The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Auch, otherwise known in antiquity as Augusta Auscorum, is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic church in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The archdiocese now comprises the department of Gers

Gers

The Gers is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.Inhabitants are called les Gersois or Gersoises.-History:...

 in south-west France. It now is officially Auch, Condom, Lectoure and Lombez. The archdiocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Toulouse

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toulouse, is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the Department of Haute-Garonne...

, and the current bishop is Maurice Marcel Gardès, appointed in 2004.

History

Originally erected in the 6th century as the diocese of Auch, the diocese was elevated in 847 to an archdiocese. As a metropolitan see at the time, it had ten suffragan sees: Acqs (Dax) and Aire, afterwards united as the Diocese of Aire; Lectoure, later reunited with the Archdiocese of Auch; Couserans, afterwards united with the Diocese of Pamiers; Oloron, Lescar, and Bayonne, united later as the diocese of Bayonne; Bazas, afterwards united with the Archdiocese of Bordeaux; Comminges, united later with the Archdiocese of Toulouse; and Tarbes.

Up to 1789 the Archbishops of Auch bore the title of Aquitaine

Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...

, though for centuries there had been no Aquitaine.
The Archdiocese of Auch, re-established in 1882, was made up of the former archdiocese of the same name and the former Dioceses of Lectoure, Condom, and Lombez. Condom was previously a suffragan of Bordeaux, and Lombez of Toulouse; thenceforth the suffragans of Auch were Aire, Tarbes, and Bayonne.

A local tradition that dates back to the beginning of the twelfth century tells us that Taurinus, fifth Bishop of Eauze (Elusa), abandoned his episcopal city, which was destroyed by the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

, and transferred his see to Auch. Eauze, in fact, probably remained a metropolitan see till about the middle of the ninth century, at which time, owing to the invasions of the Vikings, it was reunited, to the Diocese of Auch, which had existed since the fifth century at and then became an archdiocese.

The first Bishop of Auch known to history is the poet, St. Orientius (first half of the fifth century), in honor of whom a famous abbey was founded in the seventh century. Cardinal Melchior de Polignac

Melchior de Polignac

Melchior de Polignac was a French diplomat, Roman Catholic cardinal and neo-Latin poet.A younger son of Armand XVI, marquis de Polignac, he was born at Lavoûte-sur-Loire, Haute-Loire, Auvergne. At an early age he achieved distinction as a diplomat...

, author of the "Anti-Lucrèce," was Archbishop of Auch from 1725 to 1741.

Auch Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Gothic structure with a Byzantine

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

 façade, but in spite of this incongruity, very imposing; its fifteenth-century windows are said to be the most beautiful in France.

Ordinaries

• Augustin de Maupeou † ( 1705 Appointed - )
• Jacques des Maretz † (26 Feb 1714 Appointed - )
• Melchior de Polignac
  Melchior de Polignac
  Melchior de Polignac was a French diplomat, Roman Catholic cardinal and neo-Latin poet.A younger son of Armand XVI, marquis de Polignac, he was born at Lavoûte-sur-Loire, Haute-Loire, Auvergne. At an early age he achieved distinction as a diplomat...
  
   † (Dec 1725 Appointed - 20 Nov 1741 Died)
• Louis-Apolinaire de La Tour du Pin-Montauban † (15 Jun 1783 Appointed - 24 Oct 1801 Resigned)
• André-Etienne-Antoine de Morlhon † (13 Jan 1823 Appointed - 14 Jan 1828 Died)
• Louis-François-Auguste de Rohan-Chabot † (27 Apr 1828 Appointed - 6 Jul 1828 Appointed, Archbishop of Besançon)
• Joachim-Jean-Xavier d'Isoard † (6 Jul 1828 Appointed - 13 Jun 1839 Appointed, Archbishop of Lyon)
• Nicolas-Augustin de la Croix d'Azolette † (4 Dec 1839 Appointed - Jan 1856 Retired)
• Louis-Antoine de Salinis † (12 Feb 1856 Appointed - 30 Jan 1861 Died)
• François-Augustin Delamare † (20 Feb 1861 Appointed - 26 Jul 1871 Died)
• Pierre-Henri Gérault de Langalerie † (30 Sep 1871 Appointed - 13 Feb 1886 Died)
• Louis-Joseph-Jean-Baptiste-Léon Gouzot † (16 Apr 1887 Appointed - 20 Aug 1895 Died)
• Matthieu-Victor-Félicien Balaïn, O.M.I. † (30 May 1896 Appointed - 13 May 1905 Died)
• Emile-Christophe Enard † (21 Feb 1906 Appointed - 13 Mar 1907 Died)
• Joseph-François-Ernest Ricard † (15 Apr 1907 Appointed - 18 Sep 1934 Retired)
• Virgile-Joseph Béguin † (24 Dec 1934 Appointed - 2 Mar 1955 Died)
• Henri Audrain † (2 Mar 1955 Succeeded - 16 Apr 1968 Resigned)
• Maurice-Mathieu-Louis Rigaud † (16 Apr 1968 Appointed - 29 Dec 1984 Died)
• Gabriel Marie Étienne Vanel (21 Jun 1985 Appointed - 1 Mar 1996 Resigned)
• Maurice Lucien Fréchard, C.S.Sp. (6 Sep 1996 Appointed - 21 Dec 2004 Retired)
• Maurice Marcel Gardès (21 Dec 2004 Appointed - )

External links

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