The Archdiocese of Chambéry, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, and Tarentaise (; ) is a complex of three jurisdictions of the Catholic Church in France that have, since 1966, been united in the person of a single prelate who is titled Archbishop of Chambéry, Bishop of Maurienne, and Bishop of Tarentaise. All three are suffragans of the Archdiocese of Lyon. The archepiscopal see of Chambéry is Chambéry Cathedral. The complex encompasses the department of Savoie, in the Region of Rhône-Alpes.

Though sometimes referred to as a single archdiocese, the three jurisdictions are distinct, and the prelate appointed as their head is installed in each in a separate ceremony.

History

In 1467, Pope Paul II erected a chapter of canons in the ducal chapel in the Chateau de Chambéry,Ulysse Chevalier, Le Saint-Suaire de Turin: histoire d'une relique, , (Paris: Ed. de l'art et l'autel, 1902), p. 17: "Cette pièce, dont on a le texte complet d'après les archives de Turin, est absolument muette à l'égard du saint Suaire ." Complete Latin text in de Jussieu, pp. 161-167. built for the relic which became known as the Shroud of Turin (Santo Sudario) by Amadeus IX of Savoy,Laurent Ripart, "Le Saint Suaire, les Savoie et Chambéry (1453–1515)," , in: Cozzo, Paolo; Merlotti, Andrea' Nicolotti, The Shroud at Court. History, Usages, Places and Images of a Dynastic Relic, (Leiden-Boston: E.J. Brill, 2019), pp. 57-74. and the Duchess Yolande of France,Laura Gaffuri, "The First Exhibitions of the Shroud in Piedmont and Yolande of Valois," in: Cozzo & Merlotti, The Shroud at Court. History, Usages, Places and Images of a Dynastic Relic, pp. 89–103. The Chapter of twelve canons, headed by a dean, a cantor, and a treasurer, was directly subject to the Holy See. Pope Paul's successor Pope Sixtus IV, on 21 May 1474, issued a bull, "Ex supernae providentia", which assigned the territory of the deanery of Savoy in the diocese of Grenoble to the Chapter of the chapel of the chateau. He also created a new dignity in the Chapter, that of the archdeacon.Chevalier, p. 17: "Rien non plus de l'insigne relique dans les bulles de Sixte IV des 15 septembre et 1er octobre 1472 et du 21 mai 1474, qui concernent les dignités de la nouvelle fondation." Hauréau, Gallia christiana XVI, p. 218. The bull of 1472, "Praevalens auctoritas", is printed by de Jussieu, pp. 168-171.. The bull "Ex supernae providentia" is printed by de Jussieu, pp. 176-184.

The purported relic known as the Holy Shroud of Christ was kept at Chambéry until 1598, in which year Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, had it transported to Turin, where St. Charles Borromeo wished to venerate it.

On 6 June 1515, Pope Leo X published a papal bull making the deanery an archbishopric, and giving Duke Charles of Savoy the right to nominate the archbishop, subject to papal approval.De Jussieu, pp. 222-225. But Francis I of France, the Archbishop of Lyon, and the Bishop of Grenoble all objected, and on 22 September 1516, Pope Leo was obliged to cancel the establishment of Chambéry as an archdiocese.De Jussieu, pp. 225-229. It was only in 1775 that this deanery was separated from the Diocese of Grenoble by Pope Pius VI, who, in 1779, created it a bishopric with the see at Chambéry.Pius VI, bull "Universa Dominici Gregis", 17 August 1779, in: Bullarii Romani Continuatio, , Vol. 6 (Rome: Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae 1843), pp. 129-135.

The Duchy of Savoy, whose sovereign was also the King of Sardinia, had thenceforth four bishoprics: Chambéry, the diocese of Saint-Jean de Maurienne, the diocese of Tarentaise, and Geneva (whose bishop, excluded from the city of Geneva by the Protestants, resided in the city of Annecy.The diocese of Annecy was not established until 1822.

