Sion (Sitten), Diocese of

SION (SITTEN), Diocese of. - City and diocese, capital of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Its area is 5,235 sq. km. with a population of 150,000 inhabitants, of whom 145,000 are Catholics; it has 145 parishes served by 251 diocesan priests and 148 regulars; it has 18 male and 33 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 402).

Its origin dates back to the first centuries A.D. and it was called "Sedunum." Valais was conquered by Augustus around 8 B.C. By 377 it was certainly already Christian, since an ancient inscription with the monogram of Christ dates from that era. The present diocese extends over the entire territory of the canton, except for five communes, and its boundaries changed little through the centuries.

The first known bishop is Theodore, "episcopus Octodurensis," as he signs himself at the Council of Aquileia (381) and of Milan (390); he established his see at Octodurum (Martigny); he founded the church of St. Maurice in honor of the martyrs of the Theban Legion at Agaunum (v.); then the bishops Salvius and Protasius; Constantius was at the Council of Epaon (517) and Rufus at those of Orléans (541 and 549); Heliodorus probably moved the see to Sion around 585; it is certain, however, that Leudomond established it there definitively in 613. Protasius was at the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône (650); Vulcherius, formerly metropolitan of Vienne, was at the same time bishop of Sion and abbot of St. Maurice: in 771 he paid homage to Charlemagne; his sepulchral inscription is preserved (P. Bourban, L'archevêque et Vultchaire et son inscription funéraire, in Comptes rendus du IV Congrès scientifique international des catholiques, Fribourg 1898, 10th sect., pp. 19-35).

In the 4th century Sion depended on the metropolis of Milan, then passed around the middle of the 5th century under that of Vienne and toward the end of the 8th century under that of Tarantaise. The oldest lists of the bishops of Sion are from the 16th century. The first seven resided at Octodurum, from Theodore I (380-91) to Agricola (565); the other 76 at Sion, from Heliodorus (585) to the last, Msgr. Bieler (1919-52). The apogee of episcopal power in Sion runs from 999 to 1032, when the bishop was count and representative of the Emperor, minister of justice of the army and secular prince: the last bishop to bear this title was Msgr. P. J. de Proux (1843-75): Sacri Romani Imperii princeps. The most grandiose figure in the history of the diocese of Sion is Cardinal Matthäus Schiner (b. at Mühlebach, d. at Rome in 1522 and buried in the church of the Anima). Cardinal Schiner truly dominated his era, also from the international point of view. He introduced Valais into the Swiss Confederation and had the merit of making his see independent, to which he had risen in 1499 and which Julius II declared immediately subject to the Holy See between 1510-13.

Since 1919 the election of the bishop of Sion is made directly by the Holy See; the choice is made from the diocesan clergy as for all Swiss dioceses by virtue of particular concordats. Valais is bilingual, so in the lower regions French is spoken, in the upper ones German: the new bishop elected is taken alternately from one region and the other.

The diocese had no institutions for the formation of the clergy until the 18th century. From the 13th century the people of Valais studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, at Fribourg in Switzerland, at Bologna, at Rome, at Vienna, at Milan. In 1585-1607-1624 petitions were sent to the Holy See to have colleges for students of theology in Rome. Urban VIII established two scholarships at Vienna in 1627. St. Charles Borromeo founded two colleges at Milan for the people of Valais; other foundations were made later. From 1858 the students left Vienna for Innsbruck. Now the students of theology attend Fribourg and Rome. The first episcopal Seminary was founded in 1748. The school of theology was opened in 1874 near the Cathedral. In 1927 a minor Seminary with a gymnasium was created. In the town hall of Sion is preserved an inscription dated to the year 377 which constitutes the oldest example of an epigraph intended for a public monument with the monogram of Christ (E. Le Blant, Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule, I, Paris 1856, n. 369, pp. 496-97, pl. 231; CIL, XII, 138). - See pl. XLIII.

Alfonso Codaghengo