EVERUX, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese of France, capital of the department of Eure, on the river Iton. It extends over 603.748 sq. km. with a population of 303,800, of whom 303,000 are Catholics. It has 582 parishes, served by 335 secular priests and 33 regulars, a seminary, 2 male religious communities and 25 female (1949). The diocese is a suffragan of Rouen. The cathedral is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Assumed into Heaven, patroness of the diocese.
It forms part of the Second Lugdunensian Province. The first bishop is considered to be St Taurinus, mentioned in the Martyrologium of Usuard; notable in the 6th century are Mauricius, Licinius and Landolfus, who is said to have built the basilica of St Taurinus. The 7th century includes Erminulfus, Ragnericus, Concessus, Aquilinus and Desiderius; the 8th century Gervoldus, later abbot of Fontenelle. The 9th century includes Gunterbertus, Ilduinus and Sibardus, who was present at the invasion of Evreux by the Normans (892). For the bishops of Evreux from 1201 to 1591 see Eubel, I, pp. 234-235; II, p. 148; III, p. 206; from 1592 to 1664 see Gauchat, Hierarchia medii et recentioris aevi (Münster 1935, pp. 179-80).
The Gothic basilica of St Taurinus dates partly from the 11th century and partly from the following one. The building, burnt down in 1194, was rebuilt between 1126-137; destroyed again in 1194, it was rebuilt from the middle of the 13th to the 14th century; in its architecture it recalls the cathedral of Amiens. Notable are the stained-glass windows dating from the 14th to the 16th century. The reliquary of St Taurinus is one of the finest products of the 13th century. On the exterior, in one of the towers, are set four marble fragments of an ancient Christian inscription which was brought from Rome to the abbey of Pontusara (G. B. De Rossi, Bull. arch. crist., 1st series, 6 [1868], pp. 15-16; A. Silvagni, Inscr. Christ. Urbis Romae, new series, 1, Rome 1922, no. 3886). — See pl. LX.
The female Benedictine abbey of the Most Holy Saviour, founded in the 11th century, was destroyed in the 12th century; transferred outside the city, it was later turned into a barracks.