DIocese of LA ROCHELLE. - A city and diocese in the department of Charente-Maritime (France) with which it shares its borders. It covers an area of 6,800 sq km and has a population of 500,000, of whom 400,000 are Catholic (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, p. 241).
The diocese comprises 6 archpriestships, 40 deaneries, 199 parishes with resident pastors and 298 annexed parishes, 17 chapels, and 19 vicariates. It has 311 diocesan priests and 34 regular clergy, a major and minor seminary, and 1 male and 5 female religious communities. It is a suffragan of Bordeaux. The patron saint of the diocese is St Eutropius, the first bishop of Saintes; the cathedral is dedicated to St Louis, King of France.
The diocese was established on 4 May 1648 by Pope Innocent X, transferring the see from Maillezais (which had itself been erected on 13 August 1317 by Pope John XXII).
Since 22 January 1852, the bishop of La Rochelle has also held the title of the ancient diocese of Saintes, which was suppressed in the Concordat of 1801.