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Diocese of Tournai

Diocese of Tournai
Dioecesis Tornacensis
Diocèse de Tournai (French)
Bistum Tournai (German)
Bisdom Doornik (Dutch)
DoornikLuchtfoto.jpg
Aerial view of Tournai Cathedral
Location
Country Belgium
Ecclesiastical province Mechelen-Brussels
Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels
Statistics
Area 3,796 km2 (1,466 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics
(as of 2010)
1,291,850
904,905 (70%)
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Rite Roman Rite
Established 6th Century
Cathedral Cathedral of Notre Dame de Tournai
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Bishop Guy Harpigny
Metropolitan Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard
Map
The Diocese of Tournai, coextensive with the province of Hainaut
The Diocese of Tournai, coextensive with the province of Hainaut
Website
Website of the Diocese

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tournai is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in Belgium. The diocese was formed in 1146, by the splitting of the diocese of Noyon and Tournai that had existed since the 7th century. It is now suffragan of the archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels.

As early as the second half of the 3rd century St. Piat evangelized Tournai; some writers represent him as the first bishop, but this cannot be proved. Towards the end of the 3rd century the Emperor Maximian rekindled the persecutions, and St. Piat suffered martyrdom.

The barbarian invasions began shortly afterwards. This lasted from the end of the 3rd century till the end of the 5th century. St. Remigius profited by the good will of the Frankish monarchy to organize the Catholic hierarchy in the north of Gaul. He confided the Diocese of Arras and Cambrai to St. Vaast (Vedastus), and erected the See of Tournai (c. 500), appointing as its titular Eleutherius.

It was probably its character of royal city which secured for Tournai this premature creation, but it soon lost its rank of capital by the departure of the Merovingian court. Nevertheless it kept its own bishops for nearly a century; then about 626 or 627, under the episcopate of St. Achar, the sees of Tournai and Noyon were united, retaining separate organizations. Tournai then lost the benefit of a privileged situation, and shared the condition of the neighbouring dioceses, such as Boulogne and Therouanne, Arras and Cambrai, where the same titular held both sees for five hundred years. It was only in 1146 that Tournai received its own bishop.


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