SOISSONS, Diocese of. - City and diocese in the department of the Aisne in France. S. is the ancient Noviodunum, center of the tribe of the Gallic Suessiones, then Augusta Suessionum of the Romans in the second Belgica. The diocese has the same dimensions as the civil department, that is, an area of 7,367 sq km, and has a population of 455,000 inhabitants, of whom 423,000 are Catholics. It is divided into 2 archdeaconries, 5 archpresbyterates and 37 deaneries; it has 578 parishes, served by 481 diocesan priests and 26 regulars; it has a major and a minor seminary, 2 male religious communities and 59 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 405). It is a suffragan of Reims.
The archdeaconry of S. comprises the archpresbyterates of S., Château-Thierry and Vervins; that of Laon (v.) those of Laon and St-Quentin. Out of 834 communes, 21 are without churches. The martyrs of S. were Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on 25 October; the basilica erected in their honor is mentioned by Gregory of Tours (Hist. Francorum, V. 34; IX, 9), but their Passio is entirely legendary (BHL, 1990-93); the same must be said of the Passio of the martyrs Valerius and Rufinus (ibid., 7373-75) indicated in the same Hieronymianum on 14 June, "in territorio Suessionis civitatis." Flodoard in his Historia Remensis (I, 3) wrote that S. had its first two bishops, Sixtus and Sinicius, in common with Reims; at the end of the 3rd century or in the early years of the 4th, Divitianus was bishop of S. alone; he would have been followed by Rufinus, Mercurius, Principius, to whom Sidonius Apollinaris wrote ca. 475; then Bandaridus; Drusius, known in several documents between 660-67. In the time of Pope Zachary, on 3 March 744, the Council of S. took place (Hefele-Leclercq, III, pp. 854-61; bibliography, p. 1248 suppl.; IV, pp. 192-96). Rotado I was at the Council of Noyon of 814, where the boundaries between his diocese and that of Noyon were fixed; he took part in the Council of Paris in 829 and is mentioned in the account of the translation of the relics of St. Sebastian in 826. Rotado II, who, expelled in 861, appealed to Pope Nicholas I, who reinstated him in 865. Then Hugh of Champfleury (1159-75), who was chancellor of Louis VII; Guy of Château-Porcien (1245-50), who was with St. Louis in Palestine and was killed there; Languet de Gergy (1715-30), author of a Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The bishop of S., as dean of the suffragans of Reims, had the privilege, during a vacancy of the see of Reims, of celebrating the ceremonies of the coronation of the kings of France. In the first half of the 12th century a feudal county was constituted which belonged successively to various noble families; namely Bar, Nesle, Coucy, Luxembourg, St-Pol, Bourbon-Vendôme and Bourbon Condé, and lastly to the Savoy-Carignano.
The diocese was re-established by the Concordat of 1802 as a suffragan of Paris, but from 1821 it became a suffragan of Reims. With the Concordat of 1817 an attempt was made to re-establish the see of Laon; but Leo XII on 13 June 1828 authorized the bishop of S. to add also the title of bishop of Laon. Leo XIII, by a decree dated 11 June 1901, united with it also the title of St-Quentin, the residential see of the bishop of Noyon.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, dates back to the 13th century; but the facade was modified in the 18th century; it is flanked by two towers, the north one left unfinished, the other, to the south, 66 m high, was damaged during the war of 1914-18. The interior measures 100 x 27 m and reaches a height of 30 m; it was ruined by bombardments, restored and reopened for worship in 1931. The central nave is divided by cylindrical pillars. The transept was begun in 1177: it recalls in the arrangement of the choir and the apse that of the cathedral of Noyon, but has in addition the ambulatory, as in the cathedral of Tournai; the windows are of the 12th century; in the high altar a sculptural group of the Annunciation; on the walls a tapestry donated ca. 1480 by Bishop J. Millet contains episodes from the lives of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius; there is also an Adoration of the Magi by Rubens and the funeral monument of Bishop Msgr. Fr. de Simony (d. 1849). Of the ancient church of St-Pierre-au-Parvis of the 12th century only the facade and two bays of the central nave with the two side aisles remain; and only a few walls remain of the ancient church of the abbey of Notre-Dame destroyed by the Revolution.
Where the church erected over the tomb of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian and the related abbey once stood, there is today a nursery run by the Sisters of Charity. The church of St-Léger, damaged by the Calvinists in 1567, preserves the transept of the 13th century, while the facade and the bell tower are of the 17th century; the building together with the adjoining cloister is occupied by the Museum and the Library, rich in more than 5,500 volumes and 200 manuscripts, among which are the illuminated Missal known as that of St. Medard (12th century), the Bible of St-Ived-des-Braine (12th century), the cartulary and the chronicle of the abbey of St-Jean-des-Vignes founded in 1077 and destroyed by the military authority. The facade was erected between the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century with three artistic portals, with a central gallery and two side towers, provided with buttresses. Of the cloister two large galleries of the 14th century remain.
The abbey of St. Medard, later also dedicated to St. Sebastian, was founded at S. by Chlothar I in 557, to deposit there the remains of the Saint. The abbot Hilduin (822-30) obtained in 846 from Pope Eugene II the relics of St. Sebastian and of St. Gregory the Great; he rebuilt the church, which was consecrated on 27 Aug. 841; but, having been ruined, it was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1131 by Pope Innocent II, who instituted the "pardon of St. Medard" for visitors. Louis the Pious was imprisoned there in 833; it was sacked by the Calvinists in 1564; it passed to the Congregation of St. Maur in 1637. Among the abbots are remembered: St. Arnulf, who in 1081 was bishop of S.; Cardinal de Bernis, who was its commendatory abbot in 1756. On the tomb of St. Medard, bishop of Noyon and Tournai (d. ca. 557), a church was erected, with an adjoining abbey. The crypt, which dates back to the 9th century, is surrounded by seven chapels; one of them contains the tombs of the kings Chlothar (561) and Sigebert (575). The remains of the building are used as an asylum for the deaf and mute.
The Benedictine abbey of Notre-Dame of S. was founded in 660 by Ebroin and his wife Leutrada, in the time of Bishop Drausinus (F. Blanchard, Rech. sur l'abbaye de N.-D. de S. et ses dépendances, in Bull. de la Soc. archeol. de S., 14 [1907], pp. 75-96).
Premontré. - It was the seat of the abbey founded by St. Norbert (v.) in 1120, of Notre-Dame and of St. John the Baptist, center of the Order of the Regular Canons Premonstratensian; situated in the middle of the forest of St-Gobain; it was devastated by the Huguenots, re-established in the 18th century, was expropriated by the Revolution and is now transformed into an insane asylum (v. PREMONSTRATENSIANS).
St. Quentin. - It was the civitas Veromanduorum, sacked in the 5th century. The city withstood two sieges, in 1557 and in 1870. The abbey was erected ca. 650 by St. Eligius, over the tomb of the martyr St. Quentin; the first abbot was Ebertram, a monk of Luxeuil. It became a collegiate church ca. 900. The church was rebuilt ca. 1114, but of the Romanesque building with a double transept very little remains; it measured 96 m in length and reached a height of 40 m; it was illuminated by 110 windows more than 3 m high. The relics of St. Quentin are enclosed in a sarcophagus carved from a Roman column.
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Enrico Josi