Enciclopedia Cattolica

AIRE, DIOCESI DI

Aire, Diocese of

Volume I · p. 377 · 1948

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

AIRE, DIOCESE OF. – A bishopric in southern France, suffragan of the metropolitan see of Auch. It comprises the department of Landes, with a population of 240,000, of whom 200,000 are Catholic; there are 245 priests and 322 parishes. The city of Aire (Aturum, from Atura or Adura), not to be confused with the homonymous town on the Lys in Artois, owes its name to the Adour which flows through II. Formerly it was the chief town 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 dynasty (69 A.D.), it bore the name of Vicus Iulii, whence the title of episcopi vicoulianes borne by its bishops until the Norman invasions. The Christian origins of the see are not certainly known. The first bishop known to us is Marcellus, who attended the Council of Agde in 506.

This diocese, like that of Dax, was suppressed on 20 November 1801 and united to that of Bayonne. Re-established in 1817, it was given in 1857 the additional title of Dax, and in 1933 the episcopal residence was transferred to that city.

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

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In the diocese of Aire is the shrine of Notre-Dame de Buglose, near Dax, one of the most famous in all Gascony. Tradition, embellished by legend, traces its origin to a prodigious event: about the year 1620 a young shepherd, from the top of an oak, several times saw an ox of his herd descend into a marsh and always stop in the same spot. One day, moved 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 taken from the marsh, while numerous pilgrimages began to come from the surrounding districts. On 8 September 1866, in the presence of archbishops and bishops and a vast multitude, the bishop of Aire, delegated by Pius IX, placed in his name a double diadem upon the brow of the Holy Child and of His most holy Mother, venerated under the title of Our Lady of Buglose. The month of September is especially devoted to pilgrimages to the shrine, where diocesan missionaries officiate.

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