Bishopric of Agen
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Diocese of Agen Dioecesis Agennensis Diocèse d'Agen |
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| Location | |
| Country | France |
| Ecclesiastical province | Bordeaux |
| Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Bordeaux |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 5,384 km2 (2,079 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2015) 341,700 (est.) 204,700 (est.) (59.9%) |
| Parishes | 194 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | 4th Century |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of Saint Caprais of Agen |
| Deacon and Martyr | Saint Stephen |
| Secular priests | 47 (diocesan) 28 (Religious Orders) 20 Permanent Deacons |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Hubert Herbreteau |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard |
| Website | |
| Website of the Diocese | |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Agen (Latin: Dioecesis Agennensis; French: Diocèse d'Agen) is a Latin Rite Roman Catholic diocese in France.
The diocese comprises the Département of Lot-et-Garonne, in the Region of Aquitaine. It has been successively suffragan to the archdioceses of Bordeaux (under the old regime), Toulouse (1802–22), and Bordeaux again (since 1822).
Legends which do not antedate the ninth century concerning Saint Caprasius, martyred with St. Fides by Dacianus, Prefect of the Gauls, during the persecution of Diocletian, and the story of Vincentius, a Christian martyr (written about 520), furnish no foundation for later traditions which make these two saints early bishops of Agen.
The cathedral of the diocese of Agen was formerly located in the church of St. Caprasius, outside the walls of the Roman town. In its reconstructed state, it is a splendid specimen of Romanesque architecture, dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. With the restoration of the diocese in 1802, it was again made the cathedral, in place of the Cathedral of St. Étienne, which had been destroyed during the French Revolution.
The trend in the medieval period was for the chapter to acquire more and more of a right, and then an exclusive right, to elect the bishop of the diocese, to the gradual exclusion of the rest of the clergy and the people. This development, however, was often retarded or impeded by other considerations. In the Agennais in the early medieval period, it was the duke of Aquitaine rather than the canons who had the decisive voice in the choosing of a bishop. This can be inferred from the charter granted in 1135 by King Louis VII, the husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, which restored to the canons of the chapter of Saint-Étienne the freedom to elect a bishop of their choice. When the popes took up residence in Avignon, Clement V reserved to himself the right to appoint bishops for all the dioceses in France.
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Wikipedia