Bordeaux

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(BURDIGALA).

Archdiocese; comprises the entire department of the Gironde and was established conformably to the Concordat of 1802 by combining the ancient Diocese of Bordeaux (diminished by the cession of Born to the Bishopric ofAire) with the greater part of the suppressed Diocese of Bazas. Constituted by the same Concordatmetropolitan to theBishoprics ofAngoulême,Poitiers and La Rochelle, the See of Bordeaux received in 1822, as additional suffragans, those ofAgen, withdrawn from themetropolitanjurisdiction ofToulouse, and the newly re-established Périgueux and Luçon, and still later, in 1850, the three colonialBishoprics of Fort-de-France (Martinique), Basse-Terre (Guadaloupe), and Saint-Denis (Réunion).

The old diocese of Bordeaux

According to old Limousin legends which date back to the beginning of the eleventh century, Bordeaux was evangelized in the first century bySt. Martial (Martialis), who replaced a temple to the unknown god, which he destroyed, with one dedicated to St. Stephen. The same legends representSt. Martial as having brought to the Soulac coastSt. Veronica, who is still especiallyvenerated in the church of Notre-Dame de Fin des Terres at Soulac; as having cured Sigebert, the paralytic husband of thepious Benedicta, and made himBishop of Bordeaux; as addressing beautiful Latin letters to the people of Bordeaux, to which city he is said to have left thepastoral staff which has been treasured as arelic by the Chapter of Saint-Seurin (For this cycle of legends seeLIMOGES).

The firstBishop of Bordeaux known to history, Orientalis, is mentioned at theCouncil of Arles, in 314. By the close of the fourth centuryChristianity had made such progress in Bordeaux that a synod was held there (385-386) for the purpose of adopting measures against the Priscillianists, whoseheresy had caused popular disturbances. This was during the episcopate of Delphinus (380-404), who attended the Council of Saragossa in 380 and maintained correspondence withSt. Ambrose and withSt. Paulinus of Nola. At the beginning of the fifth century a mysterious personage who, according toSt. Gregory of Tours, came from the East, appeared at Bordeaux. This was St. Seurin (or Severinus), in whose favour Bishop Amand abdicated thesee from 410 to 420, resuming it after Seurin's death and occupying it until 432. In the sixth century Bordeaux had an illustriousbishop in theperson of Leontius II (542-564), a man of great influence who used his wealth in building churches and clearing lands and whom the poetFortunatus callspatrioe caput. During this Merovingian period thecathedral church, founded in the fourth century, occupied the same site that it does today, back to back against the ramparts of the ancient city. The Faubourg Saint-Seurin outside the city was a great centre of popular devotion, with its three largebasilicas of St. Stephen, St. Seurin, and St. Martin surrounding a largenecropolis from which a certain number of sarcophagi are still preserved. This faubourg was like a holy city; and the cemetery of St. Seurin was full oftombs of the Merovingian period around which the popularimagination of later ages was to create legends. In the high noon of theMiddle Ages it used to be told howChrist Himself hadconsecrated this cemetery and thatCharlemagne, having fought theSaracens near Bordeaux, had visited it and laid Roland's wonderful horn Olivant on the altar of Saint Seurin.

Dessus l'autel de Saint Seurin le baron, Il met l'oliphant plein d'or et de mangons

—says the "Chanson de Roland". Manytombs passed for those ofCharlemagne's gallantknights, and others were honored as the resting-places of Veronica and Benedicta. At the other extremity of the city, theBenedictines filled in the marshes of L'Eau-Bourde and founded there themonastery of Sainte-Croix. While thus surrounded by evidences ofChristian conquest, the academic Bordeaux of the Merovingian period continued to cherish the memory of its formerschool of eloquence, whose chief glories had been the poet Ausonius (310-395) and St. Paulinus (353-431), who had been a rhetorician at Bordeaux and diedBishop ofNola. The reigns of William VIII and William IX, Dukes of Aquitaine (1052-1127), were noted for the splendid development of Romanesque architecture in Bordeaux. Parts of the churches of Sainte-Croix and Saint-Seurin belong to that time, and theCathedral of Saint-André was begun in 1096.

