The Diocese of Saint-Dié (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese has the same boundaries as the département of the Vosges. The bishop's cathedra is Saint-Dié Cathedral in the town now named Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, but since 1944 has lived in Épinal, capital of the département. The Diocese of Saint–Dié is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Besançon.
History
The Diocese of Saint-Dié originated in the celebrated abbey of that name. Saint Deodatus (Dié) came, according his legendary biography, written in 1050, by Benedictine monks of Moyenmoutier, from Nevers and the Nivernais. He was believed to have been bishop of Nevers at one time.Pius VI, "Relata semper", in: Bullarii Romani Continuatio , Vol. 5 (Rome: Apostolic Camera 1842), p. 372 § 3: "...Sancto Deodato, dum viveret in terris, episcopo Nivernensi...."
According to the "Life of Saint Wlifrid" by Stephen of Ripon (Eddius Stephanus), a contemporary hagiography written not too much later than 710, the Saxon Wilfrid of York had been driven from his see due to the enmity of the Celtic bishops of Scotland toward his promotion of the practices of the Roman Church.James Raine, The historians of the church of York and its archbishops, Vol. 1 (London: Longman, 1879), pp. xxvi–xxviii. He decided to go to Rome and seek papal protection from his enemies, and restoration to his diocese. He arrived on the continent in 678 and spent the winter in Frisia, but eventually found himself at the court of King Dagobert II, who invited him to stay in his kingdom and become bishop of Strasbourg.Paul Fouracre, "Forgetting and remembering Dagobert II," in: Paul Fouracre, David Ganz (edd.), Frankland: The Franks and the world of the early Middle Ages, (Manchester University Press, 2020), pp. 82–89. Wilfrid was anxious to seek vindication in Rome, however, and so the king assigned one of his bishops, Deodatus of Toul, to accompany him.Raine, p. 39: "Et nunc Dagobert rex, beneficiorum ejus memoratus erat, diligenter poscens, ut in suo regno episcopatum maximum ad civitatem Streithbyrg pertinentem susciperet; et eum nolentem accipere, cum muneribus et donis magnis, et cum Deodato episcopo suo duce ad Apostolicam sedem emisit."
In Rome, Pope Agatho summoned a synod in October 679, precisely to deal with the disorders in the church in the British isles. Wilfrid was present,Karl Joseph von Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents Vol. 4 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1895), pp. 491–492. as was Bishop Deodatus.J.D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima , Vol. 11 (Florence: A. Zatta 1765), p. 279: "Deodato Tullense." Both were invited to stay on in Rome, and they participated in the synod of May 680, which drafted a synodal letter which was sent to the Third Council of Constantinople, to which both affixed their signatures.Mansi, p. 306. Louis Duchesne agrees that this Bishop Deodatus (or Adeodatus) was the same as Saint Dié (Déodat), and that he was bishop in Toul, if not necessarily of Toul.Duchesne, pp. 59–61.
Questions about Saint Dié
The earliest reference to Deodatus occurs in the privilege granted by Bishop Numerianus of Trier in 667.Pfister, p. 379. J. M. Pardessus, Diplomata chartae, epistolae, leges aliaque instrumenta ad res gallo-francicas spectantia: Instrumenta ab anno 628 ad annum 751, Vol. 2 (Typogr. Reipublica, 1849) pp. 147–148, no. 360. Deodatus was already a bishop."Et quia venerabilis vir Deodatus episcopus religiosa postulatione aurium nostrarum intima penetravit viscerale pietatis affectu, ita cor nostrum intrinsecus mollivit (innolivit), ut petita duntaxat non cadere, sed libentissime non implesse nostris animis irreligiosum fore putare (putaretur)." The privilege states that Deodatus had already obtained from the fiscPfister, p. 382, says that this indicates that it was a royal monastery. a piece of property in a remote and uncultivated place, called Galilee, at the confluence (Juncturae) of the Robache and the Meurthe rivers, and that he had built there a monastery,Pfister, p. 381. Pardessus, p. 147: "intra eremi secretum locum nuncupante Galilæa, quod priùs Juncturas vocabatur, supra fluvios Murthæ et Raurobaccio, in proprietate autem sua quam ex fisci largitate promeruit, monasterium construxit...." which accepted both permanent residents (monks) and temporary visitors (peregrini), and which used both the Rule of Saint Columba and the Rule of Saint Benedict. Bishop Numerianus and his suffragan bishops, Childulfus of Metz, Gisloaldus of Verdun, and Eborinus of Toul, approved Deodatus' monastery, and forbade anyone, prelate or king, to interfere with its operation. They also decreed that, on Deodatus' death, a successor abbot was to be chosen from among themselves by unanimous agreement of the entire congregation.Pardessus, p. 148: "Et cùm sæpedictus Deodatus episcopus, qui est pater ipsius monasterii, de hoc seculo evocatus, illum quem unanimiter omnis congregatio illa ex semetipsis optime regulâ compertum elegerit, seniorem et abbatem sibi instituat."
It is not known where Deodatus comes from. The "vita Deodati" indicates that he was a western Frank from the Nivernais.Daniel van Papenbroch, in: Acta Sanctorum Junii, Volume 3 (Antwerp: Apud Viduam Henrici Thieullier, 1701), p. 872, col. 2: "Beatus Deodatus generoso Occidentalium Niverniensis Francorum sanguine procreatus." According to a hypothesis of some historians, however, he came from Ireland,Pfister, p. 382: "Peut-être nous sera-t-il permis de conjecturer, d'après ccongregationes analogies, que saint Die venait de l'Irlande. Notre hypothèse acquiert un peu plus de force, si nous songeons que des privilèges, — analogues à ceux que Numérien donne à Saint-Dié, — n'étaient accordés qu'à des monastères d'origine irlandaise; si nous nous rappelons que la légende fait de notre saint un compagnon de saint Florent et de saint Arbogaste. which could be explained by a confusion in Latin between Niverniensis and Hiberniensis. Others scholars suggest that he might be a Christian who had travelled widely, and may have lived in the North of Britain's Islands. He has also been thought to have been educated too in Austrasia, by Scottish monks who followed the Rule of Saint Columbanus.
