TARANTASIA, DIOCESE OF
In the department of Savoie (France), with the episcopal see at Moutiers.
The diocese extends over more than 2,447 sq. km. in the arrondissement of Moutiers and partly in that of Albertville in the department of Savoie. It has a population of 52,340, of whom 50,000 are Catholics, distributed in 87 parishes forming 10 archpriestships. It has 112 diocesan priests and 13 regulars (Assumptionists); it has a major and minor seminary; 3 male and 27 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 416). The patrons of the diocese are the holy apostles Peter and Paul.
The name of the diocese derives from Darantasia, the principal city of the region of the same name in the upper Isère valley; it is noted by Strabo, by Ptolemy in the Antonine Itinerary and in the Peutinger Table because it lay on the Roman road connecting the Rhône valleys with the Val d'Aosta. This region was divided into upper, middle and lower Tarantasia. Moutiers owes its name to a monastery founded in the 5th century; raised to the status of a diocese, it was first under the metropolitan see of Arles, then of Vienne; in the 8th century it was raised to a metropolitan see. In the struggle against the lords of Briançon, Umberto II of Savoy intervened in 1097 and took possession of the entire region. The archdiocese became the metropolitan see of Savoy, with Sion, Aosta and Moriana as suffragans; it was suppressed by the French Revolution and annexed to Chambéry; it was reconstituted as a simple diocese by Leo XII on 5 August 1825 as a suffragan of Chambéry. The first mention of the diocese is in a letter of Pope Leo I of 450 in which this see is placed under the archdiocese of Vienne (Jaffé-Wattenbach, no. 450). The first bishop was St James (427-28), who had been a disciple of St Honoratus at Lérins; Sanctus attended the Council of Épaone in 517; Avitus, in his second homily, attributes to him the foundation at Tarantasia of a basilica of St Peter; Marcianus attended the Councils of Mâcon (581) and Valence (583); Baudomerus attended the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône in 650; Andreas attended that of Lyon in 828; Teutramnus attended the Council of Tusey in 860; John VIII wrote to him in 878 (Jaffé-Wattenbach, no. 3150).
Among the prelates of Tarantasia are also remembered St Peter I ca. 1130, formerly a Cistercian abbot, and Peter II (1141-47), who established the charitable work of the Pain de mai; Rudolph (1246-71) and Peter III (1272-83), uncle and nephew of the Valdostan family Grossi; then Cardinals A. de Challant (1402-18; V. CHALLANT); J. D'Arces (1438-54); the two Della Rovere, Christopher (1472-78) and Dominic (1478-83), buried in Rome in S. Maria del Popolo; Germonio (1607-27), author of the Commentaria and the Acta Ecclesiae Tarentensis.
The cathedral, dedicated to St Peter, restored several times, preserves from ancient times the crypt and the choir, but the main nave is from the 15th century; noteworthy are the group of the Pietà carved in polychrome wood; the episcopal throne is also carved in wood (15th century); the tomb monuments of the bishops Mons. Rochai (1836) and Mons. Turinaz (1869); the portico dates from 1461. Rich is the Treasury with precious reliquaries, some in enamels, in rock crystal, in carved wood, ivory statuettes, fabrics, etc. Attached to the cathedral is the ancient archiepiscopal residence with towers from the 15th century. The archbishops also possessed near Tours-en-Savoie the castle of Chauterrelle (13th century).
A shrine much venerated as a goal of ancient pilgrimages is the church of Notre Dame de Briançon, restored in the 17th century. To Tarantasia belongs Bl. Innocent V (v.). Also from Tarantasia is Peter of Aigueblanche, promoted in 1240 to the archdiocese of Hereford in England. Tarantasia was annexed to France in 1860.