Diocese of Clermont

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(CLERMONT-FERRAND; CLAROMONTENSIS)

Comprises the entire department of Puy-de-Dôme and is a suffragan ofBourges. Although at first very extensive, in 1317 the diocese lost Haute-Auvergne through the creation of theDiocese of Saint Flour and in 1822 the Bourbonnais, on account of the erection of theDiocese of Moulins. The firstBishop of Clermont wasSt. Austremonius (Stramonius). (SeeAUSTREMONIUS.) According to local tradition he was one of the seventy-two Disciples of Christ, by birth aJew, who came with St. Peter from Palestine toRome and subsequently became the Apostle of Auvergne, Berry, Nivernais, and Limousin. At Clermont he is said to have converted the senator Cassius and thepaganpriest Victorinus, to have sent St. Sirenatus (Cerneuf) to Thiers, St. Marius to Salers, Sts. Nectarius and Antoninus into other parts of Auvergne, and to have been beheaded in 92. This tradition is based on a life of St. Anstremonius written in the tenth century in themonastery of Mozat, where the body of thesaint had rested from 761, and rewritten by themonks of Issoire, who retained thesaint's head.St. Gregory of Tours, born in Auvergne in 544 and well versed in the history of that country, looks upon Austremonius as one of the seven envoys who, about 250, evangelized Gaul; he relates how the body of thesaint was firstinterred at Issoire, being there the object of great veneration.

Clermont counted amongst itsbishops a large number ofsaints, as St. Urbicus (c. 312); St. Leoguntius; St. Illidius (Allyre), who, about 385, cured the daughter of the Emperor Maximus atTrier; thesaint's name was given to the petrifying springs of Clermont, and his life was written byGregory of Tours; St. Nepotianus (died 388); St. Artemius (died about 394); St. Venerandus (Veau, died about 423); St. Rusticus (424-46); St. Namatius (446-62), founder of the Clermontcathedral, where he deposited therelics ofSts. Vitalis and Agricola brought from Bologna; Sidonius Apollinaris (470-79), the celebratedChristian writer who brought to Clermont thepriest St. Amabilis; St. Aprunculus (died about 491); St. Euphrasius (491-515); St. Quintianus (died about 527), whose life was written byGregory of Tours; St. Gallus (527-51), of whomGregory of Tours was the biographer and nephew;St. Avitus (second half of the sixth century), founder of Notre Dame du Port; St. Cæsarius (c. 627); St. Gallus II (c. 650); St. Genesius (c. 660); St. Præjectus (Prix), historian of themartyrs of Clermont and assassinated at Volvic 25 January, 676;St. Avitus II (676-91); St. Bonitus, intimate friend of Sigebert II (end of seventh century); St. Stabilis (823-60). and St. Sigo (866). Among the Bishops of Clermont should also be mentioned: Pierre de Cros (1301-04), engaged bySt. Thomas Aquinas to complete his "Summa"; Etienne d'Albert (1340-42), laterPope Innocent VI (1352-62); Guillaume du Prat (1528-60), founder of the Clermont College atParis and delegate ofFrancis I to theCouncil of Trent; andMassillon, the illustrious orator (1717-42). The Diocese of Clermont can likewise claim a number ofmonks whom theChurch honours assaints, viz: St. Calevisus (Calais, 460-541), a pupil in themonastery of Menat near Riom, whence he retired toMaine, where he founded the Abbey of Anisole; St. Maztius (died 527), founder at Royat near Clermont of amonastery which became later aBenedictinepriory; St. Portianus (sixth century), founder of amonastery to which the city of Saint-Pourçain (Allier) owes its origin; St. Etienne de Muret (1046-1124), son of the Viscount of Thiers and founder of the Order of Grandmont in Limousin, and St. Peter the Venerable (1092-1156), of the Montboissierfamily of Auvergne, noted as a writer andAbbot of Cluny.

Several famousJansenists were natives of Clermont:Blaise Pascal, author of the "Pensées" (1623-62); the Arnauldfamily, and Soanen (1647-1740),Bishop of Senez, famous for his stubborn opposition to theBull"Unigenitus". On the other hand the city of Riom was the birthplace ofSirmond, the learnedJesuit (1559-1651), confessor to Louis XIII and editor of the ancient councils of Gaul. Other natives worthy of mention inchurch history were the Abbé Delille, poet (1738-1813), and Montlosier, the publicist (1755-1838), famous for his memoir against theJesuits and to whom Bishop Ferou refusedecclesiastical burial.Pope Urban II came to Clermont in 1095 to preside at the organization of theFirst Crusade;Pope Paschal II visited the city in 1106,Callistus II in 1120,Innocent II in 1130,Alexander III in 1164, and, in 1166,St. Thomas Becket. It was also at Clermont that, in 1262, in presence of St. Louis, the marriage of Philip the Bold and Isabella ofAragon was solemnized. Thecathedral of Clermont, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, is not of equal archæological importance with the church of Notre-Dame du Port, which stands today as it was rebuilt in the eleventh century, and is one of the most beautiful of Romanesque churches in the Auvergnese style. One of the capitals in Notre-Dame du Port, ascribed to the eleventh century, is among the most ancient sculptured representations of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Thiscathedral is much frequented as a place ofpilgrimage, as are also Notre Dame d'Orcival and Notre Dame de Vassivière at Besse. The "dry mass" (without Consecration or Communion) was celebrated in the Diocese of Clermont as late as the seventeenth century.

Before the Law of 1901 was carried into effect, there were in the Diocese:Capuchins,Jesuits,Marists, Fathers of the African Missions,Fathers of the Holy Ghost, andSulpicians. Several local congregations ofwomen are engaged in teaching, among them being the religious of Notre-Dame de Clermont, founded in 1835, with mother-house at Chamalières; theSisters of St. Joseph of the Good Shepherd, founded byMassillon in 1723, with mother-house at Clermont; the Sisters of the Heart of the Infant Jesus, mother-house at Lezoux; and theSisters of Mercy, founded in 1806, with mother-house at Billom. Thediocese has the following religious institutions: 2 maternityhospitals, 40 infantschools, 1school for the blind, 4schools for deaf mutes, 3 boys'orphanages, 16 girls'orphanages, 2 houses of refuge and of protection, 23hospitals and hospices, 35 houses for nursing sisters, and 1 insane asylum. Statistics for the end of 1905 (the close of the period under the Concordat) show a population of 529,181, with 54parishes, 447 succursalparishes (mission churches), and 175 curacies remunerated by the State.

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