FREJUS, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in southern France; the territory corresponds to that of the department of the Var. The diocese has an area of 5,609 sq. km with a population of 377,104 inhabitants, of whom 376,000 are Catholics, distributed in 180 parishes, served by 209 diocesan priests and 150 regular clergy; a major seminary at La Crau (Var); 79 male and 79 female religious communities (1949).
It is a suffragan of Aix. Patrons of the diocese: St. Leontius and St. Mary Magdalene.
Originally one of the many villages along the Roman roads (vici vicani) inhabited by colonists who had received plots of land. Cicero first mentions Forum Iulii in 43 BC. A small hamlet along the great artery that traversed Lower Provence, it was chosen (39–31 BC) as a shipyard for light and swift vessels. Strabo calls it navale Caesaris Augusti. After the victory at Actium it became the port of the fleet of the Gallic coast, a classical colony, and received the veterans of the VIII Augusta Legion; Pliny mentions it – Forum Iulii Octavanorum Colonia quae Pacensis appellatur et classica –.
Among the bishops of Fréjus are remembered: Leontius, named in two letters, one from Pope Boniface I in 419 and another from Pope Celestine I in 431; Theodore, who attended the Councils of Riez (439), Orange (441), and Vaison (442). In the 6th century are known Victorinus, present at the Council of Agde in 506, John, represented at that of Arles in 524, as well as Desiderius in 541 and Espettatus at those of Orléans in 549 and Paris in 552. In 632 Martin subscribed to the privilege of Rebais in 636. After this, no names of bishops of Fréjus are known until the 10th century. The diocese, suppressed in 1801, was re-established on 27 July 1817 and confirmed on 6 October 1822. The cathedral stands on the site of an ancient church, restored in the 9th century, rebuilt in the 12th with additions from the 15th and 16th centuries; remains of the ancient Chapter and the Romanesque façade survive, but more notable is the baptistery: square externally, octagonal internally, with a circular ambulatory supported by eight columns of black granite; Corinthian capitals with pulvini; a circular bench runs around it; at the centre is an octagonal masonry piscina lined with marble, covered by a ciborium with eight columns. The cathedral of Fréjus, dedicated to Our Lady and St. Leontius, possesses a sacramentary of the 12th century; a missal of the 13th and a ritual from Uzès of the 15th. To Fréjus is united the title of Toulon, a diocese from the 5th century. Its known early bishops are: Augustalis, present at the Councils of Orange (441) and Vaison (442), probably erroneously recorded as bishop of Arles on 7 September in the Hieronymian Martyrology; St. Cyprian, disciple and biographer of St. Caesarius of Arles, who took part in the Council of Orléans in 541, while Palladius took part in that of 549; Bishop Menna addressed a letter to St. Gregory the Great (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1831).
The cathedral of Toulon has been entirely restored. The church of St. Maximin, begun at the end of the 12th century by Charles II of Sicily, was completed at the end of the 15th; it is the finest example of architecture in southern France. The principal shrines of the diocese are: Notre-Dame des Anges – Pignans, Notre-Dame de Benat, Notre-Dame des Graces at Cotignac. Notable is the basilica of St. Mary Magdalene at St-Maximin. Its construction was begun in 1495 by Giovanni Bandini at the order of Charles II of Anjou and completed in 1532. It constitutes the most distinguished product of northern Gothic art in Provence. The apse is polygonal, the vaults of the naves reach a height of 29 m, like the cathedrals of Bourges and Le Mans. The crypt is a mausoleum containing Christian sarcophagi. It was served by the Benedictines until 1295, when they were replaced by the Dominicans, who remained there until the suppression of religious orders at the beginning of the 20th century.