Diocese of Fréjus

DIOCESE OF FRÉJUS. - City and diocese in southern France; the territory corresponds to that of the department of Var. The diocese has an area of 5,609 sq km with a population of 377,104 inhabitants, of whom 376,000 are Catholics, distributed in 180 parishes, served by 209 diocesan priests and 150 regulars, a major seminary at La Crau (Var); 15 male religious communities and 79 female ones (1949).

It is a suffragan of Aix. Patrons of the diocese: St. Leontius and St. Mary Magdalene.

Originally one of the many villages along the Roman roads (vici vicani) inhabited by some colonists who had received plots of land. Cicero speaks first of Forum Iulii in 43 B.C. A small settlement along the great artery that ran through lower Provence, it was chosen (39-31 B.C.) as a shipyard for the construction of light and fast vessels. Strabo calls it navale Caesaris Augusti. After the victory of Actium it was the port of the fleet of the coast of Gaul, a classical colony, and received the veterans of the VIII legion Augusta; Pliny mentions it as « Forum Iulii Octavanorum Colonia quae Pacensis appellatur et classica ».

(phot. Arellus photographicus)

FRÉJUS, diocese of - Exterior of the Baptistery (5th cent.), after restoration.

Among the bishops of F. the following are remembered: Leontius, named in two letters, one of Pope Boniface I of 419 and another of Pope Celestine I of 431; Theodore, who took part in the Councils of Riez (439), of Orange (441) and of Vaison (442). In the 6th century are known Victorinus, present at the Council of Agde of 506, John, represented at that of Arles of 524, as Desiderius in 541 and Expectatus at those of Orléans in 549 and of Paris in 552. In 632 Martin subscribed to the privilege of Rebais of 636. After that no names of bishops of F. are known until the 10th century. The diocese, suppressed in 1801, was re-established on 27 July 1817 and confirmed on 6 Oct. 1822. The Cathedral stands on the site of an ancient church, restored in the 9th century, rebuilt in the 12th with alterations of the 15th and 16th centuries; remains of the ancient Chapter and of the Romanesque façade survive, but more notable is the baptistery; square in plan on the outside, octagonal within, with a circular ambulatory supported by 8 columns of black granite; Corinthian capitals with pulvinus; a circular bench runs around; at the center is an octagonal masonry pool faced with marble, covered by a ciborium with 8 columns. The cathedral of F., dedicated to Notre Dame and to St. Leontius, possesses a sacramentary of the 12th century; a missal of the 13th century and a ritual of Uzès of the 15th century. United with F. is the title of Toulon, a diocese of the 5th century. Its known ancient bishops are: Auguètale, present at the Councils of Orange (441) and of Vaison (442), probably erroneously remembered as bishop of Arles on 7 Sept. in the Hieronymian Martyrology; St. Cyprian, disciple and biographer of St. Caesarius of Arles, who took part in the Council of Orléans of 541, while Palladius took part in that of 549; the bishop Menna addressed a letter to St. Gregory the Great (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1831)

The cathedral of Toulon has been entirely restored. The church of St. Maximin, begun at the end of the 13th century by Charles II of Sicily, was finished at the end of the 15th century; it is the finest example of architecture in the south of France. The principal sanctuaries of the diocese are: Notre-Dame des Anges at Pignans, Notre-Dame de Benat, Notre-Dame des Grâces at Cotignac. Distinguished is the basilica of St. Mary Magdalene at St-Maximin. Its construction was begun in 1295 by Giovanni Bandici by order of Charles II of Anjou and was finished in 1532. It constitutes the most distinguished product of northern Gothic art in Provence. The apse is polygonal, the vaults of the naves reach a height of 29 m., like the cathedrals of Bourges and of Le Mans. The crypt is a mausoleum containing Christian sarcophagi. It was officiated by the Benedictines until 1295, in which year they were replaced by the Dominicans, who remained there until the suppression of the religious Orders at the beginning of the 20th century.

Enrico Jesi