Country Corsica, France Denomination Roman Catholic Established 3rd Century Phone +33 4 95 51 75 50 Cathedral Ajaccio Cathedral | Parishes 434 Rite Roman Rite Area 8,722 km² Bishop Olivier de Germay Metropolitan archbishop Georges Pontier | |
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Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2012)
278,100
258,200 (92.8%) Address 8 Boulevard Sylvestre Marcaggi, 20000 Ajaccio, France Ecclesiastical province Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Marseille Similar Ajaccio Cathedral, Paroisse Saint Roch, Eglise du Sacré Coeur, Pomella Antoine, Mairie d'Ajaccio | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ajaccio (Latin: Dioecesis Adiacensis; French: Diocèse d'Ajaccio) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the whole of the island of Corsica.
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Erected in the 3rd century, the diocese was formerly a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Pisa. After the French Concordat of 1801, the diocese became a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Aix-en-Provence and Arles, until 2002 when it was attached to the archidiocesan province of Marseille. In 2012 in the diocese of Ajaccio there was one priest for every 3,636 Catholics.
History
Its first bishop known to history was Evandrus, who assisted at the Council of Rome in 313.
In 1077 Pope Gregory VII granted the sovereignty of the island of Corsica to Pisa. In 1347 Pisa was forced to cede its control over the island of Corsica to Genoa. Pope Eugene IV tried to reestablish papal sovereignty, but he failed.
At the end of the sixteenth century the Cathedral of Ajaccio had only two dignitaries, the Archpriest and the Archdeacon, and three Canons with three prebends. Pope Sixtus V added five Canons, making a total of ten members of the body. In 1695 there were two dignities and twelve Canons.
In 1759, Ajaccio had a population of around 5,000, under the political control of the Republic of Genoa, though the diocese was suffragan to the Metropolitan of Pisa. The Cathedral had one dignitary and thirteen canons, there was one monastery of monks.
Before the French Revolution, Corsica contained five other dioceses:
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1791) suppressed all these bishoprics in favor of one diocese for the entire island, called the Diocese de Corse, inside the province of the Côtes de la Méditerranée.
The Byzantine ruins at Mariana perpetuate the memory of the church built by the Pisans in the 12th century.
The Cathedral
There is a legend that the bishops banished from Africa to Corsica in 484 by Hunneric, Arian King of the Vandals, built with their own hands the primitive cathedral of Ajaccio. The present cathedral, dating from 1554 to 1593, owes its construction to the initiative of Gregory XIII, who while still Ugo Buoncompagni, spent some time at Ajaccio as papal legate. The see was left vacant for five years, during which time the diocesan revenues were applied to the building of the cathedral. It was finished by Bishop Giustiniani after his nomination. It is said that the cathedral was designed by Giacomo della Porta, but a guidebook remarks, "Se è vero, non era molto in forma." Napoleon Bonaparte's uncle Lucien (Luciano) was Archdeacon of the Church of Ajaccio. Napoleon was baptized in the Cathedral on 21 July 1771.
Liturgical services are held according to the Greek Byzantine rite in the village of Cargèse, founded in 1676 by the descendants of the Greek aristocrat Stephen Comnenus (Stephanos Comnenos), whom the Ottoman Turks had expelled from the Peloponnesus.