Bishopric of Chalon-sur-Saône

The former French Catholic diocese of Chalon-sur-Saône (Lat.: dioecesis Cabilonensis) existed until the French Revolution. After the Concordat of 1801, it was suppressed, and its territory went to the diocese of Autun. Its see was Chalon Cathedral.

Julius Caesar first mentions Cabillonum in his Gallic Wars. Later it is said to be an oppidum or castrum. It was a civitas of the Burgundians. Chalon was not made a city, separate and distinct from Autun, until the fifth century, and it is probably as a consequence of this development that a bishop, Paul (I.), first appears. The first Christians in the neighborhood are said to have been a priest of Lyon named Marcellus, who was imprisoned by the Roman government along with other Christians of Lyon and their bishop, Pothinus, ca. 177 in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180). The rest were executed, but Marcellus, eschewing martyrdom, managed to break out of prison and escape north along the Saône river, first to Tournus and then to Chalon. There he was taken in by a pagan, whom he converted to Christianity. Leaving Chalon, Marcellus encountered the provincial governor, who invited him to a celebration in his residence. When the governor began the celebration with an appropriate sacrifice, Marcellus excused himself on the grounds that he was a Christian; the governor ordered him to participate in the sacrifice, and Marcellus refused. This constituted refusal to obey a legitimate order, and, since prayer to the members of the Imperial Cult was involved, refusal constituted treason (laesa majestas) as well. The governor is said to have had Marcellus buried up to his waist on the bank of the Saône, where he died three days later. The method of death may be shocking, but Marcellus was a prison escapee, who refused a patriotic sacrifice, and disobeyed a Roman governor. Christians made him into a martyr.

Bishop Flavius is credited with the foundation of the monastery of S. Pierre, just north of Chalon, in 584. It was destroyed by the Arabs in the 8th century, and rebuilt by Bishop Gerboldus, ca. 887 as a Benedictine monastery. The monastery was attacked by the Huguenots in 1562 and despoiled, and the monks were driven out. King Charles IX turned the monastic buildings into a fortress in 1566 and paid the monks an annual pension in recompense.

Bishop Lupus (ca. 600), in a Life otherwise devoid of facts, is credited with founding a school for the study of the scriptures. By the time of Bishop Guillaume de Bellevesure (1294 – 1301), schools were to be found not just in Chalon, but also in towns and villages of the diocese.

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