GRENOBLE, DIOCESE OF. – A city, the capital of the department of Isère, entirely within the diocese itself, in addition to the canton of Villeurbanne in the department of the Rhône. It has an area of 8,200 km² with a population of approximately 700,000, of whom about 400,000 are Catholic.
The diocese is divided into two archdeaconries: the first, of Grenoble, comprises the districts of Grenoble itself and of Saint-Marcellin; the second, of Vienne, comprises the districts of Vienne, La Tour-du-Pin, and the canton of Villeurbanne. There are then 47 deaneries with 598 parishes and 150 vicariates, served by 575 secular priests and 80 regular clergy, with two seminaries, 13 male religious communities, and 60 female religious communities (1949).
The original name of the city of Grenoble was *Cularo*; it was changed to *Gratianopolis* in the time of Emperor Gratian (367–383), whence the name Grenoble.
The first bishop of Grenoble was St. Donninus, who was present at the Council of Aquileia in 381; the list of the first thirty-seven bishops is attributed to Bishop St. Hugh. The best known among them are: Cereius, commemorated on June 6 in the *Regino Martyrology* and mentioned in the synodal letter of Eusebius of Milan to Leo I (*PL* 54, 587, 946); Victurius, who attended the Council of Lyon in 518–23; Claro, who took part in the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône in 650 and signed the privilege of Clovis II in 654 on behalf of St. Dionysius; Bernard, elected in 869, mentioned in letters of Louis II and Lothar II; Isaac, mentioned in documents from 892 to 922.
The diocese is a suffragan of Lyon; its patroness is the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven.
The cathedral of Notre-Dame, built in the 11th century, has been repeatedly restored; its high altar in marble (16th century) comes from the Grande-Chartreuse.
Noteworthy is the church of St. Lawrence, built in the 12th century above a Merovingian chapel that forms its crypt beneath the eastern part. The vault is supported by twenty columns of Roman origin. The capitals, with their decorations of confronted animals and vine tendrils, recall in their roughness those of St. Vitalis in Ravenna; the apse is framed by superimposed colonnettes (J. J. A. Pilot, *Notice sur l'église de St-Laurent de G.*, Grenoble 1864; L. Maitre, *L'oratoire mérovingien de St-Laurent de G.*, in *Revue de l'art chrétien*, 5th series, 3 [1907], pp. 217–25). During restoration work carried out in the crypt, Christian inscriptions appeared, one of which dates to the year 520 (M. Raymond and Ch. Giraud, *La chapelle St-Laurent à G.*, in *Bulletin archéologique du Comité*, 1893, p. 12). Other Christian inscriptions from Grenoble are in *CIL*, 12, pp. 273–91, nos. 2309–14. St. John Vianney was ordained a priest in Grenoble. Near Grenoble was born Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, “the knight without fear and without reproach.” The last constable was Lesdiguières (1543–1627), known as “the fox of the Dauphiné.” The Library of Grenoble possesses 14,000 manuscripts and 700 incunabula. Notable also is the Museum of Grenoble, with Coptic fabrics from the 5th to the 7th century. Grenoble is the seat of a flourishing university. *V. tav. LXXXIV.*
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