The Diocese of Annecy (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France, located 26 miles (42km) south of Geneva. Saint-Gingolph VS, a town in the Swiss canton of Valais, is also part of the diocese. Originally erected in 1822, after the Concordat as a suffragan (ecclesiastical subordinate) of the archdiocese of Chambéry, the diocese of Annecy is composed of the entirety of the department of Haute-Savoie in the Region of Rhône-Alpes.
On 8 December 2002, the archdiocese of Chambéry was demoted to the rank of simple diocese, and along with its suffragan dioceses was transferred to the metropolitan Archdiocese of Lyon.
The current bishop of Annecy is Yves Le Saux, appointed in 2022.
As of 2015 there was one priest for every 3,279 Catholics; as of 2022, there was one priest for every 5028 Catholics.
History From 1535 to 1801 the bishops of Geneva, exiled by the Reformation from Geneva, lived at Annecy. The canons of the cathedral Chapter of Geneva were also forced to migrate to Annecy, Francis de Sales was Bishop of Geneva, living in Annecy, from 1602 to 1622.
Seminary Bishop Juste Guérin of Geneva (1639–1645) attempted to improve the quality of his clergy by instituting a seminar at Annecy for candidates for ordination lasting ten days. Bishop Jean d’Arenthon d’Alex (1661–1695) attempted to create a real seminary, construction of which began in 1681, and was completed in 1688;Nestor Albert, p. 345. it was intended for persons who had already completed their basic training in philosophy and theology; its course was to last ten months. He also established quarterly retreats at the seminary, and made attendance a requirement for any priest to receive a license to hear confessions.Baud & Binz (1985), pp. 138-139.
During his episcopate, Bishop de Thiollaz ordained 186 new priests; Rey ordained 258; Rendu ordained 675.Baud & Binz (1985), pp. 212-213.
Thiollaz Claude-François de Thiollaz had studied the humanities and theology in Annecy, at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, and at the Sorbonne, obtaining his licenciate from the Sorbonne. His doctorate in theology was granted on 26 May 1781.Nestor Albert, I, pp. 46-47, 49. Bishop Jean-Pierre Biord of Geneva (1764−1785) named him to a vacant canonry in the Chapter of Geneva in 1778, and he was installed by proxy on 19 April 1779. Canon Thiollaz was appointed grand-vicar by Bishop Biord on 16 February 1780.Nestor Albert, I, pp. 47-48. Bishop Biord died on 17 February 1785,Ritzler & Sefrin VI, p. 224, note 3, give the date 14 March. and the Chapter elected as vicar capitular during the sede vacante, which lasted over two years, all five of the bishop's vicars general, including Claude-François de Thiollaz.Nestor Albert, I, p. 53. A successor to Bishop Biord, Canon Jpseph-Marie Paget, Provost of the cathedral Chapter, was nominated by Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia on 3 January 1787, and approved by Pope Pius VI on 23 April.Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica VI, p. 224 with note 4. On 13 June 1787, Canon de Thiollaz was installed as Provost of Geneva; he had been nominated by the new bishop, and was approved by Pope Pius VI, who held the right of appointment.Nestor Albert, I, pp. 67, 70.
French occupation In 1792, Savoy was invaded and occupied by forces of the French National Assembly. On 22 September 1792, French troops took Chambéry, and on 26 September Annecy.Burdet, pp. 290-291. Bishop Paget of Geneva-Annecy was considered by the French administration to be a French bishop, because 107 of his parishes were in French territory.Nestor Albert, I, p. 111. He was therefore ordered to swear the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy or face deportation to French Guyana. Bishop Paget fled on 22 September 1792, naming Provost Thiollaz as his administrator.Nestor Albert, I, p. 112. Commissioners were sent from Paris imposed a revolutionary government, and on 8 March 1793 issued an ecclesiastical decree which followed metropolitan French policy by reducing the number of dioceses from 5 to 1, to be centered in Annecy and called the diocese of Mont-Blanc.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, p. 124. Paul Pisani, Répertoire biographique de l'épiscopat constitutionnel (1791-1802), , (Paris: A. Picard 1907), p. 306. Four of the five bishops then in office went into exile, including Paget, the bishop of Geneva; the fifth was too aged. Paget fled to Swiss territory, then to Turin in Savoy, and finally took up residence in Pinerolo. When the French seized Savoy, in the Veneto, at Verona.Mugnier, pp. 284, 298-299. Electors, who did not have to be Catholic or even Christian, were to meet and elect a bishop, who would be required to take the usual oaths to the French Constitution. Papal participation in any form was forbidden. These arrangements were uncanonical and schismatic.Pisani, Répertoire biographique de l'épiscopat constitutionnel (1791-1802), pp. 19-24; 306.
On 26 October 1792, the "National Assembly of the Allobroges" ordered the confiscation of all ecclesiastical property, whether regular or secular.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, p. 114. In Article 13 of the Concordat of 1801, it was agreed that the Church would make no efforts to recover the properties which had been seized: Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, pp. 259-260. On 13 February 1793, the Provost of Geneva, Claude-François de Thiollaz, and all the canons of the cathedral Chapter, issued a manifesto, protesting each and every violation of civil and canon law on the part of the Commissioners of the French government.Nestor Albert, I, pp. 125-128. On 19 February, Thiollaz was arrested, sent to Chambéry for trial, convicted and sentenced to transportation to French Guyana. He was sent to Belley, then to Lyon, then to Marseille, then to Toulouse, and finally to the Fort de Hâ at Bordeaux.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, pp. 132-134. Burdet, pp. 152-154. A few weeks later, thanks to a change in political attitude of Bordeaux to the National Assembly in Paris, Thiollaz was released, and he took ship for Dover and then Bruxelles; by way of the Rhine, he reached Mainz and finally Lausanne on 8 August 1793.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, pp. 156-157. King Louis XVI had been executed on 21 January 1793.
