CARCASSONA, DIOCESE of. — In the department of Aude, in France. It is mentioned by Pliny under the name of Carcaso Volcarum Tectosagum, and later became the Colonia Iulia Carcaso; it stood 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 759. Afflicted by the Albigensian heresy, C. was occupied on 15 August 1209; it passed under royal rule in 1223; it unsuccessfully attempted to rebel in 1240; its suburbs were then razed to the ground, and later another was built on the left bank of the Aude, giving rise to the new C.
The first known bishop of C. is Sergio, who took part in the Council of Toledo in 589. During the Carolingian period, the Benedictine abbeys of S. Ilario (only its church, now a parish church, remains today), S. Giovanni de Mallast (Montolieu), and Lagrasse flourished; the latter’s properties extended as far as Catalonia. S. Domenico founded the monastery of Prouille, destroyed in the Revolution. Two bishops took part in the Crusade: Guy de Vaux-Cernay (1211–23) and Clarin (1226–48). On 15 May 1791 C. became a departmental diocese. The Concordat of 1801 extended its jurisdiction also over the Eastern Pyrenees, until 1817, when the diocese of Perpignan was re-established.
The ancient cathedral of C. was dedicated to the martyrs Nazarius and Celsus; it is mentioned as early as 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 Razouls (1255–66), who is buried there in an artistic Gothic monument; the work was completed by Bishop Pietro di Roquefort (1300–22). Leo XIII conferred on the church the title of minor basilica, but after the Concordat of 1801 the Cathedral had been transferred to the new city, into the church of S. Michele; known since the end of the 10th century, but destroyed, as stated above, in 1240,
it was rebuilt at the end of the 13th century; it has a single nave without a transept.
The bull of Pius VII of 29 November 1818 assigned to the diocese of C. a large part of the suppressed dioceses of Narbonne; of St-Papoul (S. Papulus), an ancient monastery in the diocese of Toulouse, later in that of Pamiers (1295), erected as a diocese by John XXII in 1318, like Alet (Electum), an ancient monastery in the diocese of Narbonne; and also part of the diocese of Mirepoix.
At present the diocese extends over 6432 sq. km and is divided into 4 archpriesthoods (C., Narbonne, Limoux, Castelnaudary) and 32 deaneries, with 419 parishes, 303 diocesan priests, and 19 religious priests; it has a diocesan seminary founded in 1672; a minor seminary in Castelnaudary since 1913; and two independent ecclesiastical colleges. It has 268,889 inhabitants, almost all Catholics.
The diocese of C. has published La semaine catholique since 1868; and, more recently, the diocesan journal Appel. The «Société des arts et des sciences de C. » has published its Mémoires since 1849. — Vedi Tav. XLVIII.