French Revolution In October, 1792, the commissaries to the Convention formed the constitutional "Diocese of Mont-Blanc", with Annecy as the see and Lyon as the metropolitan. The four Savoyard dioceses were suppressed. The election of a new constitutional bishop was ordered.Paul Pisani, Répertoire biographique de l'épiscopat constitutionnel (1791-1802), , (Paris: A. Picard 1907), pp. 306-310. On 8 February 1793, they published a proclamation concerning the religious affairs of the constitutional diocese, which was in fact the local application of the provisions of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 1789. Each member of the clergy was required to swear an oath to the Constitution or be deported from French territory; an exception was made for clerics over sixty years of age. Bishop Conseil refused the oath. He was 77, and therefore escaped deportation, but was placed under house arrest in his episcopal palace, where he died on 29 September 1793.Billiet, pp. 53-55. Unaware of the bishop's death, Pope Pius VI wrote a letter on 5 October 1793, commiserating with and encouraging the cathedral Chapter of Chambéry in their sufferings, and warning them of the dangers of schism.Augustin Theiner, Documents inédits relatifs aux affaires religieuses de la France, 1790 à 1800, , Vol. 1 (Paris: Didot 1857), pp. 202-203.

Under severe pressure from First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte,Pius VII, Bullarii Romani continuatio, , Tomus decimus primus (Volume 11), (Rome: ex typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, 1849), pp. 245-249, at p. 245 § 2 "Hae fuerunt causae, quae Nos superioribus mensibus conventionem inter hanc apostolicam Sedem, et primum consulem reipublicae Gallicanae ineundamm impulerunt, eae eaedem cogunt nunc ad coetera illa progredi...." Pope Pius VII issued the bull "Qui Christi Domini vices" on 29 November 1801. The bull first abolished all the metropolitan archdioces and dioceses in France, and then recreated fifty of them, arranged in ten metropolitan ecclesiastical districts; the others were suppressed. In the metropolitanate of Lyon, the pope created suffragan dioceses of Mende, Grenoble, Valence, and Chambéry.Bullarii Romani continuatio,, pp. 245-249, at p. 247 § 8: "ecclesiam archiepiscopalem Lugdunensem, et ecclesias episcopales Mimatensem, Grationopolitanam, Vanentinensem, et Camberiensem, quas ei in suffraganeas assignamus...." Karmin, p. 7.

The Concordat of 1802 created a Diocese of Chambéry, and suppressed the Diocese of Geneva, annexing its territory to the new Diocese of Chambéry.J. M. Lavanchy (1894), Le diocèse de Genève (partie de Savoie) pendant la Révolution française, , Volume II, pp. 263-272. Pius VII, bull "Qui Christi Domini," in: Bullarii Romani Continuatio Volume XI (Rome: Camera Apostolica 1846), pp. 245-249, § 6. Chambéry was made a suffragan of the archdiocese of Lyon.Billiet, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique du diocèse de Chambéry, pp. 385-388.

Restoration The Bull "Beati Petri," signed by Pope Pius VII on 17 July 1817, made Chambéry, which had been assigned to the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861) by the Congress of Vienna, the seat of an archdiocese, with the diocese of Aosta as a suffragan.Bullarii Romani continuatio, , Tomus decimus quartus (Volume 14), (Rome: ex typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, 1849), pp. 356-357, § 36.

The canton of Geneva had also been declared independent of France, and had allied itself with several Swiss cantons. On 20 September 1819, Pope Pius VII signed the bull "Inter Multiplices", which removed the territory of the former diocese of Geneva and assigned it to the diocese of Lausanne. The title of "Bishop of Geneva", however, remained with the archbishops of Chambéry.Karmin, pp. 19, 256-263.

Bishop Alexis Billiet (1840–1873) held a diocesan synod in the chapel of the seminary on 20–22 September 1841. Its constitutions were published,Alexis Billiet, Constitutions et instructions synodales du diocèse de Chambéry: publiées au synode tenu dans la chapelle du Séminaire de Chambéry, les 20, 21 et 22 septembre 1841, , Chambéry: Puthold 1842.

