Diocese of Chur

The Diocese of Chur (Latin: Diœcesis Curiensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Switzerland. It extends over the Swiss Cantons of Graubünden (Grisons), Schwyz, Glarus, Zurich, Nidwalden, Obwalden, and Uri.

The modern Catholic diocese must be distinguished from the historical Prince-Bishopric of Chur, a state of the Holy Roman Empire.

A Bishop of Chur is first mentioned in 451/ 452 when its Bishop Saint Asimo attended the Synod of Milan, but probably existed a century earlier. The see was at first suffragan to the Archbishop of Milan, but after the Treaty of Verdun (843), it became suffragan 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 Saint Lucius, who is said to have died a martyr at Chur around the year 176 and whose relics are preserved in the cathedral. St. Lucius is venerated as the principal patron of the diocese. The country had to pass through very severe struggles for the Christian faith. Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards after him, attempted to introduce Arianism in the sixth and seventh centuries.

The bishop soon acquired great temporal powers, especially after his dominions were made in 831 dependent on the Empire alone. In the dispute between Emperor Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III, Bishop Egino of Chur sided with the emperor and was rewarded with the dignity of Prince of the Empire in 1170. The bishop was also temporal lord of the city and in several cases, a better warrior than pastor. The Prince-Bishopric of Chur became an independent state of the Holy Roman Empire, its borders being different from the borders of the diocese.

In 1367, the League of God's House was formed by members of the cathedral chapter, the bishop's own ministerialis, the city of Chur, and a number of jurisdictions of the prince-bishopric. The reason was that Bishop Peter Jelito, who mostly stayed abroad, was suspected by his own subjects of planning to sell the prince-bishopric to the House of Habsburg, with a loss of independence looming. Instead, Peter then became Bishop of Leitomischl in 1368 and archbishop of Magdeburg in 1371. In 1392, the next prince-bishop became the nominal head of the League. The Grey League was founded in 1395, as a reaction to various feuds between the Bishopric of Chur and its own vassals, namely the Barons of Belmont, the Barons of Vaz, the Barons of Sax, the Barons of Rhäzüns, the Counts of Werdenberg, the Barons of Matsch, the abbots of Disentis Abbey and others. Both leagues became part of the Three Leagues that later formed the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The Three Leagues, in fact a republic ruled by local aristocrats, remained part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1798, but has been allied to the Old Swiss Confederacy since 1497. Both, league and alliance, limited the power of the prince-bishops further.

The struggles of Switzerland for liberty in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and, later, the secret preaching of Zwingli and Calvin, did great harm to the diocese, especially as the Catholic clergy neglected the instruction of the people. The bishop lost much of his power through the Reformation in 1526, after several nobles and towns had become Protestant. 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 administrator, Abbot Theodore Schlegel, was publicly beheaded (1 January 1529). Bishop Thomas Planta, a friend of St. Charles Borromeo, tried, but without success, to suppress Protestantism. He died, probably poisoned, 5 May 1565. 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 between the Catholics and the Protestants. Finally, the newly erected Congregation of Propaganda commissioned the Capuchins to 'save the Catholic faith' among the people (1621). The first Capuchin superior of the mission was St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, who, on his way from Sewis to Grüsch, a little north of Chur, was slain (24 April 1622) by peasants whom the sermons of the Protestant preachers had wrought up to a fury. Some relics of this martyr are preserved in the cathedral at Chur. A second mission, that of Misocco and Calanca, in the southern part of the diocese, was entrusted to the Capuchins in 1635. These two missions, Rhætiæ and Mesauci, were made prefectures Apostolic under the care of Italian Capuchins and these prefects resided in the towns of Obervaz and Cama, both in the Canton of Graubünden.

Several holy and extraordinary men have contributed to the splendour of the Diocese of Chur. Four of its bishops are honoured as saints: Saint Asimo (c. 450), Saint Valentinian (530–548), Saint Ursicinus (d. 760), and Saint Adalbert(1151–60).