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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Bourges</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02720b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Coextensive with the departments of Cher and Indre"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="02720b.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/b.htm">B</a> > Bourges</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Bourges</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>ARCHDIOCESE OF BOURGES (BITURICÆ).</p> <p>Coextensive with the departments of Cher and Indre. After the Concordat of 1802 it became the <a href="../cathen/10244c.htm">metropolitan</a> of the Sees of <a href="../cathen/04053a.htm">Clermont</a>, <a href="../cathen/13347b.htm">Saint-Flour</a>, and Limoges, and in 1822 received as new suffragans the Sees of <a href="../cathen/15086c.htm">Tulle</a> and <a href="../cathen/09185b.htm">Le Puy</a>. As <a href="../cathen/07018b.htm">Gregory of Tours</a> assigns a date subsequent to the "mission of the twelve bishops", that is, to the year 250, for the foundation of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> at Bourges; and as Leo, who occupied the See of Bourges in 453, was its twelfth <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a>; Duchesne, after most careful calculation, places the episcopate of St. Ursinus, founder of the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a>, near the close of the third century. He explains that the legend which makes Ursinus one of the seventy-two disciples seems to be of the later origin than that of <a href="../cathen/09721c.htm">St. Martial</a>, being met with for the first time in an eleventh-century <a href="../cathen/09614b.htm">manuscript</a>. Fifteen <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> figured among Leo's successors up to the end of the ninth century: Sevitianus, Ætherius, Thecretus, Marcellus (all prior to 337); <a href="../cathen/11425a.htm">Palladius</a> (377-384); Simplicius (472-480); Desideratus (549-550); Probianus, Felix, Remedius, and the first Sulpicius (all in the second half of the sixth century); Austregisilus (612-624); the second Sulpicius (624-644), after whom the celebrated church of St.-Sulpice in <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> was named; David (793-802); and Agilulfus (c. 820-840). Among later <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> are: St. Guillaume de Donjeon (1200-09); the celebrated <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theologian</a>, Ægidius a Columnis (1298-1316); and Jean Coeur and during whose episcopate the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">University</a> of Bourges was founded.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The claims of the See of Bourges to the primacy in Aquitaine are treated at length in the article on <a href="../cathen/02682a.htm">Bordeaux</a>. <a href="../cathen/04020a.htm">Pope Clement V</a> (1305-14) opposed these claims; nevertheless the See of Bourges always prided itself upon a sort of platonic supremacy and when, in 1678, the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">Bishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/01267a.htm">Albi</a> became <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a>, he recognized explicitly the claims of Bourges. Even today the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of Bourges retains the title of Primae of Aquitaine; in this way, the name of Aquitaine which, after the thirteenth century, disappeared from political geography (being replaced by that of Guyenne) has been perpetuated in the terminology of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. In 1107 <a href="../cathen/11514b.htm">Pascal II</a>, and in 1163 <a href="../cathen/01287a.htm">Alexander III</a>, visited the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> of Bourges. Many councils were held at Bourges, the principal among them being those of 1225 and 1226 which dealt with the <a href="../cathen/01267e.htm">Albigenses</a>; that of 1438, after which Charles VII <a href="../cathen/12454b.htm">promulgated</a> the <a href="../cathen/12333a.htm">Pragmatic Sanction</a> whereby the decrees of Basle were ratified in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, and the organization of a Gallican Church was attempted; and the council of 1528 which combated the <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestant</a> encroachments favoured at Bourges on the one side by the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> in which <a href="../cathen/03195b.htm">Calvin</a> and Theodore Beza studied, and on the other by the court of Margaret of Valois.</p> <p>The following great <a href="../cathen/01010a.htm">abbeys</a> were located within the diocese: the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> Abbey of Déols near Châteauroux, founded in the tenth century, where St. Lusorius, son of the senator Leocadius, was <a href="../cathen/03071a.htm">interred</a>; the Abbey of St.-Satur near Sancerre, founded in 463; and that of Chezal-Benoît founded in 1098 by Blessed André of Vallombrosa, and mother-house of the great <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> congregation which included the <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Parisian</a> Abbey of St.-Germain-des-Prés and was later merged into the Congregation of St.