Tarbes and Lourdes, Diocese of
Tarbes and Lourdes, Diocese of. – A city and diocese, seat of the Hautes Pyrénées department (southwestern France), situated on the left bank of the Adour. Since 1912, it has been united with Lourdes. The bishop resides in Tarbes from April to November.
It has an area of 4,534 km² with a population of 201,954, of whom 181,759 are Catholics, distributed across 488 parishes, grouped under the three archpriestries of Tarbes, Lourdes, and Lannemezan; it has 337 diocesan priests and 28 regular clergy; a major and minor seminary, 8 male and 92 female religious communities (*Ann. Pont. 1953*, p. 417).
The current name derives from the Roman city of *Turna*, located however 17 km away. It was part of the county of Bigorre. Tarbes belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Eauze (Auch), originally corresponding to the civil province of Novempopulania; even today it is a suffragan of Auch. Christianity in the diocese is attested by its bishop Aper, who attended the Council of Agde in 506 and signed as «episcopus Bigorritanae civitatis», just as Julian signed at the Council of Orléans in 541 and Amelius at that of Mâcon in 585; Garstouns is mentioned in a letter of John VIII dated 13 June 879 always as «episcopus Bigarrensis». Later, the cardinals P. De Fois (1426–64) and G. De Grammont (1524–34) are recorded. The diocese was suppressed in 1801 and united with that of Bayonne and 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 Consistorial Congregation of 20 April 1912, Bl. Pius X established that the bishop of Tarbes should also bear the title of bishop of Lourdes *honoris causa* (AAS, 4 [1912], p. 338); Pope Benedict XV, by a bull dated 8 December 1917, granted the privilege of the sacred pallium to the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes and his successors, but only during ecclesiastical functions in the basilica of Lourdes (AAS, 10 [1918], pp. 53–54). The patroness of the diocese is Our Lady 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 remains Romanesque, with ribbed vaults and a broad transept; the central apse is surrounded by two smaller apses; the high altar with six columns of red Pyrenean marble dates from the 18th century, as do the choir stalls and the wooden decorations of the nave. The baptismal font is from the 13th century. Other churches include that 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 from the 18th century. In the Massey garden is the Tarbes Museum, founded in 1853; it contains archaeological collections, natural history, sculptures, and paintings; it also houses the École des arts, founded in 1947, seat of the society «Les Amis des arts». In the same garden has been transferred the cloister from the end of the 14th century of the ancient Cistercian abbey of St-Sever de Rustan (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, destroyed by the Saracens, rebuilt for the Benedictines by Louis the Good; devastated
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Tarazona, Diocese of
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Tarazona, Diocese of
The Diocesan Church of the Holy Spirit. Detail of the Retablo of the Virgin of Hope (15th century) – Tudela, Cathedral.