Ancient Diocese of Embrun

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Embrun was located in southwestern France, in the mountains of the Maritime Alps, on a route that led from Gap by way of Briançon to Turin. It had as suffragans the Diocese of Digne, Diocese of Antibes and Grasse, Diocese of Vence, Diocese of Glandèves, Diocese of Senez and Diocese of Nice. Its see was the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame in Embrun.

The former French Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Embrun was suppressed after the French Revolution. It was replaced, under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) by a diocese which had the same boundaries of the civil departement in which it was located. The diocese was called 'Haute-Alpes', with its center at Gap.

When the Diocese of Gap was re-established in 1822 it comprised, besides the ancient Diocese of Gap, a large part of the ancient archdiocese of Embrun. The name of the metropolitan see of Embrun, however, had been absorbed in the title of the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence and Arles, until 2007. In 2008, the title of Embrun was reattached to the Diocese of Gap by papal decree of Pope Benedict XVI.

Tradition ascribes the evangelization of Embrun to Saints Nazarius and Celsus, martyrs under emperor Nero. Gregory of Tours states that they were martyred at Embrun. Their bodies, however, were discovered in a cemetery in Milan by Saint Ambrose. They were also drowned at Trier, on orders of the Emperor Nero. Their entire story is without historical foundation, and a mass of contradictions and improbabilities. According to another tradition, the first Bishop of Embrun, Saint Marcellus, was such a successful preacher that, by the end of his episcopacy, there was not a single pagan left in the diocese.

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