-Maur. St. Leman, <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/13744a.htm">Seville</a>, who fled the persecutions of Totila, suffered <a href="../cathen/09736b.htm">martyrdom</a> at Vatan in the middle of the sixth century. Louis VII (1120-80) was <a href="../cathen/04380a.htm">crowned</a> in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">Cathedral</a> of Bourges, and Louis XI (1423-83) and the great Condé (1621-86) were <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a> at Bourges. Labbe, author of the "Collection of Councils" (1607-67) and <a href="../cathen/02717a.htm">Bourdaloue</a>, the illustrious preacher (1632-1704), both <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a>, were born at Bourges. The Cathedral of Bourges (thirteenth century) has beautiful windows and its <a href="../cathen/13322b.htm">sacristy</a> (fifteenth century) was built at the expense of Jacques Coeur.</p> <p>The places of <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimages</a> in the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocese</a> are: (1) Notre Dame of Déols near Châteauroux, a <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> begun in the tenth century by Ebbo. The church was <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> by <a href="../cathen/11514b.htm">Pascal II</a>. <a href="../cathen/01287a.htm">Pope Alexander III</a> when in exile lived there and received Henry II of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>; Pope <a href="../cathen/07457a.htm">Honorius III</a> visited it. (2) Notre Dame du Bien Mourir at Fontgombault. (3) The <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrimage</a> of Ste.-Solange, <a href="../cathen/11562a.htm">patron saint</a> of the County of Berry. Ste.-Solange was born at Villemont, three leagues from Bourges, and suffered death to preserve her virginity. (4) Notre Dame du Sacré Coeur at Issoudun. (5) Notre Dame de Pellevoisin, famous for the visions that date back to 1876 and concerning which <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> authority is still silent.</p> <p>In 1899, the following institutions were found in the archdiocese: 36 infant <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> in Cher and 29 in Indre, conducted by sisters, 3 girls' <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanages</a> in Cher and 2 in Indre, 1 house of refuge for young <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> in Cher, 2 patronages for girls in Cher, 20 <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospitals</a> or hospices in Cher and 14 in Indre, 5 communities for the care of the sick in their homes in Cher and 4 in Indre, 1 insane asylum in Cher, 6 homes for the aged in Cher and 2 in Indre, 1 <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphanage</a> for deaf-mute and blind girls in Indre, and 1 home for incurables in Indre, all conducted by <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>In 1900 the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders of men in the diocese were: <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">Jesuits</a> and <a href="../cathen/06217a.htm">Franciscans</a> at Bourges; <a href="../cathen/15024a.htm">Trappists</a> at Fontgombault. The <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">societies</a> peculiar to the diocese were: Men: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1854 with the mother-house at Issoudun. This house is the centre of the universal Archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart which has <a href="../cathen/15401b.htm">vicariates Apostolic</a> in Oceanica. <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">Women</a>: (1) <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictines</a> of the Holy Sacrament or of St. Laurence, a congregation said to date back to the time of <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>. They are Sisters of the perpetual Adoration and teachers. (2) Sisters of Charity and of the Holy Sacrament, called de Montoire, with the mother-house at Bourges. This congregation, founded in 1662 by Antoine* Moreau, devotes itself to teaching and <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> nursing. It has 150 houses of which 106 are in the Diocese of Bourges. (3) Religious of the Immaculate Mary, <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a> nurses and teachers, with the mother-house at Bourges. After the Revolution, the congregation took the place of the lay confraternity of the Immaculate Mary, and, subsequent to 1857 had charge of the general <a href="../cathen/07480a.htm">hospital</a>. (4) Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Issoudun with houses in <a href="../cathen/02395a.htm">Belgium</a> and Australia. At the close of 1905 the Archdiocese of Bourges had 652,681 inhabitants, 65 pastorates 430 succursal <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parishes</a> (mission churches), and 28 curacies.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">Gallia Christiana (1720), II, 1-115; instrumenta, 1-72; LEROUX, La primatie de Bourges (Annales du Midi) (1895), VII; PARISET, L'établissement de la primatie de Bourges in Annales du Midi (1902), XIV; DE GIRARDOT AND DURANT, La Cathédrale de Bourges (Moulins, 1849); DUCHESNE, Fastes épiscopaux, II; VALOIS, Hist. de la pragmatique Sanction de Bourges sous Charles VII (Paris, 1906); CHEVALIER, Topobibl., 465-466.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Goyau, G.</span> <span id="apayear">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Bourges.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02720b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Goyau, Georges.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Bourges."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 2.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02720b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Theodore Rego.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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