A ecclesiastical province is administrative unit of the Catholic church which originates in the administrative organization of old the Roman Empire. In the late Roman Empire (starting from the Tétrarchie), the province was a subdivision of a Diocèse.

As from the 4th century - 5th century, this organization was taken again by the Roman Catholic church, whereas an inversion of direction occurred: the Diocèse became a subdivision of the ecclesiastical province.

The bishops sitting in the Roman big cities, or “metropolitan”, obtained a right of monitoring on the bishops of cities less important: they were called archbishops as from the 6th century and the Pape conferred to them the Pallium , symbol of their authority.

Several dioceses thus form an ecclesiastical province or a metropolitan province, under the authority of a metropolitan archbishop. This last is with the head of a Archidiocèse. The bishops who depend on him are known as suffragan, just like their diocese.

At the the Middle Ages, In the countries of the Europe heirs to the Roman Empire, old the Roman provinces was preserved: they remained, almost without change in France until in 1802.

The French ecclesiastical provinces have been modified by twice for two centuries.

1. After the legal settlement of 1801, the old French dioceses were redécoupés: some disappeared before being restored in the course of the 19th century. New ecclesiastical provinces were then drawn, but by taking again more or less the features of the preceding ecclesiastical provinces. The ecclesiastical news Province of Turns included/understood the departments corresponding to old. It however was dismembered during the 19th century by the creation of the ecclesiastical Province of Rennes (departments of Brittany).
2. In the Years 1960, the catholic bishops of France tried out a new administrative organization, with the apostolic areas . The ecclesiastical provinces therefore were removed of it, but were not deactivation, except for the officialities. By a decree of the pope Jean-Paul II on December 8th 2002, the certificated provinces and the apostolic areas were removed and replaced by new ecclesiastical provinces.

Since 2003, the role of the metropolitan archbishops was restored, after having lost during long centuries its hierarchical specificity. Several archdioceses, sometimes very old, lost their title of Métropole, with the ecclesiastical direction of the term, and is become again of simple dioceses. It is the case in particular for the very old ecclesiastical Province of the Bourges, formerly vastest of Gaulle then of France: the diocese of Bourges belongs from now on to the ecclesiastical Province of Turns; a Archevêque remains nevertheless at his head.

By comparing the new chart with those of the old Roman provinces, only the ecclesiastical Province of Rouen, which corresponds to the six dioceses of High and Basse-Normandie, can be prevailed of a certain filiation: it corresponds about to the Lyonnaise second of the 4th century.

See too

Internal bonds

• Roman Province
• Dioceses of the Roman Empire
• late Antiquity
• List of the catholic ecclesiastical provinces
• List of the ecclesiastical provinces Anglicans
• List of the dioceses and archdioceses of Canada
• orthodoxe List of the dioceses and archdioceses ()
• List of évêchés and archbishop's palaces French (Old Mode)
• French catholic Districts at the XIXe century
• French catholic Districts since 2002
• List of the ecclesiastical provinces indonésiennes

External bond

• New chart of the French ecclesiastical provinces (Site of the Catholic church)