Diocese of Montauban Dioecesis Montis Albani Diocèse de Montauban |
|
---|---|
Location | |
Country | France |
Ecclesiastical province | Toulouse |
Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Toulouse |
Statistics | |
Area | 3,717 km2 (1,435 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2004) 206,034 160,000 (77.7%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | 11 July 1317 |
Cathedral | Cathedral of Notre Dame of the Assumption in Montauban |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Bernard Ginoux |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Robert Jean Louis Le Gall |
Emeritus Bishops | Jacques de Saint-Blanquat Bishop Emeritus (1975-1995) |
Website | |
Website of the Diocese |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Montauban, is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese is coextensive with Tarn-et-Garonne. Currently a suffragan of the archdiocese of Toulouse, the episcopal seat is in Montauban Cathedral.
Suppressed under the Concordat of 1802 and divided between the three neighbouring dioceses of Toulouse, Agen, and Cahors, Montauban was re-established by imperial decree of 1809, but this measure was not approved by the Holy See. Re-established by the Concordat of 1817, it was filled only in 1824.
In 820 Benedictine monks had founded Montauriol Abbey under the patronage of Saint Martin; subsequently it adopted the name of its abbot Saint Theodard, Archbishop of Narbonne, who died at the abbey in 893. The Count of Toulouse, Alphonse Jourdan, took from the abbey in 1144 its lands on the heights overlooking the right bank of the Tarn, and founded there the city of Montauban; a certain number of inhabitants of Montauriol and serfs of the abbey formed the nucleus of the population. The monks protested, and in 1149 a satisfactory agreement was concluded.
Notwithstanding the sufferings of Montauban during the Albigensian wars, it grew rapidly. Pope John XXII, by the Bull Salvator (25 June 1317), separated from the ecclesiastical province of Narbonne, the see of Toulouse, made it an archiepiscopal see, and gave it as suffragans four dioceses created within its territory: Montauban, the diocese of St.-Papoul, diocese of Rieux, and diocese of Lombez. Bertrand de Puy, abbot at Montauriol, was first bishop of Montauban.