LA ROCHELLE, DIOCESI di. - City and diocese in the department of Charente-Maritime (France), with which it shares its boundaries. It has an area of 6,800 sq. km. and a population of 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 400,000 are Catholics (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 241).
The diocese comprises 6 archdeaconries, 40 deaneries, 199 parishes provided with an incumbent and 298 dependent parishes, 17 chapels, and 19 vicariates. It has 311 diocesan priests and 34 regular clergy, a major and a minor seminary; 1 male and 5 female religious communities. It is a suffragan of Bordeaux. The patron of the diocese is St. Eutropius, first bishop of Saintes; the titular saint of the Cathedral is St. Louis, king of France.
The diocese was created on 4 May 1648 by Pope Innocent X, who transferred to it the see of Maillezais (itself erected on 13 Aug. 1317 by Pope Giovanni XXII).
Since 22 Jan. 1852 the bishop of La R. has also held title to the ancient diocese of Saintes, which was suppressed by the Concordat of 1801.