PAMIERS, Diocese of. - City and diocesan see capital of the Ariège on the right bank of the Ariège river. It has an area of 4,903 sq km, with a population of 153,134 inhabitants, of whom 141,160 are Catholics. The diocese is divided into 5 archpriestures and 20 deaneries, with 383 parishes served by 202 diocesan priests. It has a major and a minor seminary.
On the hill of Castellas a castle of the counts of Foix arose in the 7th century, while on the tomb of St. Antoninus (d. 506) the abbey of Fredelas or of St. Antoninus was founded. On 16 September 1295 Pope Boniface VIII created the diocese, and its first bishop was Bernard Basset (1295-1314). The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Mercadal, the abbey of St. Antoninus and the town were set on fire and destroyed by the Huguenots.
The diocese was suppressed in 1801 and re-established in 1822; it is a suffragan of Toulouse. The present cathedral of St. Antoninus was rebuilt in brick between 1658 and 1689 but preserves the octagonal tower of the 14th century. The church of Notre-Dame-du-Camp is also in brick, and its facade is still of the 14th century, while the rest belongs to the 17th-18th centuries. Of the church and the octagonal tower of the Cordeliers (1512) some remains survive, while on the site of the church of the Jesuits a theatre was built. The patron of the diocese is the martyr St. Antoninus. The bishop of P. is also titular of the suppressed dioceses of Couserans and Mirepoix; within the territory there are also parts of two other suppressed dioceses: those of Alet and of Comminges. Couserans betrays the ancient name of the region of the Cousorani corresponding to that of St-Girons. One of the nine cities of the region was "Lugdunum Cousoranorum", which then became an episcopal see around the middle of the 5th century. The city was later called St-Lizier in the 7th century after a Portuguese bishop who is said to have defended it against the Visigoths. It was, however, sacked by Bernard III, count of Comminges. The ancient cathedral was dedicated to St. Lizier. It is Romanesque with three naves, from the end of the 18th century, with two side apses; it preserves the tomb statues of its bishops A. de Montfaucon (d. 1303) and H. d'Ossun (d. 1574). The ancient episcopal palace, rebuilt by bishop B. de Marmiesse (1655-80), is today converted into an asylum; there the ancient chapel of Ste-Marie-de-la-Sède or du-Siège, of the 14th century, is preserved.
Mirepoix, situated on the bank of the Hers, was created a diocese by Pope John XXII in 1317 and was suppressed by the French Revolution. Its cathedral was the church of St. Maurice, rebuilt from 1401 to 1433 and by bishop Lévis between 1497 and 1537; it has a single nave, with an apse surrounded by rectangular chapels. The ancient episcopal palace is also from 1497.
Alet is the ancient Electa, where the count of Razès founded an abbey in 813 which John XXII elevated to an episcopal see, suppressed by the French Revolution. The abbey church of Notre-Dame, erected in the first half of the 12th century, became the cathedral; it was ruined by the Huguenots, and was in the Romanesque-Provençal style with a Gothic ambulatory around the apse. The present parish church of St. Andrew, in southern Gothic style, is from the end of the 14th century; a chapel preserves 14th-century frescoes with scenes of Benedictine life.
Comminges is the ancient "Lugdunum Convenarum", today St-Bertrand de Comminges; it developed from the time of Augustus. Caligula exiled Herod Antipas there with his wife Herodias. It was destroyed by the Vandals in 408. Bishop Bertrand de l'Isle-Jourdain (1075-1123) founded a Romanesque cathedral and an episcopal palace on the hill overlooking the Garonne; a new city soon grew up there, which took its name from the bishop who was canonized in 1175. Bertrand de Got (1295-1309) was later bishop there, and when he became Pope Clement V (v.) he instituted a jubilee there for three days in all the years in which the feast of the Holy Cross (3 May) falls on a Friday. The diocese was suppressed by the Revolution. The cathedral of Notre-Dame, begun by St. Bertrand in 1120, was completed in 1304 and finished by bishop U. de Chatillon in 1349. It was damaged in the wars of religion. In the tympanum of the portal are carved the Twelve Apostles and the adoration of the Magi. The stained-glass windows are of the 16th century; of great artistic value are the 66 choir stalls with panels representing biblical figures, saints, popes, the virtues, the stars, etc.; precious is the Treasury with sacred furnishings of the 13th-14th centuries. The cloister preserves three Romanesque galleries and one of the 15th century. The local "Société archéologique du Midi" has transformed the ancient chapel of the Olivetan Benedictines into a museum called the "Galerie du Trophée". A sarcophagus found in the Christian Basilica contains the inscription: Du Christe famulae tuae Aemilianae requiem et vitam aeternam.
Bibliography3 works
Enrico Josi