Roman Catholic Diocese of Geneva

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Geneva (in German Genf, in French Genève) was a Latin Catholic diocese in parts of Switzerland and Savoy (presently in France) from 400 till its 1801 merger into the then Diocese of Chambéry, which later lost its Swiss territory to the present Roman Catholic Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, which adopted the title despite the lack of direct succession.

Geneva, capital of the Swiss Canton of Geneva, situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, first appears in history as a border town, fortified against the Celto-Germanic Helvetii, which the Romans took in 120 BC. In AD 443 it was taken by the Kingdom of Burgundy, and with the latter fell to the Franks in 534. In 888 the town was part of the new Kingdom of Burgundy, and with it was taken over in 1033 by the German Emperor. According to legendary accounts found in the works of Gregorio Leti and Besson, Geneva was Christianised by Dionysius Areopagita and Paracodus, two of the seventy-two disciples, in the time of Domitian. Dionysius then went to Paris and Paracodus became the first Bishop of Geneva, but, according to Gregor Reinhold in the Catholic Encyclopedia, the legend is based on an error which makes St. Lazarus the first Bishop of Geneva, arising out of the similarity between the Latin names Genava (Geneva in Switzerland) and Genua (Genoa in Italy). The so-called Catalogue de St. Pierre, which gives St. Diogenus (Diogenes) as the first Bishop of Geneva, is untrustworthy.

A letter of St. Eucherius to Salvius makes it almost certain that St. Isaac (c. 400) was the first bishop. In 440 St. Salonius appears as Bishop of Geneva; he was a son of St. Eucherius, to whom the latter dedicated his Instructiones'; he took part in the Council of Orange (441) and in those of Vaison (442) and Arles (about 455). He is also thought to be the author of two small commentaries, In parabolas Salomonis and on Ecclesiastics. Little is known about the following Bishops Theoplastus (about 475), to whom St. Sidonius Apollinaris addressed a letter; Dormitianus (before 500), under whom the Burgundian Princess Sedeleuba, a sister of Queen Clotilde, had the remains of the martyr and St. Victor of Solothurn transferred to Geneva, where she built a basilica in his honour; St. Maximus (about 512–41), a friend of Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne and Cyprian of Toulon, with whom he was in correspondence.

...
Wikipedia