Seine).
Especially honored at Dijon, besides St. Benignus, are St. Sequanus (Seine), born at Magny and died in 580, founder of the monastery of Réomé; St. William (961-1031), who became abbot of St. Benignus at Dijon in 990 (reformer of the Benedictine Order in the 10th century); St. Robert of Molesme; St. Stephen Harding. St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641) and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1607-1704) were born at Dijon, as were the venerable Sister Margaret of the Most Holy Sacrament (1619-48), called the little Saint of Beaune, and the venerable Benignus Joly, canon of St. Stephen of Dijon (1644-72).
Among the Christian inscriptions found at Dijon, two Merovingian ones are remembered: the first of a Banderisima (CIL, XIII, 5463) and the other of a monk Turpericus (ibid., 5593). For the Christian sarcophagi see Wilpert, Sarcofagi, I, p. 91; II, p. 5, 264; pl. 65, 2, 3. - See pl. XCV.
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Enrico Joss