BÉZIERS, Diocese of. - B., included among the territories of the province of Narbonne first in the Notitia Galliarum, is today the seat of a subprefecture in the department of Hérault.

The tradition centered on the life of St. Paul of Narbonne indicates St. Aphrodisius as the first bishop of B. remembered as such in the martyrology of Usuard under 22 March. B. was the seat of several synods, among which the famous one of 356. The diocese was suppressed in 1790 and, after an attempt to re-establish it in 1817, was united to Montpellier. Its territory was devastated by the Goths and the Saracens. After 752 the rebuilding of its churches began. The oldest of these is St. Aphrodisius with a crypt of the 10th century. The cathedral, St. Nazarius, built in the second half of the 10th century, was burned in 1209 and rebuilt between the 13th and 14th centuries; at the end of the 13th century it was provided on the outside with two towers; the adjoining cloister is of the 14th century. To the 12th century also belong the churches of St. James and of the Magdalene, transformed in the 18th century.

To the archaeological society of B. are owed the lapidary museum in the cloister of St. Nazarius and the municipal museum, which contains among other things a portrait of Pope Gregory XV, a work by Domenichino.

BÉZIERS - Cathedral (13th century, restored in modern times).(phot. Archives Photographique)

BÉZIERS - Interior of the Cathedral (13th-14th centuries).
(Int. Archives Photographiques)

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: L. Noguier, St-Nazaire, l'église, le cloître, le musée lapidaire, Béziers 1905; L. Duchesne, Faites épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, 2e ed., I, Paris 1907, pp. 309-10; Hefele-Leclercq, I, II, p. 884; J. Dardé-J. Sournies, L'histoire de B. racontée par ses pierres, Béziers 1912; M.-H. Laurent, s. v. in DHG, VIII, coll. 1351-57.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec2_beziers_diocesi_di, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Béziers, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1534--1535}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/beziers-diocesi-di} }

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Béziers, Diocese of

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