Nancy, Diocese of

NANCY, DIOCESE of — City and episcopal see, capital of the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, formerly capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. The diocese comprises the whole of the said department, with approx. 55,000 inhabitants. It has 29 deaneries, 324 titular parishes, 303 annexed parishes, and 5 auxiliary chapels, served by 530 diocesan priests and 40 religious; it has two seminaries, one major and one minor. The patroness of the diocese is Notre-Dame under the invocation of the Assumption.

N. was originally a Celtic settlement; it appears for the first time in a diploma of the Emperor Otto dated 3 Aug. 947; it belonged to the Kingdom of Lotharingia. The city consists of the Vieille ville, which developed around the Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, and the Ville neuve, created in 1587 by Duke Charles III. N. remained a modest borough even when, in the 11th century, the dukes of Lorraine erected their castle there, «castrum Nanceium»; it began to develop in the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1428 Duke Charles II received Joan of Arc there; in 1475 it was occupied by Charles the Bold, but was immediately reconquered by Duke René II of Vandémont; the victory was commemorated by the erection of the Cordeliers chapel in 1480. In the 16th century the arts flourished at the court of the Dukes of Lorraine; the Ducal Palace was erected and the two villes were united. But in 1633 the dukes were driven out by the King of France and returned only in 1697, through the Treaty of Ryswick, which nevertheless made N. an open city. Through his marriage to Maria Theresa, Duke Leopold became emperor, and Stanislaus Leszczyński, King of Poland, succeeded him at N.; he embellished the city (Place Stanislas). In 1597 Duke Charles III of Lorraine had asked Clement VIII for the creation of the diocese of N., but the Pope granted only a primatial church with a prelate bearing the title of primate and episcopal insignia, without, however, granting him jurisdiction. The diocese was instead created by Pope Pius VI through the dismemberment of the diocese of Toul, by a bull of 19 Nov. 1777, as the primatial see of Lorraine and a suffragan of Besançon, as it still is today. The Concordat of 1801 Toul (v.) and N. then included, in addition to the department of Meurthe, those of Meuse and Vosges, which were detached from it in 1822. In 1824 the bishop of N. received the title of bishop of N. and Toul. The first bishop of N. was L. De la Tour Dupin Montauban in 1777; in 1787 A.-L.-E. de La Fare, later a cardinal; C. Forbin Janson (v.) was the first bishop of N. and Toul (1824–44); afterward there were Mgr. Darboy (1853–63) and the future cardinals Lavigerie (1863–67) and Foulon (1867–82).

The Cathedral was begun in 1703, according to a design by G. Betto, which H. Mansart modified, and it was completed

in 1742 by G. Bofrand. It has three naves, with a dome decorated by C. Jacquart (1727). On the altar of the north transept is a statue of the Virgin with the Child, dating from the 15th century. The Cathedral treasury preserves an ivory plaque from the 9th century with the Crucifixion and the two pious women at the tomb; a paten and a chalice known as that of St. Gauzelin, bishop of Toul (922–62); a cup in gilded silver and enamel; an ivory liturgical pectin from the 9th–10th century; an evangeliary in half-uncial script, commissioned by Bishop Arnold of Toul (870–93), with a wooden cover and enamel applications on the front, representing at the center the Blessed Virgin, haloed, with the lily in her hand, while the reverse is decorated with a silver plaque. The church of the Cordeliers, with a single nave, contained the tombs of the Dukes of Lorraine and was desecrated during the French Revolution. It was later restored by the Emperor of Austria, heir to the Dukes of Lorraine, who brought together there the tombs of the members of the family. The ducal chapel, begun in 1607, received its dome in 1632. The church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours was erected by King Stanislaus between 1738 and 1741 along the length of a chapel called «des Bourguignons», containing the tombs of the soldiers of Charles the Bold (1477). Duke René II had a statue of the Blessed Virgin by Mansuy Gauvain (1505) placed there, which soon became greatly venerated. King Stanislaus (1766) and his wife Catherine Opalinska (1757) were later deposited in the chapel. The present church of St-Aper (Epyre) dates from 1865–71 and is in the Gothic style, on the site of the preceding 14th-century church. It contains the monument of Mgr. J. Trouillet (1809–87), to whom its reconstruction was due, as well as the University Palace. The church of St-Mansuy was erected in 1879–81; that of St. Leo in 1860–77: it is dedicated to St. Leo IX (v.), who was bishop of Toul from 1026 to 1049. Among the sanctuaries are: Notre-Dame-de-Sion at Saxe Sion (the statue of the Madonna, broken during the French Revolution, was replaced in 1802); St-Nicolas-du-Port, in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra, patron of Lorraine.

Since 1824 N. has had an «Ecole nationale des eaux et forêts»; it has been a university center since 1854; and it also possesses an «Ecole supérieure de commerce» and various museums.

The Municipal Library of N. preserves a cameo with the apotheosis of Hadrian, belonging to a reliquary destroyed in 1792 that had been offered by King René and Joan of Laval to the church of St-Nicolas-du-Port (L. Germain, Le camée antique de la Bibliothèque de N., in Bulletin monumental, 49 [1883], pp. 458–64).

A Merovingian cemetery, in use from the 5th century to 751, was discovered near St-Jean-du-vieil-aitre (atrium). Gregory XIII, by a bull of 5 Dec. 1572, established the University at Pont-à-Mousson; the Faculties of theology and arts were entrusted to the Jesuit fathers. Queen Mary Stuart founded in the same city a seminary for 24 Scottish and Irish students. St. Peter Fourier was also a student there.