CARCASSONNE, Diocese of. – In the department of Aude, in France. It is mentioned by Pliny under the name of Carcaso Volcarum Tectosagum, later becoming the Colonia Iulia Carcaso; it lay on the road between Narbonne and Toulouse. It was successively occupied by the Visigoths in the second half of the 5th century, by the Saracens in 725, and by the Franks in 739. Ravaged by the Albigensian heresy, Carcassonne was occupied on 15 August 1209; it passed under royal dominion in 1223; it attempted a futile rebellion in 1240, after which its suburbs were razed and a new city was later built on the left bank of the Aude, giving rise to the new Carcassonne.
The first known bishop of Carcassonne is Sergio, who took part in the Council of Toledo in 589. During the Carolingian period, the Benedictine abbeys of Saint-Hilaire (of which only the church remains, now a parish), Saint-Jean-de-Malast (Montolieu), and Lagrasse flourished; their properties extended as far as Catalonia. Saint Dominic founded the monastery of Prouille, which was destroyed during the Revolution. Two bishops took part in the Crusade: Guy de Vaux-Cernay (1211–23) and Clarin (1226–48). On 15 May 1791, Carcassonne became a departmental diocese. The Concordat of 1801 extended its jurisdiction to the eastern Pyrenees, until 1817, when the diocese of Perpignan was re-established.
The ancient cathedral of Carcassonne was dedicated to the martyrs Nazarius and Celsus; it is recorded from the year 925. The Romanesque cathedral was begun at the end of the 12th century; Urban II blessed its materials in 1096; the transept is the work of Bishop Razoula (1255–66), who is buried there in an artistic Gothic monument; the work was completed by Bishop Pierre de Roquefort (1300–22). Leo XIII granted the church the title of minor basilica, but after the Concordat of 1801 the cathedral had been transferred to the new city in the church of Saint-Michel; known since the end of the 10th century, but destroyed, as mentioned, in 1240, it was rebuilt at the end of the 13th century; it is a single-nave church without a transept.
The bull of Pius VII of 29 November 1818 assigned to the diocese of Carcassonne a large part of the suppressed dioceses of Narbonne; of Saint-Papoul (S. Papulus), an ancient monastery in the diocese of Toulouse, later of Pamiers (1295), raised to a diocese by John XXII in 1318, as well as Alet (Electum), an ancient monastery in the diocese of Narbonne; and part of the diocese of Mirepoix.
At present the diocese covers 6,432 km² and is divided into 4 archpriestships (Carcassonne, Narbonne, Limoux, Castellaudary) and 32 deaneries with 419 parishes, 303 diocesan priests and 19 regular clergy; it has a diocesan seminary founded in 1672; a minor seminary at Castellaudary since 1913; and two ecclesiastical free colleges. It has 268,889 inhabitants, almost all of whom are Catholic.
The diocese of Carcassonne publishes *La semaine catholique* since 1868; and more recently the diocesan magazine *Appel*. The *Société des arts et des sciences de Carcassonne* has published its *Mémoires* since 1849. – V. Tav. XLVIII.