Embrun - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 195

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

EMBRUN. — Former diocese and archdiocese of France in the department of the Hautes-Alpes, on the right bank of the Durance. It is the ancient “Eburodunum,” on the road leading to Spain; Augustus granted it the ius Latii, and it became a municipium. Diocletian made it the capital of the Maritime Alps.

Bishop Marcellinus, the first apostle and bishop of E., was consecrated by Eusebius of Vercelli and Emiliano of Valence between 362 and 370 (Acta SS. Aprilis, II, Paris

EMERENZIANA, santa — S. E. venerated by two faithful women, according to the identification proposed by Prof. E. Josi. Fresco from the 4th century, Rome, Coemeterium Maius.

1865, p. 751). There are then Ingenuus (441–65), Catulinus (ca. 517), Gallicanus (524–30), Emeritus (ca. 583); in the 7th century Lopacarus and Etherius; in the 9th, Agericus, Bermondus, and Aribert, to whom Pope John VIII wrote (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 3001, 3128, 3135); then, in the 10th and 11th centuries, there is a group of saints, including St Benedict, martyred by the Saracens, St Liberalis (920–40), St Histriidus (1027–45), St William (1120–34), founder of the abbey of Boscodon, St Bernard Chabert (1213–35), and Bertrando di Deaux (1323–38); Giulio de’ Medici (1510–11), later Pope

Clement VII; and Cardinals Francesco di Tournon (1517–26) and de Tencin (1724–40).

At the end of the 8th century, the ecclesiastical province of E. had the same boundaries as the Roman province of the Maritime Alps; in the Middle Ages, the bishops were princes of E. and minted coins. Louis XIII destroyed the archiepiscopal castle.

The archdiocese of E. had as suffragans Digne, Antibes and Grasse, Vence, Glandeves, Senex, and Nice. The archdiocese was suppressed on 12 July 1790, and E. remained the residence of the bishop of the Hautes-Alpes; the Concordat of 15 July 1801 included E. in the diocese of Digne; Pius VII, by a bull of 27 July 1817, instead included E. in the diocese of Gap; subsequently, by another bull of 6 October 1822, the title of archbishop of E. was conferred upon the archbishop of Aix.

The cathedral church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, dates from the 10th–13th centuries; noteworthy are an altarpiece from the 14th century and the stained-glass windows from the 15th century.

The sanctuary and basilica of Notre-Dame d’E. is very famous; it was honored by Charlemagne and visited by Pope Leo III and King Henry

II. Also noteworthy is the small church of the Cordeliers (13th–15th centuries)

vedi tav. XXIII.

BIBL.: L. Duchesno, Faites épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 290–92; G. Goryau, Gap, in Cath. Enc., VI, p. 378; Cottineau, I, col. 1046. Enrico Jos.