CARCASSONNE, Diocese of. - In the department of the Aude, in France. It is mentioned by Pliny under the name Carcaso Volcarum Tectosagum, and later became the Colonia Iulia Carcaso; it stood on the road between Narbonne and Toulouse. It was subsequently 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 Aug. 1209; it passed under royal dominion in 1223; it attempted in vain to rebel in 1240; its suburbs were then razed to the ground, and later another was built on the left bank of the Aude, which gave rise to the new C.
The first known bishop of C. is Sergius, who took part in the Council of Toledo of 589. In the Carolingian period the Benedictine abbeys of St. Hilary (of which the church, now a parish, still remains), St. John de Mallast (Montolieu) and of Lagrasse flourished, whose properties extended as far as Catalonia. St. Dominic founded the monastery of Prouille, destroyed by 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 to 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 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 Razouls (1255-66), who is buried there in an artistic Gothic monument; the work was completed by Bishop Peter of 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, to the church of St. Michael; known from the end of the 10th century, but destroyed, as has been said, 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 Nov. 1818 assigned to the diocese of C. a large part of the suppressed dioceses of Narbonne; of St-Papoul (St. Papulus), an ancient monastery in the diocese of Toulouse, then of Pamiers (1295), erected as a diocese by John XXII in 1318, like Alet (Electum), an ancient monastery in the diocese of Narbonne; plus a 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 regulars; it has a diocesan seminary founded in 1672; a minor seminary at Castelnaudary since 1913 and two free ecclesiastical colleges. It numbers 268,889 inhabitants, almost all Catholics.
The diocese of C. has published La semaine catholique since 1868; and recently the diocesan magazine Appel. The "Société des arts et des sciences de C." has published its Mémoires since 1849. - See Pl. XLVIII.
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Enrico Josi