Carcassonne was founded by the Visigoths, who sought to compensate themselves for the loss of Lodève and Uzès by having Carcassonne made an episcopal see. The first of its bishops known to history was Sergius (589) and an Archdeacon of Carcassonne, Donnel, is recorded as having subscribed to the acts of the 4th Council of Toledo in 633.[2]
The churches of Nôtre-Dame de Canabès and Nôtre-Dame de Limoux, both of which date back to the ninth century, are still frequented by pilgrims. The Cathedral of Saints-Nazaire-et-Celse at Carcassonne was rebuilt toward the end of the eleventh century, the first work upon it being blessed by Pope Urban II, who had come to Carcassonne in 1088 to urge the Viscount Bernard Ato IV de Trincavel to join the Crusade. In 1295 Pope Urban addressed a letter to Bishop Pierre, confirming the institution of Clercs Regular of Saint Augustine in the Chapter of the Cathedral. The Chapter had existed for a considerable time, perhaps going back to Bishop Gimerius in the tenth century, but papal sanction confirmed and strengthened its position as a corporate body living under a Rule.[3] The approbation of Urban II was confirmed by Pope Anastasius IV in 1154. The Chapter included as officers the two Archdeacons, two archpriests, a Sacristan, a Precentor, a Chamberlain, an Eleemosynary, and a master of the works. In 1439, the canons were secularized by Pope Eugenius IV, and the Chapter came to have as officers a Dean, the Archdeacon, a Precentor, and a Sacristan. There were thirty Canons, each with a prebend, and they received a new set of Statutes.[4]
Since the Synod of 2007, the diocese has been reorganized into fourteen 'new parishes'.[5]
The history of the region of Carcassonne is intimately connected with that of the Albigenses. Notre-Dame-de-Prouille Monastery, where St. Dominic established a religious institute for converted Albigensian women in 1206, is still a place of pilgrimage consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. St. Peter of Castelnau, the Cistercian inquisitor martyred by the Albigenses in 1208, St. Camelia, put to death by the same sectarians, and St. John Francis Regis (1597-1640), the Jesuit, born at Fontcouverte in the Diocese of Narbonne, are specially venerated in the present Diocese of Carcassonne.
^Mahul, V, pp. 403 and 501, insisting on a date of 1088, but the Pope was nowhere near Milan, the place from which the letter was issued, in 1088. The correct date is 21 May 1095. See Philipp Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum I (Leipzig 1885), no. 5565.
^Mahul, V, p. 575-586. The first Dean was Hélie de Pompadour, Canon of the Cathedral, licentiate in laws and Bachelor of Canon Law.
^Le diocèse de Carcassonne et Narbonne, les-paroisses. Retrieved: 2016-07-29.
^Hugues de La Jugie was a nephew of Pope Clement VI. Bishop of Béziers (1350–1371). Transferred to Carcassonne by his cousin, Pope Gregory XI, on 27 June 1371. He died suddenly at Avignon, where he had gone to swear allegiance to his cousin, on 13 July 1371. He was buried in the Cathedral of Béziers. Mahul, V, p. 456.
^On 2 July 1409, Simon Cremaud was named Archbishop of Reims. He was named a Cardinal by Antipope John XXIII on 13 April 1413. He died on 15 December 1422. Mahul, V, pp. 459–460. Eubel, I, p. 33, 82, 166.
^Besaucèle had been Dean of the Chapter of Carcassonne before the Revolution. He was consecrated at Toulouse by Archbishop Antoine-Pascal-Hyacinthe Sermet of the Haute-Garonne on 15 May 1791. He was 78 years old. Paul Pisani (1907). Répertoire biographique de l'épiscopat constitutionnel (1791–1802) (in French). Paris: A. Picard et fils. pp. 371–374 and 457.
^Belmas was elected as Coadjutor to Constitutional Bishop Besaucèle, and was consecrated on 26 October 1800. Under the new Concordat of 1801, he retracted his schismatic adherence to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and obtained the See of Cambrai, of which he took possession on 6 June 1802. He repeated his retraction to Pius VII personally in 1804. He died, as Bishop of Cambrai, on 21 July 1841. Mahul, V, pp. 534–535.
Goyau, Georges (1908). Carcassonne (Carcassum).The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved: 2016-07-28. (obsolete)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Carcassonne (Carcassum)". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
