Nancy, Diocese of

NANCY, DIOCESE of - City and diocese, 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 about 55,000 inhabitants. It has 29 deaneries, 324 titular parishes, 303 annexed parishes and 5 auxiliary chapels, served by 530 diocesan priests and 40 regulars; it has two seminaries, one major and one minor. The patroness of the diocese is Notre-Dame under the invocation of the Assumption.

Nancy was originally a Celtic settlement; it appears for the first time in a diploma of the emperor Otto of 3 Aug. 947; it belonged to the Kingdom of Lotharingia. The city is composed of the Vieille ville, which grew up around the Palace of the dukes of Lorraine, and of the Ville neuve created in 1587 by Duke Charles III. Nancy remained a modest village even when in the 11th century the dukes of Lorraine erected their castle there, the «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 Vaudémont; the victory was perpetuated by the erection in 1480 of the chapel of the Cordeliers. 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 dispossessed by the king of France and returned there only in 1697, through the treaty of Ryswick, which however made Nancy an open city. Through his marriage to Maria Theresa Duke Leopold became emperor, and Stanisław Leszczyński, king of Poland, succeeded him at Nancy and embellished the city (Place Stanislas). In 1597 Duke Charles III of Lorraine had asked Clement VIII for the creation of the diocese of Nancy, but the Pope granted only a primatial church with a prelate invested with the title of primate and the episcopal insignia, yet without jurisdiction over it. The diocese was instead created by Pope Pius VI by dismemberment of the diocese of Toul, with a bull of 19 Nov. 1777, as primatial of Lorraine and suffragan of Besançon, as it still is. The Concordat of 1801 suppressed the diocese of Toul (v.) and Nancy then comprised, besides the department of Meurthe, also those of the Meuse and of the Vosges, which were detached from it in 1822. In 1824 the bishop of Nancy received the title of bishop of Nancy and of Toul. The first bishop of Nancy was in 1777 L. De la Tour Dupin Montauban; in 1787 A.-L.-E. de La Fare, later cardinal: C. Forbin Janson (v.) was the first bishop of Nancy and Toul (1824-44); then came Msgr. Darboy (1853-63) and the future cardinals Lavigerie (1863-67) and Foulon (1867-82).

The Cathedral was begun in 1703, on a design by G. Betto, to which H. Mansart brought modifications, and was completed in 1742 by G. Bofrand. It has three naves, with a cupola decorated by C. Jacquart (1727). In the altar of the north transept is a statue of the Virgin with the Child, of the 15th century. In the treasury of the Cathedral are preserved an ivory plaque of the 9th century with the Crucifixion and the two Marys 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 enamels; a liturgical comb in ivory of the 9th-10th century; an evangeliary in semi-uncial script, commissioned by bishop Arnald of Toul (870-93) with a wooden cover and enamel appliqués, on the recto representing at the center the B. Virgin, nimbed, with the lily in her hand, while the verso is decorated in silver leaf. The church of the Cordeliers, with a single nave, contained the tombs of the dukes of Lorraine, desecrated during the French Revolution. It was later restored by the Emperor of Austria, heir of the dukes of Lorraine, who gathered there the tombs of the members of the family. The ducal chapel begun in 1607 received its cupola in 1632. The church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours was erected by King Stanisław 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 placed there a statue of the B. Virgin by Mansuy Gauvain (1505) which soon became much venerated. In the chapel were laid King Stanisław (1766) and his wife Catherine Opalińska (1757). The present church of St-Aper (Epyre) dates from 1865-71, in Gothic style, on the site of the previous one of the 14th century. It contains the monument of Msgr. J. Trouillet (1809-87), to whom its reconstruction is due, and also the Palace of the University. 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 remembered: 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.

Nancy had an «Ecole nationale des eaux et forêts» from 1824; it has been a university seat since 1854; and it is also provided with an «Ecole supérieure de commerce» and various museums.

In the municipal Library of Nancy is preserved a cameo with the apotheosis of Hadrian, belonging to a reliquary destroyed in 1792 which 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 found toward St-Jean-du-vieil-aitre (atrium). Gregory XIII, with a bull of 5 Dec. 1572, erected the University at Pont-à-Mousson; the Faculties of theology and of 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.

Enrico Josi