LE-PUY-en-VELAY, DIOCESE of. — City and diocesan capital of the department of Haute-Loire in France, at the foot of Mount Anis, whence the Latin name of the diocese (Anicien).
It has an area of 4,800 sq. km. and 228,076 inhabitants, of whom 200,000 are Catholics. It possesses 280 parishes, served by 57 diocesan and 26 regular priests, a major and a minor seminary, 49 male and 183 female religious communities (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, pp. 244–45).
The first episcopal see was at Ruessium; according to a tradition, it was transferred to Le Puy by the bishop St. Evodius (Vosy); but it is not known whether he was the bishop present at Valence in 374; according to another version, the first bishop of Le-P. was Giorgio. A note inserted in ms. 2294 of the National Library of Paris gives the following list of bishops of Le-P.: “Evodius, Aurelius, Suacrus, Scutarius, Ermentarius.” Of these, Scutarius is attested by two inscriptions (CIL, XIII, 1, 1575, 1587); Aurelius is placed at Le-P. by St. Gregory of Tours in 590 (Historia Francorum, X, 25). Later we know of: Arduino, present at the Council of Thusey in 860 and that of Soissons in 866; Wido, who took part in the Council of Pontion in 876; Norberto, who at the end of the 9th century transferred the bodies of SS. Giorgio and Marcellino from St-Paulien to Le-P. In 1257 Guido Fulcodi, IV (v.), was bishop of Le-P. For several centuries the diocese was immediately subject to the Holy See. In 1525 the cardinal Agostino Trivulzio was its administrator. Suppressed by the Concordat of 1801 and united with that of St-Flour, it was restored in 1823.
The Cathedral, Notre-Dame, is one of the most notable monuments of Romanesque art. The apse dates from the 11th century; the remainder from the 12th century. At the crossing of the nave, in the bays of the nave and of the portico, cupolas rise;
of the frescoes that decorated the walls, remnants remain in the transept and the portico. The polychrome façade, of striking effect (12th century), is reached by a broad flight of steps. Between the transept and the apse there are two porticos, one called that of St. John, the other that of the For. The adjoining cloister also dates from the 12th century. The baptistery (St. John), on the other hand, dates from the 11th century; near the Cathedral are also the octagonal chapel of St. Clare, from the second half of the 12th century, and the churches of St. Bartholomew, St. Peter and St. Lawrence. Above an 85-metre-high rock stands the distinctive sanctuary of St. Michael d’Aiguille, founded in the 10th century. Above the city, atop the Corneille rock, rises the majestic statue of Notre-Dame de France, erected in 1860, the work of Bonassieux. In the Treasury of the Cathedral is preserved the illuminated Bible known as that of Charles the Bald, commissioned by Teodulfo, bishop of Orléans (798–818), in the monastery of Fleury, today Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. In the former Chapter Library adjoining the cloister, Canon Odin commissioned allegorical frescoes of the liberal arts in the time of Bishop Giovanni of Bourbon (late 11th–early 16th century). — See plate LXXVI.
BIBL. Eubel, I, pp. 90–91, II, p. 100; III, p. 123; L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, pp. 55–58; J. Langlade, Le-P.-en-V., there 1921; G. e P. Paul, Notre-Dame du Puy, there 1926; A. Fikry, L'art roman du Puy et les influences islamiques, there 1934; Cottineau, II, col. 2378; Guide de la France chrétienne et missionnaire 1918-49, there 1948, pp. 600–602, 1035–36. Enrico Josi