LOSANNA, GINEVRA AND FRIBURGO, DIOCESE OF. — The diocese comprises four cantons: Friburgo, Vaud (except for the triangle which, south of Lake Geneva, extends as far as the gates of St-Maurice and has always formed part of the diocese of Sion), Ginevra and Neuchâtel, with a total of approximately 300,000 Catholics distributed among 227 parishes and served by approximately 400 diocesan priests. There are also 350 religious, a theological seminary, 42 male and 320 female religious communities (1949). Catholics constitute approximately nine-tenths of the population in the canton of Friburgo, one-half in that of Ginevra, one-sixth in that of Vaud and one-seventh in that of Neuchâtel. The remainder of the population is Protestant, apart from a few Jews and a small minority of «Old Catholics» in the cantons of Ginevra and Neuchâtel.
Originally, the diocese embraced the territory which in Roman times constituted the «civitas Helvetiorum», that is, most of the Swiss plateau (between the Jura to the north and the Alps to the south), with Avenches (Aventicum), southwest of Lake Morat, as its capital.
The first bishops known are those who appear in the Merovingian councils in the sixth century. They then resided at Windisch (Vindonissa, near Brug, that is, approximately halfway between Basle and Zurich), a town that arose near the site where the Roman legion stationed in Switzerland had its camp.
The Alemanni, pagan barbarians who had gradually invaded what is today German-speaking Switzerland north of the Alps, occupied the territory of the Burgundians, who were also Germans, but Christians (Arians) and much milder, and who had merged, in present-day French-speaking Switzerland, with the Gallo-Roman population existing there and had adopted its language. This continuing advance presumably induced the bishop, in the second half of the sixth century (perhaps in 561, at the time of the division of the Kingdom of Clotaire I among his sons), to leave Vindonissa and settle (perhaps after a brief stay at Avenches, then almost in ruins) at Losanna. The transfer had certainly taken place by 594, the year in which the bishop had himself buried at Losanna. The eastern part of the diocese, however, became part of that of Constance, established during this period.
The boundaries of the diocese of Losanna, from the early Middle Ages until the «Reformation», were as follows: to the north, the Jura; to the west, the present Franco-Swiss border, then the Aubonne, a stream that flows into Lake Geneva between Losanna and Ginevra; to the south, the Bernese Alps as far as the Great Scheidegg; and to the east, the entire course of the Aar, from Lake Brienz to 6 km downstream from Soletta. Like the diocese of Ginevra, the diocese of Losanna initially had as its metropolitan the archbishop of Vienne in France, and from approximately the year 600 onward, the archbishop of Besançon. Among the bishops are remembered: St. Mario (Marius 574–94), St. Protasio (ca. 561–?), St. Amedeo (1144–59), a disciple of St. Bernardo and abbot of Hautecombe before occupying the episcopal see of Losanna; and St. Bonifacio Clutine (1230–39), Belgian by origin.
At the time of the conquest of the country of Vaud in 1536 by the Bernese, who introduced the «Reformation» wherever they could, the bishop, Sebastiano di Montfalcon, abandoned the diocese. The Bernese seized his Cathedral, his episcopal palace and the lands of the bishopric; the canons were dispersed, and the canton of Vaud (except for the district of Echallens, in the center) was gradually forced to embrace Protestantism. Something similar occurred, during the years 1530–38, in the principality of Neuchâtel, which passed to the «Reformation» following the preaching of Farel, with the exception of the two localities of Cressier and Landeron.
The bishop, who was usually presented to Rome by the duke of Savoy, henceforth resided habitually in Burgundy, in one of the abbeys of which he was commendatory abbot when he was a religious. In 1603 an agreement was concluded under which he was thereafter to reside at Friburgo, a city that had remained Catholic, together with the entire surrounding territory, thanks above all to the energy displayed by its government at the time of the «Reformation». From then on the bishop stayed for shorter or longer periods in his new episcopal city, but settled there permanently only in 1663. At that time the bishop was Giovan Battista, count of S. Martino, a native of Strambino (Torino), a Piedmontese Franciscan of the strict observance. He was almost constantly in conflict with the canons of his episcopal city (the Chapter of S. Nicola, established in 1512–15 and exempt from the bishop’s jurisdiction) and with the civil authorities, who, after the «Reformation» and during the bishop’s absence, had arrogated to themselves certain rights in religious matters.
Subsequently the bishop was appointed directly by Rome. Until the Revolution he was chosen mainly from the patrician families of Friburgo. Today the Holy See chooses him from one of the diocesan cantons.
The somewhat anomalous situation of the bishop was finally regularized in 1924 by raising the collegiate church of St-Nicolas and its Chapter to cathedral status, with the addition of the name Friburgo to the title of the diocese. Among the last bishops are remembered Msgr. Gaspare Mermillod, from the canton of Ginevra (1883–91), later created cardinal and deceased in Rome in 1892, and Msgr. BESSARIONE (v.).
