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 CHRYSOPOLIS

743

CHUR

eration of St. Chrysogonus in the Roman church that bears lus name. According to this legend, Chryso- gonus, at first a functionary of the vicarius UrbU, was the Christian teacher of Anastasia, daughter of the noble Roman Pnetextatus. Being thrown into prison during the persecution of Diocletian, he comforted by his letters the severely afflicted Anastasia. By order of Diocletian, Chrysogonus was brought before the emperor at Aquileia, condemned to death, and be- headed. His corpse, throw n into the sea. was washed ashore and buried by the aged priest, Zoilus. In the legend the death of the saint is placed on the 23rd of November. In the actual Roman martyrology his feast is celebrated on 24 November; by the Greeks on 16 April.

Surius (ed.), Ada 8, I sneiorum. in Vita; Sane

torum, XII, 313 sqq.; Mombritius (ed.), Sarutuarium, I, 200 sqq.; Melaplira.ili a, in P. <,. CXVI, ">73 sqq.; Dufourcq, Elude $ur Ees Qesta Martyrum romains ( Paris, 19001, 121; Al- i-akii, Hittoire cU (Paris, 1890), IV, 372- Maruo-

chi, Basiliquea et ifflisea de Home (Rome, 1902), 452 aqq.

J. P. KlRSCH.

Chrysopolis, a titular see of Roman Arabia, not to be confounded with Chrysopolis (to-day Scutari), opposite Constantinople, which latter place was never a see. Our Chrysopolis was suffragan to Bostra in Arabia. It does not figure in Hierocles nor in Georgius Cyprius; perhaps it had a native name which has not been identified. Its name is, however, found in the "Notitise episcopatuum" of Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch in the sixth century. (See Echos d'Orient, X, May. 1907.) One Greek bishop is known, John, present at Chalcedon in 451 (Lequien. II. 867). Seven Latin titulars are known from 1207 to 1648 (Lequien, III, 1307; Eubel, I, 193 and 191, note 1; II. 143).

S. Vailhe.

Chur (anciently Curia Rh.etorum, in Ital. Coira, Fr. Coire, in the local Romance language Cuera), Diocese of (Curiensis ), comprises at present the

View of Chur

Swiss Cantons of Graubunden (Grisons), Glarus, Zurich, Unterwalden, and 1'ri. as well as the little Principality of Lichtenstein. The city of Chur, the residence of the bishop and capital of the Canton of Graubunden, is very ancient, having once been a Roman fortified camp. Its present population is about 10,000, of which number one-third are Catho- lics.

The first mention of a Bishop of Chur (St. Asimo) is at the Synod of Milan, as early as 151 (Mansi, IV, 141). The Rt. Lev. John Fidelia Battaglia, conse- crated 1 March, 1889, is the ninety-sixth Bishop of Chur. The see was at first suffragan to that of Milan, but after the treaty of Verdun (843) it became suf- fragan to Mainz. In consequence of political changes it became, in 1803, immediately subject to the Holy

See. According to local traditions, the first Bishop of Chur was St. Lucius, a reputed Kingof Britain, who is said to have died a martyr at Chur about the year 171). and whose relics are preserved in the cathedral. St. Lucius is venerated as the principal patron of the diocese. (Seed. Mayer, "St.Luzi bei Chur", Lindau, 1.876.) The country had to pass through very severe struggles for the true faith. Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards after him, attempted to introduce Arianism in the sixth and seventh cen- turies. During the dispute between Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III, Bishop Egino of Chur sided with the emperor, and was rewarded with the dignity of Prince of the Empire (1170). In later times the bishops were also temporal lords of the city, and sev- eral of them were better warriors than pastors. The struggles of Switzerland for liberty in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and, later, the secret preach- ing of Zwingli and Calvin, did great harm to the dio- cese, especially as the Catholic clergy neglected the instruction of the people. The Reformation was publicly proclaimed at Chur in 1524, and the two Catholic churches of St. Martin and St. Regula were given over to the Protestants, who retain possession of them to this day. The bishop fled, and his admin- istrator, Abbot Tbeodor Schlegel, was publicly be- headed (1 January, 1529). Bishop Thomas Planta, a friend of St. Charles Borromeo, tried, but without success, to suppress Protestantism. He died, prob- ably poisoned, 5 May, 1565. (See Camenisch," Carlo Borromeo und die Gegenreform im Veltlin", 1901.) Twenty years later St. Charles sent the Capuchins into the endangered region, but Bishop Peter II (de Rascher) refused to admit them. His successor, Bishop John V (Flugi d'Aspermont, 1601-27), a saintly and courageous man, endeavoured to restore the Catholic religion, but was compelled to flee three times (1607, 1612, and 1617), and for several years a bloody war was waged bet ween the Cat holies and the I 'nit est ants. Finally, the newly erected Congrega- tion of Propaganda commissioned the Capuchins to save the Catholic Faith among the people (1621 i. The first Capuchin superior of the mission was St. Fide] is of Sigmaringen, who. on his way from Sewis to ( rrusch, a little north of Chur, was slain (24 April, 1622) by peasants whom the sermons of the Protes- tant preachers had wrought tip to a fury. Some relics of this martyr an' preserved in the cathedral at Chur. A second mission, that of Misocco and Calanca, in the southern par) of the diocese, was en- trusted to the Capuchins in 1635. These two mis- sions (Rhaetise and Mesauci) are at present prefec- tures Apostolic under the care of Italian Capuchins, and the prefects reside at the two cities of < Micrvatz

and Cama, both in the Canton of Grisons.

Several holy and extraordinary men have con- tributed to the splendour of the Diocese of Chur. Four of its bishops — St. Asimo (c. 450), St. Valen- tinian (530-48), St. Ursicinus (d. 760), an. I St. Adal- bert ( 1 151 -60) — are honoured as saints; St. Sigisbeii llourished about the year 600, St. Pirminua a century later; St. Florian, whom the diocese li:is chosen as its second patron, lived in the ninth century, the hermit St. Ceroid in the tenth. The Capuchin Theodosius Florentini, vicar-general from I860 till his death (15 February, 1N65), was a very distinguished mission- ary; in 1S52 he erected the Hospital of the Cross at Chur; before this he had already laid the foundations of two female religious congregations, one for the in- M i in Hon of children, the other for the care of the sick. Chur is the birthplace of the painter Angelina Kautf- 111:111.

The cathedral of Chur. which was begun by Bishop Tello (758-73), has a highly interesting crypt: it is built in Romanesque style, and contains remarkable

paintings by Dun-rand Holbein. \ tiding to the

" Kirchlichcs Handlexicoii " 1 Munich, 1906) the dio-