ST. SULPICIUS II., ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES SURNAMED LE DEBONNAIRE

IS commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology. He was descended of a noble family in Berry, and educated in learning and piety. His large patrimony he gave to the church and poor; and being ordained priest, served king Clothaire II. in quality of almoner and chaplain in his armies; and on a time when he lay dangerously ill, restored him to his health by prayer and fasting. In 624 he succeeded St. Austregesilus, commonly called St. Outrille, in the see of Bourges. He reformed discipline, converted all the Jews in his diocese, and employed his whole time in prayer and laborious functions, chiefly in the instruction of the poor. He died in 644. Among the letters of St. Desiderins of Cahors, we have one which he sent to our saint with this title, “To the holy patriarch, Sulpicius;”7 and several of our saint to him.8 The famous monastery which bears his name at Bourges, is said to have been founded by him under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin; it now belongs to the congregation of St. Maur, and is enriched with part of his relics, and with a portion of the blood of St. Stephen. who is the titular saint of the stately cathedral. A bone of one of the arms of our saint, is kept in the famous parochial church in Paris, which is dedicated to God under his invocation. See his ancient life in Bolland. and Mab. sæc. 2, Ben. Gallia Christ. nova, t. 2, p. 18.