Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron

Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron
Dioecesis Baionensis, Lascurrensis et Oloronensis
  • Diocèse de Bayonne, Lescar et Oloron
  • Baionako, Leskarreko eta Oloroeko elizbarrutia

Location
Country  France
Ecclesiastical province Bordeaux
Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bordeaux
Statistics
Area 7,644 km2 (2,951 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		 (as of 2012)
669,300
570,000 (85.2%)
Parishes 69
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Roman Rite
Established United: 22 June 1909
Cathedral Cathedral of Notre Dame in Bayonne
Patron saint Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed in Heaven
Secular priests 279 (diocesan)
123 (religious Orders)
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Bishop Marc Aillet
Metropolitan Archbishop Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard
Emeritus Bishops Pierre Molères Bishop Emeritus (1986-2008)
Website

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron, commonly Diocese of Bayonne, (Latin: Dioecesis Baionensis, Lascurrensis et Oloronensis; French: Diocèse de Bayonne, Lescar et Oloron; Basque: Baionako, Leskarreko eta Oloroeko elizbarrutia) is a suffragan diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bordeaux, in the administrative region Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Its cathedral episcopal see is a World Heritage Site (Minor): Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Bayonne dedicated to Our Lady. Elsewhere in Aquitaine, the bishopric has two former cathedrals, both also Marian:

Statistics and extent

The diocese comprises the Department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the Region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

As of 2014, it pastorally served 574,900 Catholics (85.2% of 675,000 total) on 7,712 km² in 69 parishes with 392 priests (278 diocesan, 114 religious), 10 deacons, 570 lay religious (173 brothers, 397 sisters), 17 seminarians.

History

Established circa 400 as Diocese of Bayonne / Baionen(sis) (Latin adjective)

TO ELABORATE

Local tradition maintains that St. Leo, the martyr, with whose memory is associated a miraculous fountain, was the first Bishop of Bayonne; but Leo was a priest of the third quarter of the ninth century, and his hagiographies insist that he had been Archbishop of Rouen before travelling to Bayonne. As Honoré Fisquet puts it succinctly, these lives have nothing really authentic in them.[1]

No bishop is historically known prior to the sixth century, although some think that Bayonne, designated as civitas (Roman municipality) in the Treaty of Andelot (587), must have had a bishop at that time, whilst others couple the foundation of the See of Bayonne with the establishment of the Kingdom of Aquitaine (778). The southern boundary of the see, from about this period, was marked by a series of crosses high in the Pyrenees, of which the southernmost and most famous was Charles's Cross.

It was suffragan to the Archdiocese of Toulouse from 1802 to 1822.

In World War I, 560 priests and seminarians were mobilized from the diocese of Bayonne, 50 of whom died. In 1921 there were 40 Deaneries and 507 parishes.[2]

Episcopal Ordinaries

Suffragan Bishops of Bayonne
incomplete - first centuries lacking
BIOS to COMPLETE & ELABORATE
Suffragan Bishops of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron
BIOS to COMPLETE & ELABORATE

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leo's name does not appear in the list of Archbishops of Rouen in Gallia christiana XI (Paris 1759), pp. 19-26. And cf. Fisquet, Honoré (1864). La France pontificale (Gallia Christiana): histoire chronologique et biographique...Metropole de Rouen: Rouen (in French). Paris: Etienne Repos. pp. 50–51.: ... il faut avouer que, à part de ces vies qui n'ont rien de fort authentique, aucune catalogue, aucune des anciennes chroniques de Normandie ne justifient qu'il ait occupé le siége métropolitain de Rouen."
  2. ↑ Anonymous, "Bayonne," Catholic Encyclopedia Volume XVII Supplement 1 (New York 1922), p. 88.
  3. ↑ David M. Cheney, Catholic-Hierarchy, Diocese of Bayonne (-Lescar e Oloron). Retrieved: 2016-09-28

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Bayonne". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. 

Bibliography

Reference works
Studies

Coordinates: 43°29′26″N 1°28′40″W / 43.49056°N 1.47778°W / 43.49056; -1.47778

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