The 460 electors of the new Constitutional Church met in Annecy on 17 February 1793, but were unable to reach a majority for any candidate until 6 March 1793, when 241 electors chose a professor from the college of Annecy, François-Thérèse Panisset.Mugnier, pp. 283-297. He was consecrated in Lyon on 7 April by three constitutional bishops.Pisani, pp. 306-309. He resigned his priesthood on 5 February 1794.Burdet, pp. 179, 283.
From March 1799 to July 1800, Provost de Thiollez was in Venice, evading French agents. On 21 March 1800, he participated along with Bishop Paget in the coronation of Pope Pius VII.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, p. 217, 234.
Under the rule of the First Consul Napoleon, the Canton of Geneva was annexed to France. Writing from exile in Turin on 21 November 1801, the bishop of Geneva, Joseph-Marie Paget, at the request of Pope Pius VII, submitted his resignation as bishop.Jh. M. Lavanchy, Le diocèse de Genève (partie de Savoie) pendant la Révolution française. Volume II, pp. 263. Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, pp. 236-237. The pope, then, in fulfilment of earlier agreements with the French government, suppressed the Diocese of Geneva, and annexed its territory to the new Diocese of Chambéry.Jh. M. Lavanchy, 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. The first bishop of Chambéry was René des Monstiers de Mérinville (1802–1805),Mugnier, pp. 301-302. who had been bishop of the suppressed diocese of Dijon; he appointed Thiollez as the Provost of the new cathedral Chapter of Chambéry.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, pp. 243-250.
On 18 and 19 November 1804, Chambéry was visited by Pope Pius VII, who was on his way to Paris for the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French. Bishop de Mérinville took the opportunity to request the pope to allow him to resign his office of bishop of Chambéry, as a burden too heavy for his abilities. The request was granted, and implemented on 5 February 1805.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, p. 267. The new bishop, Irénée-Yves de Solle (1805–1821), reappointed Thiollez and François Bigex (future bishop of Pinerolo (1817–1824), and archbishop of Chambéry, 1824–1827)Ritzler & Sefrin, Hierarchia catholica VII, pp. 147, 307. Thiollez had refused the appointment to Pinerolo. his vicars-general, and Chambéry was honored by a visit of the new Emperor Napoleon in May, as he travelled to Milan for his coronation as King of Italy.Nestor Albert, Vol. 1, p. 269. The fall of Napoleon in 1815 brought to an end the French domination of the cities of Chambéry and Annecy.
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.
In 1819, Pope Pius VII united the City of Geneva and twenty of its parishes with the Diocese of Lausanne.Pius VII, "Inter multiplices" (20 September 1819), in: Bullarii romani continuatio. . Vol. XV, pp. 246–248. In 1822, due to changes in international borders which had placed the territory of the diocese of Geneva and Annecy in several nations, the area belonging to the diocese of Geneva but beyond the borders of Switzerland became the Diocese of Annecy.Pius VII, the bull "Temporum vices" (30 January 1821), in: Bullarii romani continuatio. . Vol. XV, pp. 370–371.
Establishment of the diocese Annecy was made an episcopal see on 15 February 1822, at the request of the recently deceased King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia, by Pope Pius VII, in the papal bull .French translation in: Nestor Albert, I, pp. 461-469. The parish church of Saint Peter in Chains () was raised to the status of a cathedral, and given a cathedral Chapter, consisting of three dignities (Provost, Archdeacon, and Cantor) and ten canons. The right to nominate the provost belonged to the pope, the archdeacon and cantor belonged to the King of Sardinia, and the ten canons to the king.Pope Pius VII, "Sollicita catholici gregis," in: Bullarii Romani continuatio: Tomus decimus quintus continens pontificatus Pii 7. annum decimum nonum ad vicesimum quartum, Volume 15 (Roma: 1853), pp. 391-395. Baud & Binz (1985), pp. 47, 59-60. Nestor Albert, II, pp. 116-118. Mugnier, pp. 307-308. In addition to the two city parishes of Annecy, Saint Peter in Chains and Saint Maurice, the diocese was assigned 282 other parishes.The parishes are listed in the bull "Sollicita catholici gregis," § 4. The new diocese of Annecy was made a suffragan of the archdiocese of Chambéry."Sollicita catholici gregis," § 5.
On 30 August 1824, Pope Leo XII authorized the transfer of the parish which had been located at the cathedral to the church of Nôtre-Dame.Mugnier, p. 307.
The first bishop of Annecy, Claude-François de Thiollaz, was nominated by King Charles Felix of Sardinia on 21 April 1822.Nestor Albert, I, pp. 470-473. Thiollaz attempted to refuse the nomination, even writing to Pope Pius VII that he was old (70, in fact), and citing numerous examples of saintly persons and theologians who had successfully refused the episcopate. His case was referred to a committee of cardinals, who rejected his arguments, and he was required to accept the post.Nestor Albert, I, pp. 471-473.