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Archdiocese coextensive with the departments of Doubs, Haute-Saône, and the district of Belfort. Few nineteenth-centurydioceses have undergone similar territorial changes. The Concordat of 1802 gave the Diocese of Besançon all those districts which, in 1822, constituted the Diocese of St. -Claude. In 1806, Besançon was givenjurisdiction over the threeparishes of the principality of Neufachatel (Switzerland) which fell under the control of theSee of Lausanne in 1814. In 1870, after the annexation ofAlsace-Lorraine byGermany, the district of Belfort was withdrawn from theSee of Strasburg and attached to that of Besançon. Themetropolitanjurisdiction of Besançon also underwent singular changes. In 1802 its suffragans were theBishoprics ofDijon,Autun,Metz,Nancy, andStrasburg. Under the Restoration,Dijon and Autun were withdrawn from Besançon, the latter becoming themetropolitan of the Sees ofSaint-Dié,Verdun, andBelley. In 1874, after the German conquest, the churches ofMetz and Strasburg were under the direct control of theHoly See.
Local legends attribute the evangelization of Besançon to Sts. Ferréol and Ferjeux, sent thither bySt. Irenæus,Bishop ofLyons. Duchesne hasproved that these legends belong to a chain of narratives forged in the first half of the sixth century and of which the "passion" ofSt. Benignus of Dijon was the initial link. The catalogue of the earliestbishops of Besançon is to be read with caution. The firstbishop known to history is Celidonius (c. 445); other incumbents of thesee were St. Rothadius, amonk atLuxeuil and organizer of the monastic life; St. Donatus;St. Hugh I (1031-67), prince of the empire, the real founder of the city whose markets, commerce, andschools he established;Cardinal de Granvelle (1584-86), the famous minister of Philip II, who built the palace of Besançon; Antoine-Pierre de Grammont (1662-98), who strenuously opposedJansenism and theReformation, strove to uplift theclergy, and, in 1691, transferred to Besançon the University of Dôle; Le Coz (1802-15), former constitutionalbishop whosepersonality provoked in the diocese no little opposition to the Concordat; Cardinal de Rohan-Chabot (1828-33);Cardinal Mathieu (1834-75), who distinguished himself by his defence of the temporal power, and was a member of the "Opposition" at theVatican council. He opposed strenuously in hisdiocese the "simultaneous churches" which sprang up throughout the district of Montbéliard whereProtestants are numerous.
Themonastery ofLuxeuil, founded by St. Columbanus (d. 615), gave to the Diocese of Besançon a series ofsaints. First came the direct successors of St. Columbanus; the Abbot St. Eustasius who founded a celebratedschool in thismonastery; the Abbot St. Valbert who sentmonks to found the Abbeys of St. -Valéry, St. -Omer, and St. -Bertin, and died in 665; the Abbot St. Ingofroid; St. Donatus, who becameBishop of Besançon; andSt. Ansegisus, author of a celebrated collection of capitularies. The Abbey of Lure was founded at the beginning of the seventh century by St. Déicole (Deicolus), or Desle, disciple of St. Columbanus; later itsabbots were princes of the Holy Empire. The Abbey of Baume les Dames, founded in the fifth century and in which Gontran, King ofBurgundy, was buried, was theschool where St. Odo, afterwardsAbbot of Cluny, studied in the tenth century; at the end of the eighth century there was built near it anabbey forBenedictinenuns, members of the nobility. During theRevolution, the superb church of thisabbey was laid waste. Among the othersaints of the Diocese of Besançon may be mentioned thehermit St. Aldegrin (tenth century), andSt. Peter Fourier (1565-1640), one of those who, in the seventeenth century, inaugurated systematiceducation for girls. During theMiddle Ages severalpopes visited Besançon, among themLeo IX whoconsecrated the altar of the old Cathedral of St. Etienne in 1050, and Eugenius III, who, in 1148,consecrated thechurch of St. Jean, the newcathedral. A council was held at Besançon in 1162, presided over byFrederick Barbarossa, in the interest of theAntipope Victor againstPope Alexander III. Guido ofBurgundy who waspope from 1119 to 1123 under the name ofCalixtus II, and theJesuit Nonnotte (1711-93) an adversary of Voltaire, were natives of Besançon. Themiracle wrought through the Sacred Host of Faverney, during a fire in the year 1608, is annually commemorated by elaborate ceremonies. The places ofpilgrimage are: Notre Dame du Chêne at Scey; Notre Dame d'Aigremont; thepilgrimage of St. Pierre ofTarentaise at Cirey-les-Bellevaux, where St. Pierre de Tarentaise died in 1174; Notre Dame des Jacobins at Besançon; and Notre Dame de la Motte at Vesoul. Parts of theCathedral of St. Jean at Besançon were erected as early as the eleventh century.
In 1899 the following institutions were to be found in the diocese: 15 infantschools in Besançon and 35 in Vesoul; 1 deaf-mute institute in Besançon; 3 girls'orphanages in Besançon and 3 in Vesoul; 2 protectories in Besançon; 1 house of correction in Besançon and 1 in Vesoul; 2hospitals and hospices in Besançon and 8 in Vesoul; 12 communities for the care of the sick in their homes in Besançon and 8 in Vesoul; 1 house of retreat in Besançon and 1 in Vesoul; 3 homes for the aged in Besançon; 1infant asylum, 1 boys'orphanage, and 4 gratuitous industrialschools in Vesoul, all conducted bynuns; 1 deaf-mute institute and 1 boys'orphanage in Besançon conducted by brothers.
In 1900 the diocese had the followingreligious orders,Men:Capuchins,Eudists, and Marianists at Besançon, andTrappists at Notre Dame de la Grace de Dieu.Women (purely local orders): Sisters of Charity of Besançon, nursing and teaching, founded in 1799; Sisters of theDivine Providence of Frasne-le-Chateau, teaching, founded in 1780; the Daughters of St. James, nursing sisters with a mother-house at Besançon. At the close of 1905 the Archdiocese of Besançon had 657,773 inhabitants, 60 pastorates, 814 succursalparishes (mission churches), and 97 curacies.
Gallia christiana (1860), XV, 1, 322;Instrumenta, 1-124; Richard,Histoire des dioceses de Besançon et de Saint-Claude (Besançon, 1847-50); Suchet,Notre Dame de Besançon et du departement du Doubs (Besançon, 1892); Bergier,Etude sur l'hymnaire bisontin du cardinal Mathieu, archeveque de Besançon (Besançon, 1886); Duchesne,Fastes episcopaux, 1; Chevalier,Topobibl., 382-384.
APA citation.Goyau, G.(1907).Besançon (Vesontio). InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02525b.htm
MLA citation.Goyau, Georges."Besançon (Vesontio)."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 2.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1907.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02525b.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Susan Birkenseer.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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