The Dioceses of Annecy (re-established in 1822), Saint-Jean-Maurienne, and Tarentaise (in 1825), soon also became suffragans of Chambéry.

In 1860, the French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) agreed to allow France to annex the duchy of Savoy, including Chambéry, St.Jean de Maurienne, Annecy, Tarentaise, and Nice.Patrick Keyes O'Clery, The Making of Italy, 1856-1870 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1892), pp. 112-117. This created an anomaly, from the point of view of national governments, that the Diocese of Aosta in the Kingdom of Sardinia had been a suffragan of the archbishop of Chambéry, in France, since 1819. Napoleon III therefore petitioned Pope Pius IX to adjust the borders of dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces, making Aosta a suffragan of the archdiocese of Turin. The pope did so, with bad grace,"Nos propterea qui Catholicae Ecclesiae prosperitatem, ac christianae plebis tranquillitatem Apostolica sollicitudine procurantes juxta temporum necessitatem et aetatum considerationem immutare haud detrectamus quae ad dioeceseum aptius conformanda limina pro faciliori illarum regimine et gubernio in Domino expedire deprehendimus...." The pope's tenuous grip on the papal states was being supported with French troops, while it was being assailed by Piedmontese troops and Garibaldi. James MacCaffrey, History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century (1789-1908) (Dublin: M.H. Gill and Son, 1909), pp. 425-430. on 1 December 1862.Bulletin des lois de l'Empire. , Partie principale, Volume 27 (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1864), pp. 211-218. (Latin text of the bull, with French translation)

On 26 April 1966, Pope Paul VI issued the apostolic constitution "Animorum Bonum", in which he combined the dioceses of Maurienne and Tarantaise with the archdiocese of Chambéry, aeque personaliter; each diocese maintained its individual and distinct existence, but the archbishop was the bishop of all three dioceses at the same time. This was intended to be a permanent arrangement.Acta Apostolicae Sedis Vol. 58 (Città del Vaticano 1966), pp. 625-626: "Maurianensem et Tarantasiensem dioeceses archidioecesi Chamberiensi aeque principaliter unimus, ita scilicet ut unus idemque Antistes tribus praesit Ecclesiis sitque simul Archiepiscopus Chamberiensis atque Episcopus Maurianensis et Tarantasiensis. Hac vero ratione, minime exstinctio dioecesibus, unaquaeque Ecclesia suum habebit cathedrale templum Canonicorumque collegium, et in consilio archidioecesano partem habebit gravitati consentaneam ad negotia quod attinet uniuscuiusque dioecesis propria...."

In June 2002, the synodial assembly authorized the regrouping of 360 parishes into 47 "ensembles paroissiaux."Archdiocese de Chambéry, "Un peu d'histoire;" retrieved: 18 April 2024.

On 16 December 2002 the Archdiocese of Chambéry became a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Lyon and ceased to be a Metropolitan archbishopric.

Religious Institutions The Cistercian Abbey of Hautecombe, founded in 1135, is one of the burial places of the House of Savoy.Claudius Blanchard, Histoire de l'abbaye d'Hautecombe en Savoie, , (Chambéry: F. Puthod, 1875). The church of Notre-Dame de Myans (antedating the twelfth century),Notre-Dame de Myans (Diocèse de Chambéry.), , Chambéry: Puthod 1856, pp. 1-11. where Francis de Sales officiated; and Notre-Dame de l'Aumone at Rumilly (thirteenth century), whither Francis I of France went as a pilgrim, are still places of pilgrimage.

The Sisters of St. Joseph, an order devoted to teaching and charitable work, established a house, which became a mother-house, at Chambéry in 1812.Leon Bouchage, Chroniques de la Congregation des Soeurs de Saint-Joseph de Chambéry, (Chambéry: Imprimerie générale Savoisienne 1911) [Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Savoie 4e série, Tome 12], pp. 163-186.

Bishop 1780–1793 Michel ConseilConseil was appointed in the papal consistory of 20 March 1780. He died a prisoner of the French revolution on 29 September 1793. Ritzler & Sefrin Hierarchia catholica VI, p. 162 with note 2.

Archbishops