BAYONNE, Diocese of. - In southwestern France, department of the Basses-Pyrénées, suffragan of Auch. Known under the name of Lapurdum, as the residence of a tribune of the cohort of Novempopulana or Aquitania III, it was evangelized in ancient times. No bishop of this diocese, which was formed at the expense of that of Dax and of Spanish territory (perhaps as early as the 8th century), is known before the 11th century. The regular episcopal list begins in 1106, with Raymond, episcopus Lapurdensis, the first thereafter to style himself episcopus Baionensis, from the name of B. which from then on would be reserved for the episcopal city. Originally it seems that, following Charlemagne's conquests in Spain, a part of the dioceses of Navarre and of Guipúzcoa were united to the diocese of B. In 1566, Pius V united the parishes situated in Spanish territory to the dioceses of Pamplona and of Calahorra; certain others, but only in 1862, were united to that of Vitoria.

The Napoleonic concordat overturned the boundaries of this diocese by adding to the department of the Basses-Pyrénées the territories of the dioceses of the Landes and of the Hautes-Pyrénées. The present diocese comprises the whole of the ancient dioceses of B., of Oloron, almost the entirety of the diocese of Lescar, and a part of the dioceses of Aire, Tarbes and Dax. The bishop of B., since 1909, also bears the title of bishop of Lescar and Oloron.

The diocese has 415,797 inhabitants, almost all Catholics, and is divided into 510 parishes, with 837 secular priests and 137 regular priests (1948). The cathedral, dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin, is in Gothic style; begun in the 12th century, it was completed in the 16th century. - See Pl. XLIV.

Plate XLIV THE TOWERS OF THE CATHEDRAL (14th-16th cent.)(fol. Naurdein)

The religious institutions of these Basque and Béarnais provinces, which had begun in 1068 with the foundation of the Benedictine abbey of St. Stephen of B., followed then, in 1215, by the Dominicans and soon after by the Franciscans and by other communities of religious men and women, after the French Revolution increased with notable other religious institutions, works and foundations.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Gallia christiana, I, Paris 1715, col. 1309 ff.; L. Duchesne, Fautes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, ibid. 1900, pp. 17-19, 91 ff.; V. Dubarat and I. B. Daranatz, Recherches sur la ville et l'Eglise de Bayonne, Baiona 1910; A. Clergeac, Chronologie des archevêques, évêques... de l'ancienne province ecclésiastique d'Auch, Auch 1912; C. Jullian, L'antiquité du siège épiscopal de Bayonne, in Gure Herria, Ostaroa 1922; I. B. Daranatz, L'Eglise de Bayonne, Baiona 1923; A. Degert, s. v. in DHG, VII, coll. 34-39.

Antonio Soirat

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Bayonne, Diocese of

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