Bishopric of Fréjus

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Cathedral of Saint-Léonce de Fréjus (Saint Leontius of Fréjus).

The diocese of Fréjus was an ecclesiastical territory in France. In 1957 it was renamed as the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.^[1]

A suffragan of the Archbishopric of Aix, it comprised the whole département of Var. It was suppressed by the Concordat of 1801, re-established by that of 1817, and definitively established in 1823.^[2]

The arrondissement of Grasse, which until 1860 belonged to the département of Var, when it was annexed to that of the Alpes-Maritimes, was, in 1886, separated from Fréjus and attached to the diocese of Nice. A Papal Brief of 1852 authorized the bishop to assume the title of Bishop of Fréjus and Toulon. The present diocese comprises the territory of the ancient Diocese of Fréjus as well as that of the ancient diocese of Toulon.

[edit] History

Christianity would seem to have been introduced into Fréjus in the time of Emperor Constantine. History relates that in 374 a certain Acceptus falsely declared himself guilty of some crimes in order to rid himself of the episcopal dignity, and that the Council of Valencia besought the Church to name another in his stead.

The following are named among the bishops of this see:

St. Leontius (419-433), brother of St. Castor and friend of John Cassian, who dedicated to him his first ten "Collationes", and of St. Honoratus, founder of the monastery of Lérins
Theodore (433-455), Abbot of the Iles d'Hyères, to whom Cassian dedicated the last seven "Collationes"
St. Auxilius (c. 475), formerly a monk of Lérins, and later a martyr under Euric, Arian King of the Visigoths
Riculfus (973-1000), who restored the ruins made by the Saracens, and built the cathedral and the episcopal palace
Bertrand (1044-91), who founded the collegiate church of Barjols
Raymond Berengarius (1235-1248), who arranged the marriage of Beatrice, daughter of the Count of Provence, with Charles of Anjou
Jacques d'Euse (1300-1310), preceptor of St. Louis of Toulouse, and later pope under the name of John XXII
Cardinal Nicolò Fieschi (1495-1524), who at the time of his death was dean of the Sacred College
André-Hercule de Fleury (1698-1715).

The Island of Lérins, well known as the site of the celebrated monastery founded there in 410, was sold in 1859 by the bishop of Fréjus to an English purchaser. A number of the saints of Lérins are especially honoured in the diocese. Among them are Sts. Honoratus, Cæsarius, Hilary, and Virgilius, all of whom became archbishop of Arles; Quinidius, Bishop of Vaison; Valerius, Bishop of Nice; Maximus, Bishop of Riez; Veranus and Lambertus, both Bishop of Vence; Vincent of Lérins, author of the "Commonitorium", and his brother Lupus, Bishop of Troyes; Agricola, Bishop of Avignon; Aigulphus and Porcarius, martyrs; St. Tropesius, martyr during the persecution of Emperor Nero; St. Louis (1274-1297), a native of Brignoles, in the Diocese of Toulon, and later Archbishop of Toulouse; and the virgin St. Roseline, prioress of the monastery of La Celle-Roubaud, who died in 1329, and whose shrine, situated at Les Arcs near Draguignan, has been for six centuries a place of pilgrimage, are likewise especially honoured in the diocese.

The sojourn in 1482 of St. Francis of Paola at Bormes and at Fréjus, where he caused the cessation of the plague, made a lasting impression.