The Roman Catholic Diocese of Soissons is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church, in France. The diocese is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Reims and corresponds, with the exception of two hamlets, to the entire Department of Aisne. The current bishop is Hervé Jean Robert Giraud, appointed in February 2008.

History

Traditions make St. Sixtus and St. Sinicius the earliest apostles of Soissons as envoys of St. Peter. St. Crepinus and St. Crepinianus, martyrs, (c. 288) are patrons of the diocese. According to Louis Duchesne, the establishment of a see at Soissons dates from about 300.

The territory of Soissons and Laon played an important political part under the Merovingians. After the death of Clovis (511), Soissons was the capital of one of the four kingdoms into which his states were divided. The kingdom of Soissons, which ceased to exist in 558, when Clotaire I reunited all the Frankish states, came into being again in 561 when the death of Clotaire led to a redivision of the territory. It finally disappeared in 613 when the Frankish lands were once more reunited under Clotaire II.

It was re-established by the Concordat of 1802 as suffragan of Paris, but in 1821 it became suffragan of Reims. It consists of

• all the ancient Diocese of Soissons, except the civil district of Compiègne, which went to the Diocese of Beauvais
• all of the Diocese of Laon, except two parishes, which went to Reims;
• that portion of Vermandois which formerly belonged to the Diocese of Noyon
• a few parishes which formerly belonged to Cambrai, Meaux, Troyes, Reims.

Bishop of Soissons

The Bishop of Soissons as senior suffragan of Reims had the privilege during a vacancy of the metropolitan see to replace the archbishop at the ceremony of anointing a King of France. The Bishop of Laon ranked as Duke and peer from the twelfth century. As second ecclesiastical peer, he had the privilege of holding the ampulla during the anointing of the king.

Abbeys

The Abbey of St-Médard at Soissons, founded in 557 by Clotaire I to receive the body of St. Médard, was looked upon as the chief Benedictine abbey in France; it held more than two hundred and twenty fiefs. Hilduin, abbot (822–30) in 826 obtained from Pope Eugene II relics of St. Sebastian and St. Gregory the Great; he caused the relics of St. Godard and St. Remi to be transferred to the abbey; he rebuilt the church which was consecrated 27 August, 841, in the presence of Charles the Bald and seventy-two prelates. The king bore the body of St. Médard into the new basilica.

The church was pulled down but rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1131 by Pope Innocent II, who granted those visiting the church indulgences known as "St. Médard's pardons". In this abbey Louis the Pious was imprisoned in 833, and there he underwent a public penance. Among the abbots of St. Médard's are: St. Arnoul, who in 1081 became Bishop of Soissons; St. Gerard (close of the eleventh century); Cardinal de Bernis, made commendatory abbot of St. Médard in 1756.

The Benedictine Abbey of Note Dame de Soissons was founded in 660 by Ebroin and his wife Leutrude. The Cistercian abbey of Longpont, founded in 1131, counted among its monks the theologian Pierre Cantor, who died in 1197, and Blessed John de Montmirail (1167–1217), who abandoned the court of Phillipe-Auguste in order to become a monk.

The abbey of St. Vincent at Laon was founded in 580 by Queen Brunehaut. Among its earlier monks were: St. Gobain, who, through love of solitude, retired to a desert place near Oise and was slain there; St. Chagnoaldus, afterward Bishop of Laon, who wished to die in his monastery; St. Humbert, first abbot of Maroilles in Hainaut. The abbey adopted the rule of St. Benedict. It was reformed in 961 by Blessed Malcaleine, a Scotchman, abbot of St. Michael at Thierache, and in 1643 by the Benedictines of St. Maur. Among the abbots of St. Vincent were: St. Gerard (close of the eleventh century), who wrote the history of St. Adelard, abbot of Corde; Jean de Nouelles (d. 1396), who wrote a history of the world, and began the cartulary of his monastery. The Abbey of St. John at Laon was founded in 650 by St. Salaberga, who built seven churches there; she was its first abbess; St. Austruda (d. 688) succeeded her. In 1128 the abbey became a Benedictine monastery. The Abbey of Nogent sous Coucy was founded in 1076 by Albéric, Lord of Coucy. Among its abbots were St. Geoffroy (end of the eleventh century) and the historian Guibert de Nogent, who died in 1112, and whose autobiography, "De Vita Sua" is one of the most interesting documents of the century. Under the title "Gesta Die per Francos" he wrote an account of the First Crusade.

