Diocese of Nevers

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The French Catholic diocese of Nevers comprises the department of Nièvre.

Suppressed by the Concordat of 1801 and united to the See of Autun, it was re-established in 1823 as suffragan of the archdiocese of Sens and took over a part of the former Diocese of Autun and a part of the ancient Diocese of Auxerre.

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[edit] History

The Gallia Christiana mentions as first Bishop of Nevers St. Eladius, restored to health in the reign of Clovis by St. Severinus, Abbot of St. Maurice. According to Louis Duchesne, the first authentic bishop is Tauricanus, present at the Council of Epaon in 517.

A number of former bishops of Nevers are venerated as saints: St. Arey (Arigius) 549-52); St. Agricola (580-94); St. Jerome (800-16) who rebuilt in honour of the martyrs Quiricus and Julitta, the cathedral until then dedicated to St. Gervasius and St. Protasius. It is possible that in the seventh century three other saints occupied the See of Nevers: St. Diè (Deodatus), the same perhaps who died a hermit in the Vosges; St. Nectarius and St. Itier (Itherius).

The following bishops of Nevers were notable: the future cardinal Pierre Bertrandi (1320-22) who, in 1329-30, defended ecclesiastical immunities against the barons in the celebrated conferences of Paris and Vincennes presided over by Philip VI of France; Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1540-47) subsequently cardinal and whom the Leaguers wished to make King of France under the name of Charles X; Jacques Spifame (1548-58) who became a Calvinist in 1559, and was afterwards accused of forgery and beheaded at Geneva in 1556; the polemist Sorbin de Ste-Foi (1578-1606) a voluminous writer.

Among the saints of this diocese must be mentioned: Sts. Paul, priest; Péreux and Pélerin, martyrs between 272 and 303; St. Paroze (Patritius), Abbot of Nevers in the sixth century; the hermit St. Franchy (Francovæcus); the priest St. Vincent of Magny in the ninth century; Blessed Nicholas Applaine, canon of the collegiate church of Preméry (fifteenth century) whose cassock Louis XI claimed as a relic. Claude Fauchet, constitutional Bishop of Calvados during the Revolution, was a native of the diocese.

In 1168, William IV, Count of Nevers, willed to the Bishop of Bethlehem in Palestine the small town of Pantenor near Clamecy, also the hospital at Clamecy founded by his father William III in 1147. In 1223, owing to the incursions of the Muslims in Palestine, the Bishop of Bethlehem settled at Clemecy, and exercised jurisdiction over the hospital and the faubourg of Pantenor; his successors were chosen by the counts, later by the dukes of Nevers, with the approval of the pope and the king.

In 1413 Charles VI tried to obtain for the titular Bishops of Bethlehem the privileges enjoyed by the other bishops of the realm, but the French clergy were opposed to this and the titular of Bethlehem was always considered a bishop in partibus infidelium. The assembly of the clergy of France in 1635 granted the bishops of Bethlehem an annual pension. Christopher d'Authier of Sisgau, founder of the Missionary Priests of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and celebrated for his sermons to the galley-slaves of Marseilles, was Bishop of Bethlehem 1651-63.

The Abbey of La Charité sur Loire, founded in 1056, and known as the "eldest daughter" of Cluny, was inaugurated in 1106 by Pope Pascal II; the celebrated Suger, then a simple cleric, has left an account of the ceremony. The Benedictine Abbey of Corbigny, founded under Charlemagne, was occupied by the Huguenots in 1563, as a basis of operations.

Bernadette Soubirous died in the Visitandine Convent of Nevers, 12 December, 1878. The chief places of pilgrimage in the diocese are: Notre Dame de Pitié, at St. Martin d'Heuille, dating from the fourteenth century; Notre Dame de Fauboulvin at Corancy, dating from 1590; Notre Dame du Morvan at Dun-sur-Grandry, dating from 1876.

Among the congregations for women which originated in the diocese must be mentioned: the Ursuline nuns, a teaching order founded in 1622 at Nevers by the Duke of Gonzaga and the Nevers aldermen; the Hospitallers, founded in 1639 at La Charité-sur-Loire by Sister Médard-Varlet; the congregation of Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction, founded in 1680, with mother-house at Nevers.

[edit] Bishops

[edit] To 1000

  • c.506: St Eulade
  • c.517: St Tauricien
  • c.538–c.541: Rustique
  • c.549–c.552: St Arige
  • Euphrone
  • c.567: St Eloade
  • c.580–26. Februar 594: St Agricole
  • Fulcilius
  • c.624–c.653: Rauracus
  • c.658: Léodebaud
  • c.660: Hecherius
  • c.665: St Dié
  • c.666: Gilbert
  • c.672: Rogus
  • c.691: St Itier
  • c.696–c.697: Ebarcius
  • c.702: Opportun
  • c.726: Nectaire
  • c.747: Chebroald
  • Raginfroi
  • Waldon
  • c.800–816: St Jérôme
  • c.817–c.829: Jonas
  • c.833: Gerfroi
  • Hugo I.
  • c.840–22. July 860: Hériman
  • Raginus
  • c.862: Abbon I.
  • c.864: Luidon
  • 866–c.884: Abbon II.
  • c.886–c.892: Emmenus
  • c.893: Adalgaire (?)
  • 894–c.905: Francon
  • c.906–c.914: Atton
  • c.916: Launon
  • c.935–c.947: Tedalgrin
  • 948–c.955: Gaubert
  • c.958: Gérard
  • 959–979 or 980: Natran
  • 980–c.1011: Roclène

