TARBES AND LOURDES, Diocese of. - City and diocese, seat of the department of Hautes-Pyrénées (southwestern France), situated on the left bank of the Adour. It has been united with Lourdes since 1912. The bishop resides at T. from April to November.
It has an area of 4,534 sq km with a population of 201,954, of whom 181,759 are Catholics, distributed among 488 parishes, grouped under the three archpresbyteries of T., L. and Lannemezan; it numbers 337 diocesan priests and 28 regulars; a major and a minor seminary, 8 male religious communities and 92 female (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 417).
The present name derives from the Roman city of Turna, situated however 17 km away. It was part of the county of Bigorre. Tarbes belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Eauze (Auch), corresponding originally to the civil province of Novempopulonia; even today it is a suffragan of Auch. Christianity in the diocese is attested by its bishop Aper, who was at the Council of Agde in 506 and signed himself "episcopus Bigorritanae civitatis," as Julian signed at the Council of Orléans of 541 and Amelius at that of Mâcon in 585; Garstonus is cited in the letter of John VIII dated 13 June 879, likewise as "episcopus Bigarrensis." Later, Cardinals P. De Fois (1462-64) and G. De Grammont (1524-34) are remembered. The diocese was suppressed in 1801 and united to that of Bayonne and of Aire. It was reconstituted by Pope Pius VII in 1817 with its present territory and as a suffragan of Auch. By decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory of 20 April 1912, Bl. Pius X established that honoris causa the bishop of T. should also assume the title of bishop of L. (AAS, 4 [1912], p. 338); Pope Benedict XV, by bull dated 8 December 1917, granted the privilege of the sacred pallium to the bishop of T. and L. and his successors, only in ecclesiastical functions in the basilica of L. (AAS, 10 [1918], pp. 53-54). The patroness of the diocese is Notre Dame under the title of the Nativity.
The Cathedral, also called the Sede, is a building originally Romanesque that has undergone various modifications; the central nave is still Romanesque, with pointed vaults and a broad transept; the central apse is surrounded by two minor apses; the high altar with 6 columns of veined red Pyrenean marble is of the 18th century, and of the same period are the choir stalls and the wooden decorations of the nave. The baptismal font is of the 13th century. Other churches are those of St. Teresa or of the Carmelites, built in 1282, with a Gothic bell tower, restored in the 15th century, and that of St. John of the 18th century. In the Massey garden is the Museum of T., founded in 1853; it contains archaeological collections, natural history collections, sculptures and paintings; moreover there is located the "Ecole des arts," founded in 1947, seat of the society "Les Amis des arts." In the same garden the cloister of the late 14th century of the ancient Cistercian abbey of St-Sever de Rustan has been transferred (Cottineau, II, col. 2889).
In the district of Argelès is the ancient abbey of St-Savin de Bigorre or of Lavedem, whose foundation is attributed to Charlemagne, demolished by the Saracens, rebuilt for the Benedictines by Louis the Pious; devastated by the Normans in 945, it was restored by Raymond, count of Bigorre; it was under the dependence of St. Victor of Marseilles in 1080; it passed to the Maurist Congregation in 1625; the church and the abbey have recently been restored (Cottineau, II, coll. 2882-83). Furthermore in the same district is the ancient, likewise Benedictine, abbey of St-Pé-de-Céneres of the 11th century; its church dedicated to Sts. Peter and Paul was consecrated in 1096; the abbey passed to the Maurist Congregation in 1666 and was suppressed by the Revolution (L. Ricaud, L'abbaye de St-Pé, Mort et Résurrection, Bagnères-de-Bigorre 1912; Cottineau, II, coll. 2841-42). - See plate CXXV.
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Enrico Josi