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. Four of Chur's bishops are honoured as saints:
Saint Asimo (c. 450),
Saint Valentinian (530–548),
Saint Ursicinus (d. 760), and Saint Adalbert(1151–60).
Saint Sigisbert flourished about the year 600,
Saint Pirminus a century later;
Saint Florian, whom the diocese has chosen as its second patron, lived in the ninth century, the hermit
Saint Gerold in the tenth. The Capuchin
Theodosius Florentini,
vicar-general from 1860 till his death (15 February 1865), was a very distinguished missionary; in 1852 he erected the Hospital of the Cross at Chur; before this he had already laid the foundations of two female religious congregations, one for the instruction of children, the other for the care of the sick. ==In 1906==