In theMiddle Ages, a struggle between the Sees of Bordeaux and Bourges was brought about by the claims of the latter to the primacy of Aquitaine. This question has been closely investigated by modern scholars, and it has been ascertained that a certain letter fromNicholas I to Rodolfus, which would date the existence of the primacy ofBourges from the ninth century, is not authentic. As ths capital ofAquitania prima, Bourges at an earlydate vaguely aspired to pre-eminence over the provinces ofAquitania secunda andtertia, and thence over Bordeaux. It was about 1073 that these aspirations were more formally asserted; between 1112 and 1126 thepapacy acknowledged them, and in 1146 Eugenius III confirmed the primacy of Pierre de la Chatre,Archbishop ofBourges, over Bordeaux. In 1232,Gregory IX gave theArchbishop ofBourges, as patriarch, theright to visit the province of Aquitaine, imposed upon theArchbishop of Bordeaux theduty of assisting, at least once, at the councils held by his "brother" ofBourges, and decided that appeals might be made from the former to the latter. Occasionally, however, as in 1240 and 1284, theArchbishops ofBourges coming to Bordeaux, found the doors of the churches closed against them, and answered withexcommunication the solemn protests which the Bordeauxclergy made against their visits. Aquitaine was lost toFrance by the annulment of that marriage between Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine which was celebrated in theCathedral of Bordeaux in the year 1137, and Bordeaux became the capital of the English possessions inFrance. Thereupon the struggle between the Sees of Bordeaux and Bourges assumed a political character, the King ofFrance necessarily upholding the claims ofBourges. Most of thearchbishops were conspicuous as agents of English policy in Aquitaine, notable amongst them being Guillaume Amanieu (1207-26), on whom King Henry III ofEngland conferred the title of seneschal and guardian of all his lands beyond the sea, and who took part inSpain in thewars against theSaracens, Gérard de Mallemort (1227-60), a generous founder ofmonasteries, who acted as mediator between St. Louis and Henry III, and defended Gascony against the tyranny of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. During the episcopate of Gerard de Mallemort the old Romanesque church of Saint-André was transformed into a Gothiccathedral.Pope Clement V (1305-14) was unfavourable to the claims ofBourges. He was a native of Villandraut near Bazas, where he had built a beautiful collegiate church, wasArchbishop of Bordeaux from 1300 to 1305, and political adviser toPhilip the Fair. When he becamepope, in spite of his French sympathies, his heart was set upon the formal emancipation of Bordeaux fromBourges.Blessed Pierre Berland, or Peyberland as tradition calls him (1430-57), was anArchbishop of Bordeaux, illustrious for his intelligence andholiness, founder of theUniversity of Bordeaux and of the College of St. Raphael for poor students, who, after helping the English to defend Bordeaux against the troops of Charles VII, received Dunois into his episcopal city and surrendered it toFrance. It was during his episcopate that the beautiful campanile known as the Pey Berland Tower was added to thecathedral.

The rich and powerful chapters of Saint-Andre and Saint-Seurin subsisted in theMiddle Ages as a vestige of that duality which was already noticeable in Merovingian Bordeaux. Between the two there were frequent and very animated conflicts. The artistic feeling of the canons in the thirteenth century is attested by the Gothic portal of Saint-Seurin which is still extant. At the end of the fourteenth century Canon Vital de Carle established the great Hospital of Saint-André, which he placed under the protection of the municipality; and it was through the exertions of the chapter of Saint-André that the first citylibrary of Bordeaux was founded towards the year 1402. During theMiddle Ages Bordeaux was a great monastic city, with itsCarmelite, Francisean, andDominicanconvents, founded respectively in 1217, 1227, and 1230. In 1214 an important council was held in Bordeaux againstusurers, highwaymen, andheretics. When, after the Hundred Years' War, Bordeaux again became French, Louis XI flattered its citizens by joining theconfraternity of Notre-Dame de Montuzet, a religious association formed of all the mariners of the Gironde by heaping favours on thechurch of Saint-Michel, the tower of which, built in the period between 1473 and 1492, was higher than the Pey Berland, and by furthering thecanonization of its formerarchbishop,Pierre Berland.

Among theArchbishops of Bordeaux, in the modern epoch, may be mentioned: Charles de Gramont (1530-44), who during its earliest years helped the College of Guyenne (founded in 1533) and introduced into Bordeaux the art of theRenaissance; François de Sourdis (1599-1628), who had great political influence during the minority of Louis XIII, caused the marshes in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux to be filled in, erected there a magnificentCarthusianmonastery, welcomed to Bordeaux many congregations devoted toecclesiastical reform, approved (1606) the teaching order of the Filles de Notre-Dame, founded by Blessed Jeanne de Lestonnac, and befriended the College of the Madeleine founded by theJesuits in opposition to the College of Guyenne which, during the sixteenth century, was open toProtestant influences, Cardinal deCheverus (1826-36), who during the cholera epidemic had the signMaison de Secours (House of Refuge) put over his palace, of whom M. Jullian said that noprelate in the history of thediocese had come nearer the ideal ofsanctity, and during whose episcopate Thérèse de Lamourus, the "Good Mother", considered by CardinalCheverus a saint worthy of the early days of theChurch, opened for repentantwomen the Maison de la Miséricorde;Cardinal Donnet (1837-82), who re-established the old provincial councils interrupted for 224 years.

