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 SAINT-JOHN

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SAINT-JOHN

a special diocese, which with the rest of Savoy became French territory, 14 June, 1860. It is suffragan of Chambery. Gregory of Tours, in his "De Gloria Martyrum", relates how the church of Maurienne, belonging then to the Diocese of Turin, became a place of pilgrimage, after the holy woman Thigris or Thecla, who was a native of Valloires, had brought to it from the East a finger of St. John the Baptist. Saint Gontran. King of Burgundy, took from the Lombards in 574 the vallej's of Suse and Maurienne, and in 576 founded near the shrine a bishopric, which was suffragan of Vienne. Its first bishop was Fel- masius. In 599 Gregory the Great made futile at-

The Cathedral, Saint-Jean-de-Mac

tempts to make Queen Brunehaut listen to the pro- tests of the Bishop of Turin against this foundation. A letter written by John VIII in 878 formally desig- nated the Bishop of Maurienne as suffragan of Tarentaise, but the metropolitans of Vienna con- tinued to claim Maurienne a.s a suffragan see, and under Calli.stus II (1120) they carried their point. Local tradition claims as bishops of Maurienne: St. Emilianus, martyred by the Saracens (736 or 738); St. Odilard, slain by the Saracens (916) together with St. Benedict, Archbishop of Embrun. After the Sara- cens had been driven out, the temporal sovereignty of the Bishop of Maurienne appears to have been very extensive, but there is no proof that such sover- eignty had been recognized since Gontran's time. At the death of Rudolph III, Bishop Thibaut was power- ful enough to join a league against Conrad II of Franconia. The emperor suppressed the See of Maurienne, and gave over its title and po.ssessions to the Bishop of Turin (1038); but this imperial decree was never exffufrvl.

Among the- bishops of Maurienne were: St. Ayroldus (11.32-40j, onr-(a rnonk of the Charterhou,se of Fortes; Louis de La Palud (1441-50), who as Bishop of Lausanne ha/l tak(n an active part at the Council of Basle in favour of the antipope, Felix V, who named him Bishop of Maurienne in 1441; and afterwards cardinal; he wa« confirmed in both appointments by Nicholas V in 1449; .John of Segovia (1451-72), who at the Council of Basle as representative of the King of Aragon had also worked for Felix V, and was appointed by him cardinal in 1441; ten years later Nicholas V gave him the Sec of Maurienne; he is the author of "Gf-sta Concilii Basileensis"; William d'Estouteville (1473-80; was made cardinal in 1439,

and as a pluralist held among other titles those of Maurienne and Rouen; Louis de Gorrevod (1499- 1550) was made cardinal in 1530; Hippolyte d'Este (1560), made cardinal in 1538, acted as legate of Pius IV to the Council of Poissy, and built the famous Villa d'Este at Tivoli; Charles Joseph Fillipa de Martiniana (1757-79), made cardinal in 1778, was the first to whom Bonaparte, after the battle of Marengo, confided his intention of concluding a concordat with Rome; Alexis Billiet (1825-40), made cardinal in 1861. Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, took solemn possession of a canonry in the cathedral of Maurienne in 1564.

Among the saints speciallj^ honoured in, or con- nected with, the diocese are: Saint Aper (Avre), a priest who founded a refuge for pilgrims and the poor in the Village of St. Avre (seventh century); Blessed Thomas, b. at Maurienne, d. in 720, famous for re- building the Abbey of Farfa, of which the third abbot, Lucerius, was also a native of Maurienne; St. Marinus, monk of Chandor, martyred by the Saracens (eighth century); St. Landr^', pastor of Lanslevillard (elev- enth century), drowned in the Arc during one of his apostolic journeys; St. B^nezet, or Benoit de Pont (1165-84), b. at Hermillon in the diocese, and founder of the guild of Fratres Pontifices of Avignon (see Hridge-Building Brotherhood) ; Blessed Cabert or Gabert, disciple of St. Dominic, who preached the (iospel for twenty years in the vicinity of Aiguebelle (thirteenth century). The chief shrines of the diocese are: Notre Dame de Charmaise, near IVIodane, Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle, near St-Jean-de-Maurienne, which dates from the sixteenth century, and Notre Dame de Beaurevers at Montaimon, dating from the seventeenth century. The Sisters of St. Joseph, a nursing and teaching order, with mother-house at St-Jean-de-Maurienne, are a branch of the Congrega- tion of St. Joseph at Puy. At the end of the nine- teenth century, they were in charge of 8 day nurseries and 2 hospitals. In Algeria, the East Indies, and the Argentine they have houses controlled by the mother- house at Maurienne. In 1905 (end of the Concordat), the Diocese of St-Jean-de-Maurienne had 61,466 in- habitants, 10 parishes, 76 auxiliary parishes, and 28 curacies, remunerated by the State.

Gallia christ., nova, XVI (1865), 611-52, and inslr. 289-322; Duchesne, Pastes ipiscopaux, I, 207-10, 233-35; Anoley, Hist, du diocise de Maurienne (S. Jean de Maurienne, 1846); Truchet, Hist, hagiologique du diocise de Maiirienjie (Cham- b6ry, 1867) ; de Mareschal de Luciane, Souveraineti tem- porelle des iviques de Maurienne au moj/en dge in Mhnoires de I'academie des sciences de la Savoie (1892); Pascalein, Le pou- voir temporel des eviques de Maurieiuie in Revue Savoisienne (1899) ; Chevalier, Topo-bibl., 1877-78. GeorgES GoYAU.

Saint-John, Ambrose, Oratorian; b. 1815; d. at

Edgb;iston, Birmingham, 24 May, 1875; son of Henry St. John, descended from the Barons St. John of Bletsoe. He was educated at Westminster School, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M. A., and where he formed his lifelong, intimate friendship with Newman. In 1841 he became curate to Henry Wilberforce, first at Walmer, sub- sequently at East Farlcigh. He then joined Newman at Littlemore which he left, to be received into the Church about a month before Newman's conversion in October, 1845. After a short time spent with New- man at Mary vale he accompanied him to Rome where they were ordained priests. Having become Oratorians they began mission work in Birmingham (1847), removing t« tlie suburb of Edgbaston in 1852. There he devoted himself entirely to zealous missionary labours, taking a leading part in the work of theOratory and its famous school. He was an excellent classical scholar and a remarkable linguist both in Oriental and European tongues. His death was caused by overwork in translating Fessler's book on infalli- bility when Newman's discussion with Gladstone was pending. He was a man of marked individuaUty