Ecclesiastical province Marseille Denomination Roman Catholic Area 6,022 km² Phone +33 4 94 92 28 91 | Parishes 166 Rite Roman Rite Bishop Dominique Rey Country France | |
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Metropolitan Archdiocese of Marseille Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2013)
1,142,000
682,000 (59.7%) Address 55 Place de la Cathédrale, 83000 Toulon, France Similar Eglise Catholique, Maison Paroissiale Mourillon, Paroisse de l'Immacul, Paroisse Cathédrale Notre Da, Paroisse Notre Dame de | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fréjus–Toulon (Latin: Dioecesis Foroiuliensis–Tolonensis; French: Diocèse de Fréjus–Toulon) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in southeastern France on the Mediterranean coast. In 1957 it was renamed as the Diocese of Fréjus–Toulon.
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A suffragan of the Archbishopric of Aix-en-Provence and Arles, it comprised the whole département of Var. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy the département of Var constituted a bishopric, absorbing the dioceses of Toulon, Fréjus, Grasse and Vence. It was suppressed by the Concordat of 1801, re-established by that of 1817, and definitively established in 1823.
The arrondissement of Grasse, which until 1860 belonged to the département of Var, when it was annexed to that of the Alpes-Maritimes, was, in 1886, separated from Fréjus and attached to the Diocese of Nice. A Papal Brief of 1852 authorized the bishop to assume the title of Bishop of Fréjus and Toulon. The present diocese comprises the territory of the ancient Diocese of Fréjus as well as that of the ancient Diocese of Toulon.
Since 16 May 2000, the Bishop of Fréjus–Toulon has been Bishop Dominique Marie Jean Rey. On 18 September 2012, Bishop Rey was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as one of the papally-appointed Synod Fathers of the October 2012 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.
History
Christianity would seem to have been introduced into Fréjus in the fourth century. In 374 a certain Acceptus, who had just been elected to the See of Fréjus, falsely declared himself guilty of some crimes in order to rid himself of the episcopal dignity. At the Council of Valence, which met in July of 374, he begged the Church to name another in his place. The Council decided that his actions made it inappropriate for him to be consecrated a bishop.
Fréjus was completely destroyed by the Saracens in the early tenth century. It was Bishop Riculfus who began the reconstruction of the Cathedral.
The following are named among the bishops of this see:
The Island of Lérins, well known as the site of the celebrated monastery founded there in 410, was sold in 1859 by the bishop of Fréjus to an English purchaser. A number of the saints of Lérins are especially honoured in the diocese. Among them are Sts. Honoratus, Caesarius, Hilary, and Virgilius, all of whom became archbishop of Arles; Quinidius, Bishop of Vaison; Valerius, Bishop of Nice; Maximus, Bishop of Riez; Veranus and Lambertus, both Bishop of Vence; Vincent of Lérins, author of the Commonitorium, and his brother Lupus, Bishop of Troyes; Agricola, Bishop of Avignon; Aigulphus and Porcarius, martyrs; St. Tropesius, martyr during the persecution of Emperor Nero; St. Louis of Toulouse (1274–1297), a native of Brignoles, in the Diocese of Toulon, and later Archbishop of Toulouse; and the virgin St. Roseline, prioress of the monastery of La Celle-Roubaud, who died in 1329, and whose shrine, situated at Les Arcs near Draguignan, has been for six centuries a place of pilgrimage, are likewise especially honoured in the diocese.
The sojourn in 1482 of St. Francis of Paola at Bormes and at Fréjus, where he caused the cessation of the plague, made a lasting impression.
Under Louis XIV, who enjoyed the right to nominate bishops to all French sees with the exception of Metz, Verdun and Toul, the See of Fréjus was merely an early stepping-stone for careers of clerics whose ambitions lay elsewhere.