The Abbey of Cuissy in the Diocese of Laon was founded in 1116 by Blessed Lucas de Roucy, dean of Laon, and followed the rule of Premonstratensians. In the Diocese of Soissons, the Premonstratensians had the abbeys: Chartreuve, Valsery, Saint-Yved de Braine, Villers Cotterets, Val Secret, Vauchrétien, Lieurestauré.

The portion of the ancient Diocese of Noyon within the jurisdiction of the present Diocese of Soissons includes the town, St-Quentin (Augusta Vermanduorum) where St-Quentin was martyred under Diocletian. It was the chief town of a diocese until 532, when St. Médard, the titular, removed the see to Noyon. Abbott Fulrade built the Church of St-Quentin in the eighth century and Pope Stephan II blessed it (816). From the time of Charles Martel until 771, and again from 844 the abbots of St-Quentin were laymen and counts of Vermandois. The abbey church became the Saint-Quentin Basilica, built from the 12th to 15th centuries. During the Middle Ages a distinct type of religious architecture sprang up in Soissons; Eugéne Lefèvre Pontalis has recently brought out a work dealing with its artistic affiliations. After investigation Canon Bauxin concludes that the cathedral of Laon, as it exists, is not the one consecrated in 1114 and visited by Innocent II in 1132; that was the restored ancient Romanesque building; the present one was built 1150–1225. Louyis d'Outremer (936), Robert the Pious (996), Philip I (1959) were anointed in Notre Dame de Laon; in the twelfth century Hermann, Abbot of St. Martin's of Tournai, wrote a volume on the miracles of Notre Dame of Laon. The Hôtel-Dieu of Laon, once known as Hôtellerie Notre Dame, was founded in 1019 by the Laon chapter. The Hôtel-Dieu of Château Thierry was founded in 1304 by Jeanne, wife of Philip the Fair.

Saints

Besides the saints already mentioned, the following are specially honoured as connected with the religious history of the diocese: St. Montanus, hermit, who foretold the birth of St. Remi (fifth century); St. Marculfus, Abbot of Nanteuil (sixth century) in the Diocese of Coutances, whose relics, transferred to Corbeny in the Diocese of Laon, were visited by the kings of France who, after their anointing at Reims, were wont to go to the tomb of St. Marculfus to cure the king's evil; St. Sigrada, mother of St. Leodagarius, exiled by Ebroïn to the monastery of Notre Dame at Soissons (seventh century); St. Hunegundis, a nun from the monastery of Homblières (d. c. 690); St. Grimonia, an Irishwoman martyred at La Chapelle (date uncertain); St. Boetianus (Bosan), husband of St. Salaberga, and St. Balduinus, martyr, his son (seventh century); St. Voël, or Vodoalus, hermit (d. c. 720).

Among the natives of the diocese may be mentioned: Pierre Ramus (1515–72), Jean Racine (1639–99), La Fontaine (1621–95), Dom Luc d'Achery (1609–1685), Charlevoix (1683–1761), Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794).

The chief pilgrimages are: Notre Dame de Liesse, a shrine founded in the thirteenth century, and replaced at the end of the fourteenth century by the present church; Notre Dame de Paix at Fieulaine, which dates back to 1660. Before the application of the Congregations Law (1901), there were in the Diocese of Soissons Jesuits, Trinitarians, and several teaching congregations of brothers. Some congregations of women had their origin in the diocese: the Nursing and Teaching Sisters of the Child Jesus, with mother-house at Soissons, founded in 1714 by the Madame Brulard de Genlis; the Sisters of Notre Dame de Bon Secours, a nursing and teaching order, founded in 1806, with mother-house at Charly; Sisters of Notre Dame, nursing and teaching order, with mother-house at Saint-Erme, founded in 1820 by the Abbé Chrétien; the Franciscan nuns of the Sacred Heart, a nursing order, founded in 1867, with mother-house at St-Quentin; the Servants of the Heart of Jesus, of whom there are two branches, the "Marys" who lead a contemplative life, and the "Marthas" who nurse the sick; they were founded at Strasburg in 1867, and brought to St-Quentin after the war of 1870–1.