There has never been a diocese of Friburgo, since this city, like Berna, Neuchâtel and Soletta, has always formed part of the diocese of Losanna. Conversely, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was a diocese of Ginevra.
Around 400, the presence in this diocese of a bishop named Isacco is attested. The diocese embraced the Chablais, the Faucigny and the Genevois, that is, in current terminology: the Swiss canton of Ginevra, the French department of Haute-Savoie as far south as Monte Bianco and Lake Bourget, and, extending northward, a broad area comprising the right bank of the Rhône and then, in Swiss territory, the shore of Lake Geneva as far as the Aubonne.
The diocese had as its metropolitan the archbishop of Vienne in the Dauphiné. During the Middle Ages the bishops had to struggle against the counts of the Genevois, who attempted to exercise once again, as in the past, their sovereignty over the city of Ginevra. But after they were absorbed by the counts of Savoy, the struggle continued against the latter, to the detriment of the diocese, which ultimately became an appanage of the House of Savoy, which appointed either members of its own family or its protégés to the see.
Among the bishops of Ginevra are remembered: in the middle of the fifth century, Salonio, son of St. Eucherio (who was later, erroneously, transformed into a Salomone, bishop of Ginevra); Guido di Faucigny (1078–1120); Arduzio di Faucigny (1135–85), one of the great bishops of the Middle Ages; Roberto di Ginevra (1276–87); Pietro di Faucigny (1311–1342); Ademaro Fabri (1385–88); Giovanni de Brogne (1423–26), who died a cardinal of Ostia; and Amedeo di Savoia, the antipope Felice V, who governed the diocese from 1444 to 1451.
At the time of the «Reformation», the bishop, Pietro de la Baume, was compelled to abandon his episcopal city (1533). He had made the mistake of relying almost exclusively on the duke of Savoy, unquestionably a Catholic prince and possessing supreme sovereignty over Ginevra, but never regarded favorably by the city’s party, which was becoming increasingly important and which, situated on the banks of the Rhône, had established ties of common citizenship with several Swiss cantons. The Chapter transferred to Annecy. Pietro de la Baume became archbishop of Besançon. His two immediate successors also died in Franche-Comté, and the third in Torino; thereafter the former bishops of Ginevra settled in Annecy. From there Msgr. Claudio de Granier (1573–1602) was already devoting himself to the conversion of the Chablais, a work in which the provost of his Chapter, St. Francesco di Sales, became especially renowned; he succeeded him in the episcopal see (1602–22).
The diocese of Geneva was suppressed by the Concordat between Pius VII and Napoleon (1801) and united with that of Chambéry. Nevertheless, in order not to let fall into disuse the name of a diocese made illustrious by s. Francesco di Sales, the title of bishop of Geneva was added to that of the bishop of Chambéry.
In 1814 the city of Geneva, which had become French in 1798, was declared independent and then incorporated into Switzerland in 1815. In 1815–16, however, 27 Savoyard and French communes were likewise united to the Confederation; the latter pointed out to the Holy See that it was illogical for a French bishop to exercise his jurisdiction over a territory that had become Swiss and to bear the title of bishop of Geneva, a Swiss city. The Holy See accepted this request and united the city on the banks of the Rhône, together with the surrounding localities, to the diocese of Lausanne, the nearest Swiss bishopric (1819), inviting the archbishop of Chambéry to transfer the title of bishop of Geneva to the bishop of Lausanne (1821).
The diocese of Geneva had s. Pietro as its patron. The principal patroness of the diocese of L., G. and F. is the Blessed Virgin, under the title of the Nativity; secondary patrons: s. Nicola di Mira and s. Francesco di Sales.
MONUMENTS. - In Ginevra, the cathedral of S. Pietro (now Protestant), built in the 12th century on the site of a small 4th-century church, which was replaced by a larger one in 515 and enlarged in the 10th century. In Losanna, the Cathedral (also now Protestant), the finest Gothic building in all Switzerland, built between 1170 and the end of the 13th century on the ruins of an ancient Romanesque church of the 9th century. It was consecrated in 1275 by Pope Gregorio X, in the presence of Rodolfo di Asburgo. In Friburgo, the Cathedral, begun toward the end of the 13th century on the site of a Romanesque church consecrated in 1182. Among the ancient abbey churches, those of Hauterive (Cistercians), 7 km from Friburgo (Cottineau, I, col. 1375), and, in the canton of Vaud, those of Romainmôtier (ibid., II, cols. 2497-98) and Payerne (ibid., cols. 2239-40), formerly Cluniac monasteries, deserve mention (the former is now a Protestant temple, and the latter has been deconsecrated).
Friburgo has a Catholic University, founded in 1889; the new, modern buildings of the three Faculties of theology, law and letters were inaugurated in 1941. - Vedi tav. CIX.