The old bishopric of Bacas

According toGregory of Tours, Bazas had abishop at the time of theVandal invasion in the fifth century. The dedication of thecathedral toSt. John the Baptist is explained in an account given by the same historian that a lady of Bazas, whom certain hagiographers of the nineteenth century believe to have been St. Veronica, brought from Palestine arelic ofSt. John the Baptist at the time of that saint's death. For two hundred and fifty years prior to 1057, theBishop of Bazas bore the title ofBishop ofAire,Dax,Bayonne, Oloron, and Lescar.Urban II (1088-99) preached thecrusade at Bazas.

Places of ecclesiastical interest in the archdiocese

The town of La Réole (fromRegula, rule) owes its origin, and even its name, to aBenedictinemonastery founded in 777, destroyed bv theNorthmen, and rebuilt in 977 by Sancho of Gascony and his brother, Bishop Gombald. It was there that Abbo,Abbot of Fleury, who came to reform themonastery in 1004, was assassinated. The town of Saint-Emilion is likewise indebted for its origin to thehermit of that name, a native ofVannes, who died in 767 after having founded in these parts anabbey which the Augustinians occupied after the year 1110. The Abbey of Saint-Romain at Blaye in which, it is said, the remains of Roland, nephew ofCharlemagne, were once preserved, was founded on the spot where, in the fourth century,St. Romanus, therecluse, died in the arms of St. Martin. TheBenedictinemonastery of the Grande Sauve entre Deux Mers was founded in 1080 by St. Gerard of Corbie. The Abbey of Notre Dame at Guitres had forabbot, between 1624 and 1637, Peiresc the celebratednumismatist, one of the greatest scholars of the seventeenth century (1580-1637).

The most importantpilgrimage is that of Notre Dame of Verdelais, founded in 1390 by Isabella, Countess of Foix, when her mule stumbled over a buriedstatue of theBlessed Virgin.

Statistics

In 1900 thereligious orders for men were represented in the Archdiocese of Bordeaux as follows: Augustinians,Jesuits,Franciscans,Lazarists,Carmelites, andFathers of the Holy Ghost at Bordeaux;Olivetans at Soulac;Dominicans at Arcaechon;Redemptorists at Coutras;Marists at Notre Dame de Verdelais and several houses of Marianists. In 1900 the congregations forwomen peculiar to the diocese were, in addition to those mentioned above: Sisters of Charity of the Holy Agony, a teaching and nursing order founded in 1849, with the motherhouse at Bordeaux; Sisters of the Christian Doctrine, founded in 1814, with the mother-house at Bordeaux; Sisters of the Holy Family, founded in 1820 by the Abbé Noailles. The last-named congregation has 200 houses, in different parts of the world. It includes the:Sisters of St. Joseph, who have charge of asylums fororphans and workingwomen; Sisters of the Immaculate Coneeption and Ladies of the Immaculate Conception, who conduct boarding-schools; Agricultural Sisters (Soeurs Agricoles); Sisters of Hope, attendants on the sick; Contemplative Sisters (Soeurs Solitaires); Sisters of St. Martha, for domestic service. In 1899, the following charitable andeducational institutions were to be found in the Archdiocese of Bordeaux: 1foundling hospital, 11infant asylums, 66 infantschools, 2 children's infirmaries, 2 deaf-mute institutes for girls, 2orphanages where farming is taught, 1 boys' and girls'orphanage, 34 girls'orphanages, 1 servants' guild, 2 guilds for penitentwomen, 10 charity kitchens, 12hospitals or hospices, 8 communities for the care of the sick in their homes, 8 houses of retreat, 3 homes for incurables, 2insane asylums, and 7 homes for the aged, all conducted by sisters; and 1 institute for deaf, dumb, and blind boys, and 1orphanage where farming is taught, both conducted by brothers. At the close of the year 1905 the archdiocese contained 823,131 inhabitants, 79parishes, 431 mission churches, and 70 curacies.

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