VERDUN, Diocese of. - Diocese and capital city of the department of the Meuse in France. It has an area of 6,240 sq. km. with a population of 188,780 inhabitants, of whom 180,000 are Catholics distributed in 551 parishes served by 339 diocesan priests and 12 regulars; it has a major and a minor seminary, 3 male religious communities and 56 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 445). It is a suffragan of Besançon. Its patroness is the B. V. Assumption.
The episcopal list was compiled by Bishop Dadone in 893, who limited himself to his two predecessors Attone and Berenardo. Bertario, a canon of St-Vanne, used a catalogue that had escaped the fire, adding to it the indications of the burials, for the most part in the church of St-Vanne. His catalogue was continued in the 11th century up to 1047 and later the monk Lorenzo of the same abbey continued it up to 1144, others extended it to the middle of the 13th century. Another list in a manuscript of Amiens goes up to Bishop Richerio (1089-1107). The first bishop Santino would be from about the middle of the 4th century, then Mauro, Salvino, Aratore, Policronio, Possessore. Firmino, whose tomb was found at St-Vanne, would be from the time of Clovis, then Vito; Desiderato who had to suffer from King Theodoric I (511-34) and went to the Councils of Auvergne in 535 and of Orléans in 549; Agerico, mentioned by Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc., III, 34, 39) from 584 to 588; Arimero, who was at the Council of Paris of 614; Ermenfrido, also called Godo, who was at the Council of Clichy in 627; Paolo (619-36), deposed in S. Saturnino: his biography is from the 10th century. There follow Gisecarlo
(648-75); Armonio; Peppone at the time of Charles Martel; Madelveo who visited the Holy Places (762-75); Pietro, of Italian origin, sent to Rome by Charlemagne in 781, died in 806. Anstranno and Frilando are buried at St-Vanne; Ildino was at the Council of Mainz in 839, died in 847. Attone (847-70), received from Lothair II the abbey of Echternach which he kept until 864; in 859 he was at the Council of Savonnières, in 860 at that of Coblenz, in 862 at that of Tousey. Berenardo (870-79) was at the Council of Attigny in 870 and in 871 at that of Douzy, in 873 at the dedication of the cathedral of Cologne; in 876 at the Council of Ponthion. Daolo was bishop from 880.
The cathedral of Notre-Dame dates back to the 11th century but was remodeled several times, especially after the war of 1914-18; during the restoration work the remains of the various previous constructions, several times devastated by fires, were identified. The Romanesque building, begun in 1048, continued until 1083 on the initiative of Theodoric the Great who was inspired by Rhenish Romanesque constructions (especially Mainz, Speyer and Worms) with double apses and towers. After a pause due to the depredations suffered by the region, the building was continued under Bishop Alberone of Cluny (1132-52), through the work of the architect Garino to whom the crypt is also due; the Basilica was consecrated by Pope Eugene III on 11 Nov. 1147 and St. Bernard was present there. In 1250 the eastern apse and the hall called "the sacrarium" were added. The vault of the central nave is from 1378, when the eastern apse was raised. Between 1390 and 1530 the side chapels were added. Between 1509 and 1515 the Gothic cloister was built. Following the damage caused by lightning, in 1755 many modifications were made. Agerico, bishop of V., not only restored the ancient churches but, as Fortunatus testifies, also erected others.
The b. Pius X in 1906 granted the bishops of V. the privilege of the sacred pallium. Pius XII with an apostolic letter of 8 Sept. 1947 elevated the Cathedral to the dignity of minor basilica (AAS, 41 [1949], pp. 490-92).
Bibliography12 works
Enrico Josi