[1] According to the "Life of Saint Wlifrid" by Stephen of Ripon (Eddius Stephanus), a contemporary hagiography written not too much later than 710, the Saxon Wilfrid of York had been driven from his see due to the enmity of the Celtic bishops of Scotland toward his promotion of the practices of the Roman Church.

He arrived on the continent in 678 and spent the winter in Frisia, but eventually found himself at the court of King Dagobert II, who invited him to stay in his kingdom and become bishop of Strasbourg.

[4] In Rome, Pope Agatho summoned a synod in October 679, precisely to deal with the disorders in the church in the British isles.

[10] The privilege states that Deodatus had already obtained from the fisc[11] a piece of property in a remote and uncultivated place, called Galilee, at the confluence ( Juncturae ) of the Robache and the Meurthe rivers, and that he had built there a monastery,[12] which accepted both permanent residents (monks) and temporary visitors ( peregrini ), and which used both the Rule of Saint Columba and the Rule of Saint Benedict.

[16] From Alsace, sometimes from the Heilige Wald, near Haguenau, he withdrew to the Vosges, sojourning at Romont where he began a lot of miracles, and Arentelle, where the inhabitants were hostile.

For some time he was a solitary at Wilra or Wibra, maybee near the present Katzenthal in Alsace, but being persecuted by the inhabitants, he walked with a big stick who planted in soil created always a spring of water.

Above the pass of Bonhomme, on the top of Rossberg, he launched an ironed arm until a locus called Petit-Saint-Dié under the Kemberg, a mountain, precisely under rocks Saint-Martin.

In 967, the Emperor Otto II granted the bishops of Toul possession of the monasteries of Moyenmoutier and Galilee (Saint-Dié), with the right to coin money.

[18] In the 10th century the Abbey of Saint-Dié grew lax, and in 959 Frederick I, Duke of Lorraine, prompted by Archbishop Bruno of Trier, embarked on a reform of the monasteries in his duchy, assisted by Abbot Adelbert of Gorze.

[19] Pope Gregory V, in 99V6, agreed to the change and decided that the grand prévôt, the principal dignitary of the abbey, should depend directly upon the Holy See, that is, not be subject to the jurisdiction of any local bishop.

In October 1049, Pope Leo IX visited Saint-Dié, and participated in the recognition and enshrining of the remains of Saint Deodatus.

[21] The canons of the collegiate church originally numbered twenty-four, and were headed by the dignities of Provost Major, Dean, Cantor, and Scholasticus.

In 1105, the duchess Beatrix contributed half the cost of restoring the crumbling church, as reparation for the excommunication of her husband Duke Ferri by the Chapter.

[26] It was rebuilt, using a few salvaged elements, in the thirty years following the end of World War II, and consecrated on 28–29 September 1974, with the participation of Cardinal François Marty, Archbishop of Paris.

To advance his interests, in 1716 the duke sent to Rome one of his trusted advisors, who had a gift for preaching and a literary reputation, as well as credentials in law and theology, Abbé Jean-Claude Sommier.

He was sent to Rome again in 1718, where he conducted talks with cardinals and members of several Congregations at the papal court, and on 26 March 1719 he obtained a judgment in favor of the establishment of a diocese of Saint-Dié; but Pope Clement XI himself terminated the process, due to objections and threatened reprisals entered by the French minister.

[35] The chapter of Saint-Dié immediately claimed that they had the right to elect Grand Provost Sommier's successor, which was hotly disputed by Duke Stanislaus.

His successor was appointed by King Louis XV in the person of the Bishop of Toul, Scipion-Jerome Begon (1723–1753), a determined opponent of the Chapter of Saint-Dié, which absolutely refused to receive him or enthrone him.

In 1738, King Stanislaus of Poland was prevailed upon to give up the Polish throne in the Treaty of Vienna (1738), in exchange for which he received the duchies of Lorraine and Bar.

On 13 February 1790. it issued a decree which stated that the government would no longer recognize solemn religious vows taken by either men or women.

Members of either sex were free to leave their monasteries or convents if they wished, and could claim an appropriate pension by applying to the local municipal authority.

[49] The Concordat of 1817, between King Louis XVIII and Pope Pius VII, should have restored the diocese of Saint-Dié, by the bull "Commissa divinitus",[50] but the French Parliament refused to ratify the agreement.

It was not until 6 October 1822 that a revised version of the papal bull, "Paternae Charitatis" ,[51] and an ordonnance of Louis XVIII of 13 January 1823, received the consent of all parties.

[57] Eizabeth Brem (1609–68), known as Mother Benedict of the Passion, a Benedictine nun at Rambervillers, established in that monastery the Institute of the Perpetual Adoration.

Venerable Jean-Martin Moye (1730–1793), founder in Lorraine of the Congrégation de la Providence for the instruction of young girls and apostle of Sichuan, was director for a brief period of the seminary of Saint-Dié, and established at Essegney, in the diocese, one of the first novitiates of the Soeurs de la Providence (hospitallers and teachers), whose mother-house at Portieux ruled over a large number of houses before the Law of 1901.

[58] Eugène Grandclaude, a village teacher who was sent to the Roman College in 1857 by Bishop Caverot, contributed, when a professor in the grand seminaire of Saint-Dié, to the revival of canon law studies in France, with his Jus canonicum juxta ordinem Decretalium.

[64] The tomb of Saint Peter Fourier, CRSA (1565–1640), who was born at Mirecourt (Lorraine), is found at Mattaincourt, the parish in which he first undertook his priestly duties.

[65] The remains of Brother Joseph Formet (1724–1784), a native of Lomont (Haute-Saône), known as the hermit of Ventron (Vosges), are the object of a pilgrimage.