Diocese of Nîmes (–Uzès and Alès) Dioecesis Nemausensis (–Uticensis et Alesiensis) Diocèse de Nîmes (–Uzès et Alès) |
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Location | |
Country | France |
Ecclesiastical province | Montpellier |
Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Montpellier |
Statistics | |
Area | 5,880 km2 (2,270 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2004) 623,125 364,523 (58.5%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | Name Changed: 27 April 1877 |
Cathedral | Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady and St. Castor in Nîmes |
Patron saint | Notre Dame |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Robert Wattebled |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Pierre-Marie Carré |
Website | |
Website of the Diocese |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nîmes (Latin: Dioecesis Nemausensis; French: Diocèse de Nîmes) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises all of the department of Gard. It is suffragan of the Diocese of Avignon.
By the Concordat of 1801 its territory was united with the Diocese of Avignon. It was re-established as a separate diocese in 1821 and a Brief of 27 April 1877, grants to its bishops the right to add Alais (the modern Alès) and Uzès to their episcopal style, these two dioceses being now combined with that of Nîmes. Therefore, correctly it is the Diocese of Nîmes (–Uzès and Alès) (Latin: Dioecesis Nemausensis (–Uticensis et Alesiensis); French: Diocèse de Nîmes (–Uzès et Alès)).
Nîmes (Latin: ) was an important city in Roman antiquity. The Pont du Gard is not far away.
Late and rather contradictory traditions attribute the foundation of the Church of Nîmes either to Celidonius, the man "who was blind from his birth" of the Gospel, or to St. Honestus, the apostle of Navarre, said to have been sent to southern France by St. Peter, with St. Saturninus (Sernin), the apostle of Toulouse. The true apostle of Nîmes was St. Baudilus, whose martyrdom is placed by some at the end of the 3rd century, and by others at the end of the fourth. Many writers affirm that a certain St. Felix, martyred by the Vandals about 407, was Bishop of Nîmes, but Louis Duchesne questions this.