Diocese of Gap
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Diocese of Gap is a Roman Catholic territory in south-eastern France. The episcopal see is in Gap. The diocese is suffragan to the archdiocese of Marseille.
The current titular is Jean-Michel di Falco.
[edit] History
Ancient traditions in liturgical books, of which at least one dates from the fourteenth century, state that the first Bishop of Gap was St. Demetrius, disciple of the Apostles and martyrs. Father Victor de Buck in the Acta Sanctorum (October, XI) finds nothing inadmissible in these traditions, while Canon Albanès defends them against M. Roman. Albanès names as bishops of Gap the martyr St. Tigris (fourth century), then St. Remedius (394-419), whom the Abbé Duchesne makes a Bishop of Antibes and who was involved in the struggle between Pope Zosimus and Bishop Proculus of Marseilles, finally St. Constantinus, about 439. According to Duchesne the first historically known bishop is Constantinus, present at the Council of Epaone in 517. The church of Gap had, among other bishops, St. Aregius (or St. Arey, 579-610?), who established at Gap a celebrated literary school and was held in great esteem by St. Gregory the Great; also St. Arnoude (1065-1078), a monk of Trinité de Vendôme, named bishop by pope Alexander II to replace the simoniac Ripert, and who became the patron of the episcopal city.
Suppressed by the Concordat of 1801 and then united to Digne, this diocese was re-established in 1822 comprising, besides the ancient diocese of Gap, a large part of the ancient archdiocese of Embrun. The name of this last metropolitan see, however, has been absorbed in the title of the Archbishop of Aix.
