Diocese of Soissons

The Diocese of Soissons, Laon, and Saint-Quentin (Latin: Dioecesis Suessionensis, Laudunensis et Sanquintinensis; French: Diocèse de Soissons, Laon et Saint-Quentin) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Reims and corresponds, with the exception of two hamlets, to the entire Department of Aisne. The current bishop is Renauld Marie François Dupont de Dinechin, appointed on 30 October 2015. In 2022, in the Diocese of Soissons there is one priest for every 5,594 Catholics.

Traditions make St. Sixtus and St. Sinicius the earliest apostles of Soissons as envoys of St. Peter. In the 280's the Caesar Maximian, the subordinate of the Emperor Diocletian, and his Praetorian Prefect Riccius Varus campaigned in northeast Gaul and subdued the Bagaudae, an event accompanied by much slaughter. There were also executions of Christians from Trier to Reims. St. Crepinus and St. Crepinianus, martyrs (c. 288), are patrons of the diocese. According to Louis Duchesne, the establishment of a see at Soissons dates from about 300.

Soissons played an important political role in the early history of the Merovingians. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Soissons, a remnant of the Roman Empire in northern Gaul, and remained one of the chief cities under King Clovis I. Subsequently, Soissons twice became the capital of one of the four kingdoms into which the Frankish kingdom was divided in 511 (under Chlothar I) and 561 (und Chilperic I, respectively.

The Bishop of Soissons was a senior suffragan of Reims with the privilege of replacing the archbishop at the ceremony of anointing a King of France, should the see of Reims be vacant. The Bishop of Laon ranked as Duke and peer from the twelfth century. As second ecclesiastical peer, he had the privilege of holding the ampulla during the anointing of the king.

During the arrest and trials of the Knights Templar in the fourteenth century, several knights came from different dioceses to answer against the charge of heresy. Guillaume de Roy, from the Diocese of Soissons, was one of the Templars who defended the Order.

The diocese of Soisson was re-established by the Concordat of 1802 as suffragan of Paris, but in 1821 it became suffragan of Reims. After an attempts to re-establish the See of Laon failed with the unexecuted Concordat of 11 June 1817, the bishop of Soissons was authorized by Pope Leo XII (13 June 1828) to join the title of Laon to that of his own see. Pope Leo XIII (11 June 1901) further authorized it to use the title of St-Quentin, which was formerly the residence of the bishop of Noyon.

The diocese consists of

The "See of Laon" refers to the diocese of Laon, which was established by St. Remigius and made a "uterine sister" of Reims through an endowment from its lands 1 . The term "see" refers to the jurisdictional area of a bishop, and the "See of Laon" would have been the area over which the bishop of Laon had authority.