Legends relate that Diodotus made the acquaintance of Saints Arbogast and Florentius and walked with them through the passes of Alsace. The connections are anachronistic.Arbogast was bishop of Strasbourg in the 6th century; Florentius lived in the time of Dagobert I (623–639). Both are listed before Bishop Ansoald of Strasbourg, who attended the council of Paris in 614. The chronology is confused, and makes a connection with Deodatus of Saint-Dié impossible. Paul Fouracre, Frankish History: Studies in the Construction of Power (Ashgate 2013). Duchesne, III, p. 171. The "Vita Arbogasti" was the work of Bishop Utho of Strasbourg (950–965).
From Alsace, sometimes from the Heilige Wald, near Haguenau, he withdrew to the Vosges, sojourning at Romont where he began a lot of miracles, and Arentelle, where the inhabitants were hostile. For some time he was a solitary at Wilra or Wibra, maybe near the present Katzenthal in Alsace, but being persecuted by the inhabitants, he walked with a big stick who planted in soil created always a spring of water. Above the pass of Bonhomme, on the top of Rossberg, he launched an ironed arm until a locus called Petit-Saint-Dié under the Kemberg, a mountain, precisely under rocks Saint-Martin. Springs of flowed on this left side of the Meurthe, and he founded a refuge under rocks and near above springs. Once he received this lands in 669 he decided to work. His first monastery hardly built with new brothership, he was tied and dreamed to build a monastery in a little hill "Juncturae" in the right side of the river, the future Galilée. Longtime a prairie, then a little town, and now the center of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges stand between this two places.
Monastery
Before this time, Leudin Bodo, Bishop of Toul, had founded to the north-west of Saint-Dié the monastery of Bonmoutier for his daughter; and to the south of Bonmoutier the monastery of Etival, ( 663). Saint Gondelbert, after resigning the Archbishopric of Sens, had just founded the abbey of Senones to the east, 661; in 1751 it became the capital of the principality of Salm.Lepage & Charton, p. 487, col. 1. These four monasteries formed, by their geographical position, the four extremities of a cross. Later, Saint Hildulf, Bishop of Trier (d. 707), erected between them at the intersection of the two arms of the cross, the monastery of Moyenmoutier. In 967, the Emperor Otto II granted the bishops of Toul possession of the monasteries of Moyenmoutier and Galilee (Saint-Dié), with the right to coin money.Lepage & Charton, p. 449, col. 1. The monastery was called Saint-Dié and Moyenmoutier interchangeably until Pope Leo IX ordered that only Saint-Dié be used (p. 449, col. 2).
Grand Provost of Dié In the 10th century the Abbey of Saint-Dié grew lax, and in 959 Frederick I, Duke of Lorraine, prompted by Archbishop Bruno of Trier, embarked on a reform of the monasteries in his duchy, assisted by Abbot Adelbert of Gorze. Adalbert entrusted the reform of the Abbey of Saint-Dié to the monk Erchemert, who quickly made a mess of its administration. The duke recalled Erchembert, and in 962 removed the Benedictines, replacing them by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine.Pfister (1888), p. 518. Pope Gregory V, in 996, agreed to the change and decided that the grand prévôt, the principal dignitary of the abbey, should depend directly upon the Holy See, that is, not be subject to the jurisdiction of any local bishop.
In October 1049, Pope Leo IX visited Saint-Dié, and participated in the recognition and enshrining of the remains of Saint Deodatus.Pius VI, "Relata semper", in: Bullarii Romani Continuatio , Vol. 5 (Rome: Apostolic Camera 1842), p. 373 § 4: "...in qua integrum ejusdem sancti Deodati corpus in urna ex argento quinquaginta librarum pondere congesta reconditur; ac cujus... sanctus Leo pp. IX...ac tres Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae cardinales, tres itidem archiepiscopi, et novem episcopi, pluresque insimul de claro Lotharingio sanguine principes recensentur...." On 16 November 1049, he signed a bull, conceding privileges to Saint-Dié and confirming its possessions.Edmundus Martene, Ursinus Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, , Volume 1 (Paris: Flor. Delaulne et al., 1717), pp. 169–170.
The canons of the collegiate church originally numbered twenty-four, and were headed by the dignities of Provost Major, Dean, Cantor, and Scholasticus.Daniel van Papenbroch, in: Acta Sanctorum Junii, Volume 3 (Antwerp: Apud Viduam Henrici Thieullier, 1701), p. 871.
Church and cathedral
The earliest remains on the site of the later cathedral, the two walls of the nave, date from the 8th and 10th centuries. In 1105, the duchess Beatrix contributed half the cost of restoring the crumbling church, as reparation for the excommunication of her husband Duke Ferri by the Chapter.Lepage & Charton, p. 447, col. 1; 449, column 1.
In 1065, both of the churches of Saint-Die were destroyed in a major fire.Lepage & Charton, p. 452, col. 2. Rebuilding of the collegiate church began with the nave, which was begun in the middle of the 12th century, in the style called "Rhenish" or "Ottonian"; its vaults were completed and covered in wood at the beginning of the 13th century. At the beginning of the 14th century, the transepts and apses were added, and in the 15th and 16th twelve lateral chapels, which had the effect of reinforcing the 12th century walls. Between 1711 and 1715, the Italian architect Giovanni Betto added the façade.Valance, p. 4.