SAINT-JEAN-DE-MAURIENNE, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in the southern part of the department of Savoy; seat of a subprefecture.

It has an area of 2090 sq km with a population of 41,615 inhabitants, of whom 40,000 are Catholics, distributed among 89 parishes, which are served by 125 diocesan priests; it has a major and a minor seminary and 1 female religious community (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 354). The diocese has been a suffragan of Chambéry since 1817, and previously it was a suffragan of Vienne; its patron is St. John the Baptist.

Gregory of Tours (In gloria martyrum, 13) relates that a pious woman, "Tyrgis," a native of the region, would have gone to the East and would have obtained the relic of a finger of St. John the Baptist which, brought back to her homeland, was venerated in a church that became a center of pilgrimage; and the city was called "S. Johannes Garocellius." The area situated in the Cottian Alps belonged to the diocese of Turin. After it passed under the Franks, King Guntram obtained the creation of a diocese. The first bishop was Felmasius. Iconius took part in the Councils of Mâcon in 581 and 585 and in the translations of the relics of Sts. Ursus and Victor (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1754-55); Leporius was at the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône in 650. The territory of the diocese was sacked by the Saracens; later Conrad II gave it to the bishops of Turin; the counts of Savoy took possession of it in 1327; it passed to France in the first half of the 16th century, but Emmanuel Philibert recovered it in 1559; it passed back to France at the end of the 18th century and during the Napoleonic empire; it returned under the House of Savoy until 1859, when all of Savoy was ceded to France.

The Cathedral was built in the 12th century, enlarged in the 15th, restored in the 19th; the crypt is ancient; it has artistic choir stalls and the tabernacle is of alabaster. There is the tomb of Bishop Msgr. P. de Lambert (d. 1580). The bishops of S. G. di M. minted coinage, and of the ancient mint there remains the "Tour Bossue" of the 15th century.

Bibliography11 works

BIBL.: F. Savio, Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia. I. Il Piemonte, Turin 1898, pp. 220-37; A. Manno, Bibl. storica degli Stati della Monarchia di Savoia, VIII, ibid. 1907, pp. 331-37; L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, I, Paris 1907, pp. 207-10, 233-35; J. Burlet, Le culte de Dieu, de la Vierge et des Saints en Savoie avant la révolution, Chambéry 1922, passim; Guide de la France chrét. et missionnaire, 1948-49, Paris 1948, pp. 383, 742-743; Eubel, I, p. 331; II, pp. 187-88; III, p. 328; IV, p. 235; V, p. 261; Cottineau, II, col. 2741.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec10_san_giovanni_di_moriana_maurie, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {San Giovanni di Moriana (Maurienne), diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1768}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/san-giovanni-di-moriana-maurienne-diocesi-di} }

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Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Diocese of

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