AIRE, Diocese of. - Bishopric of southern France, suffragan of the metropolis of Auch. Its territory is the department of the Landes with 240,000 inhabitants, of whom 200,000 are Catholics, 245 priests and 322 parishes. The city of A. (Aturum, from Atura or Adura), not to be confused with the homonymous city on the bank of the Lys, in Artois, owes its name to the Adour which flows through it. It was once the capital of the civitas Aturensium, formed in the 3rd century by the division of the civitas Aquensium (Dax, Aquae Augustae). Previously, and probably already before the end of the Julian family (69 A.D.), it had the name of Vicus Iulii, whence the title of episcopi vicioiulentes borne by its bishops until the Norman invasions. Its Christian origins are not known with certainty. The first known bishop is Marcellus, who appears at the Council of Agde, in 506.

This diocese, like that of Dax, was suppressed on 20 Nov. 1801 and united to that of Bayonne. Reestablished in 1817, it had added to it, in 1857, the title of Dax, in which city, in 1933, the episcopal residence was transferred.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: P. Duval, Description de l'évêché d'A., s. 1, 1651; Gallia christiana, I, Paris 1715, coll. 1147-88; J. M. Cazauran, Pouillé du diocèse d'A., ibid. 1886; A. Degert, Histoire des évêques d'A., ibid. 1908; id., s. v. in DHG, I, coll. 1210-15; L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, p. 100.

Antonio Soirat

In the diocese of A. is found the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Buglose, near Dax, one of the most famous in all of Gascony. Tradition, embellished by legend, traces its origin to a prodi-

ious: around the year 1620 a young shepherd, from the top of an oak tree, saw several times an ox from his herd go down into a marsh and always stop in the same spot. One day, seized by curiosity, he followed it and found it beside a statue of the Madonna. The parish priest of Pouy, informed of the matter and accompanied by many witnesses, had the miraculous image removed from the marsh, while numerous pilgrimages began to flock from the nearby places. On 8 September 1866, in the presence of archbishops and bishops and of a very great crowd, the bishop of A., delegated by Pius IX, placed in his name a double diadem on the brow of the Holy Child and of His Most Holy Mother, venerated under the name of Our Lady of Buglose. The month of September is particularly consecrated to pilgrimages to the sanctuary, at which diocesan missionaries officiate.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: J. E. Drochon, in Histoire illustrée des Pèlerinages Français de la T. Ste Vierge, Paris 1890, p. 545; G. Joanne, Géographie des Landes, ibid. 1893, p. 62; Annuaire du Clergé Français, ibid. 1897, p. 17.

Romualdo Souarn

@incollection{ec1_aire_diocesi_di, author = {Soirat, Antonio and Souarn, Romualdo}, title = {Aire, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {606--607}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aire-diocesi-di} }

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Aire, Diocese of

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