Saint Sulpicius the Pious

Sulpicius II. the Pious was a 7th-century bishop of Bourges and saint. According to his Vita, Sulpicius was born at Vatan (Diocese of Bourges), of noble parents, before the end of the sixth century. From his youth he devoted himself to good works and to the study of Scripture, and donated his large patrimony to the Church and the poor. Austregisilus, Bishop of Bourges, ordained him cleric of his church, then deacon, and finally made him director of his episcopal school. Clotaire II (King of the Franks from 613 to 629), who had heard of his merits, summoned him and made him almoner and chaplain of his armies. Upon the death of Bishop Austregisilus (c. 624) Sulpicious was recalled to Bourges to succeed him. Thenceforth he labored with much zeal and success to re-establish ecclesiastical discipline, for the relief of the poor. In 627 Sulpicius attended the Council of Clichy and held several others with the bishops of his province. St. Desiderius of Cahors, treasurer to King Clothar II and later Bishop of Cahors, was his personal friend; three letters survive which he addressed to him. In the settings of Vita Sulpicii Episcopi Biturgi, Sulpicius' miracles show him receiving "Theudogisilus", a noble from the palatium of the king with entertainments and a "great heaped fire" (in a fireplace in the centre of the great hall, the smoke issuing through a vent in the roof). Sulpicius allegedly extinguished this fire, when it threatened to get out of control, with the sign of the cross. The vita asserts with approval that "he, the holy man gave leave for no-one, neither heretic, gentile or Jew, to live in the city of Bourges without the grace of baptism" - with many consequent conversions from the Jews of Bourges. The Vita tells that Dagobert I sent his representative the merciless general Lollo (Lollonius) to reside at Bourges and to bring the city more closely under the king's command.