Auch, Archdiocese of

AUCH, Archdiocese of. - In Gascony, on the left bank of the Gers, Auch, which today has 133,000 inhabitants, is the metropolis of the dioceses of Aire, Bayonne and Tarbes. Called in ancient times Elimberrum or Eliberrae (New City), it was, at the time of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar, the capital of the Auscii, the most important group of the Aquitani. It seems to have received from the Romans the name Augusta, before receiving from the Auscii the definitive name Auscia, Auscius, Civitas Ausciensis or Auxiensis. When, toward the end of the 4th century, Aquitania was divided, Auch was one of the twelve civitates of Aquitania III or Novempopulonia.

The Christian origins of this region remain very obscure. The first bishop of Auch known to history is an Oricutius who lived in the early 5th century and who appears under May 1 in the Hieronymian Martyrology. The diocese of Auch then probably comprised the whole Civitas Auscorum, bounded by the archdiocese of Eauze, by the dioceses of Toulouse, Tarbes, and Agen. Toward the middle of the 9th century, after Eauze was destroyed by the Normans, Auch inherited, together with the territory of the diocese, the title of metropolis, with the suffragan dioceses of Lectoure, Bazas, Aire, Bayonne, Lescar, Oloron, Tarbes, Comminges (St. Bertrand), Couserans (St. Licerius). It preserved these boundaries until the French Revolution. Suppressed in 1801 and united to Agen, the diocese was re-established in 1817, then definitively, on Oct. 6, 1822, by the bull Paternae caritatis. The archbishops, who toward the middle of the 17th century had lost the title of primates of Novempopulonia and of the Two Navarres, resumed in 1829 the first of these titles, to which are added those of the suppressed dioceses of Condom, Lectoure and Lombez.

The archdiocese coincides with the department of Gers. It has 190,000 Catholic inhabitants, 507 parishes, 232 diocesan priests and 14 regulars. The major seminary was founded in 1667. Among the sanctuaries, that of Notre-Dame des Sept-Douleurs at Cahuzac is famous; its origin goes back to 1513 and it has since then been much frequented by pilgrims. The Revolution of 1789 plundered the chapel, which was re-established in 1821; after that it regained its former splendor. It is served by the Assumptionists.