[edit] 1000 to 1300

  • 1013–May 1065: Hugues II. de Champ-Allemand
  • c.1066–1. June 1074: Malguin
  • 1. November 1074–c.1090: Hugues III. de Champ-Allemand
  • c.1096–c.1099: Gui
  • 18. December 1099–8. August 1109: Hervé
  • 1110–c.1120: Hugues IV.
  • 1121–c.1145: Fromond
  • 1146–1159: Geoffroi
  • 1160–14. January 1177: Bernard de Saint-Saulge
  • 1177–25. April 1188: Thibaut
  • 1188–15. June 1196: Jean I.
  • 1196–11. January 1202: Gauthier
  • c.1204–19. May 1221: Guillaume I. de Saint-Lazare
  • 1222–4. December 1222: Gervais de Châteauneuf
  • 1223–28. July 1230: Renaud I.
  • 1232–c.1240: Raoul de Beauvais
  • 1240–1252 or 1253: Robert I. Cornut
  • 1252 or 1253–1254: Henri Cornut
  • 1254–31. May 1260: Guillaume II. de Grandpuy
  • c.1262–1272: Robert II. de Marzi
  • 1273–1276: Gilles I. de Châteaurenaud
  • c.1277–5. September 1283: Gilles II. du Chastelet
  • 1284–1294: Gilles III. de Mauglas
  • 1294–1314: Jean II. de Savigny

[edit] 1300 to 1500

  • 1315–1319: Guillaume III. Beaufils
  • 1320–1322: Pierre Bertrand
  • c.1322–1333: Bertrand I. Gascon
  • 1333–1335: Jean III. Mandevillain
  • 1335–1339: Pierre Bertrand de Colombiers
  • 1340–1341: Albert Acciaioli
  • 1341–c.1357: Bertrand II. de Fumel
  • c.1360: Renaud II. des Moulins
  • 1361–1371: Pierre Aycelin de Montaigut
  • 1371–1372: Jean IV. de Neufchâtel
  • 1374–1380: Pierre V. de Dinteville
  • 1381–16. January 1395: Maurice de Coulange-la-Vineuse
  • 1395–1400: Philippe I. Froment
  • 1401–22. July 1430: Robert III. de Dangueil
  • 1430–1436: Jean V. Germain
  • 30. August (1436?-1444: Jean VI. vivien
  • 20. November 1445–1461: Jean VII. d'Etampes
  • 4. April 1462–3. June 1499: Pierre VI. de Fontenai

[edit] 1500 to 1800

  • 24. January 1500–1505: Philippe II. de Clèves
  • 31. May 1505–12. September 1507: Antoine de Fleurs
  • 29. October 1508–30. July 1512: Jean VII. Bohier
  • 9. January 1513–11. Februar 1519: Imbert de la Platière de Bourdillon
  • 13. March 1519–22. April 1539: Jacques I. d'Albret
  • 5. June 1540–23. January 1545: Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon
  • 5. May 1546–1558: Jacques Spifame
  • 27. January 1559–7. April 1578: Gilles Spifame
  • 22. July 1578–1. März 1606: Arnaud Sarbin de Sainte-Foi
  • 19. November 1606–17. June 1643: Eustache I. du Lys
  • 1643–1666: Eustache II. de Chéri
  • 28. August 1667–3. September 1705: Edouard I. Valot
  • 1705–20. July 1719: Edouard II. Bargedé
  • 1719–20. February 1740: Charles II. Fontaine des Montées
  • 1740–4. April 1751: Guillaume IV. d'Hugues
  • 4. April 1751–1782: Jean-Antoine Tinseau
  • 5. January 1783–1788: Pierre VII. de Séguiran
  • 1789–1790: Louis-Jérôme de Suffren de Saint-Tropez
  • 1791–1793: Guillaume (V.) Tollet

[edit] From 1800

  • 1823–1829: Jean-Baptiste-François-Nicolas Millaux
  • 1829–1834: Charles de Douhet d'Auzers
  • 1834–1842: Paul Naudo (also Archbishop of Avignon)
  • 1842–1860: Dominique-Augustin Dufêtre
  • 1860–1873: Théodore-Augustin Forcade, M.E.P. (also Archbishop of Aix)
  • 1873–1877: Thomas-Casimir-François de Ladoue
  • 1877–1903: Etienne-Antoine-Alfred Lelong
  • 1906–1910: François-Léon Gauthey (also Archbishop of Besançon)
  • 1910–1932: Pierre Chatelus
  • 1932–1963: Patrice Flynn
  • 1963–1966: Michel-Louis Vial (also Bishop of Nantes)
  • 1966–1987: Jean-François-Marie Streiff
  • 1988–1997: Michel Paul Marie Moutel, P.S.S.
  • 1998–2002 François Joseph Pierre Deniau
  • 2002–present: Philippe Jean Louis Breton

[edit] External link

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.