Buste de Saint Sulpice dans l'église de Saint Sulpice de Favières, Essonne
Saint Sulpice le Pieux
Évêque de Bourges (✝ 647)
Chapelain du roi Clotaire II puis évêque de Bourges. Il fut le protecteur des pauvres et des persécutés. Son nom fut donné à une paroisse de Paris, qui fut le berceau des séminaires pour la formation des prêtres.
Évêque de Bourges (647) l'un des grands évêques de la Gaule. Il a donné son nom à la célèbre abbaye de Saint Sulpice, anciennement monastère de Notre-Dame de la Nef, où il fut inhumé (aujourd'hui maison des Petites Sœurs des Pauvres à Bourges). Au moins 350 paroisses, en France, en Belgique, en Suisse ... l'honorent comme Saint Patron, preuve évidente du rayonnement de l'abbaye Saint Sulpice de Bourges. (Diocèse de Bourges)
À Bourges, vers 647, saint Sulpice, surnommé le Pieux, évêque, qui fut promu de la cour royale à l’épiscopat et n’eut rien de plus cher que de prendre soin de la cause des pauvres.
Martyrologe romain
Sulpicius II Pius B (RM)
(also known as Sulpice or Sulpicius Le Debonnaire)
Born in Berry; died 647. The very celebrated seminary of Saint- Sulpice in Paris is named after this beloved bishop of Bourges, Aquitaine (France) from 624 to 647. Sulpice was born into a wealthy family. In his youth, he renounced marriage, gave his patrimony to the Church, and devoted himself to Christ. After his ordination, he served King Clotaire II as almoner and chaplain for his armies. He once restored the dangerously ill king to health through his prayers and fasting.
In 624, Sulpicius succeed Saint Austregesilus as the second bishop of Bourges. He gained popular admiration for his generosity, solicitude, and defense of his people against the tyranny of the Merovingian kings, particularly an official of King Dagobert. His charity seemed inexhaustible and evinced itself in miraculous powers. It is related that he converted all the Jews in his diocese and employed all his time in prayer and episcopal work.
In 627, Sulpice attended the council of Clichy. Late in life, he resigned his position in order to spend more time in solitude. His death and funeral were attended by extraordinary demonstrations of popular mourning. The enormous crowds made it almost impossible for the officiating clergy to conduct the burial service.
The collection of letters of Saint Desiderius of Cahors contain a set entitled "To the holy patriarch, Sulpicius and several of our saint to him." The famous monastery of Saint-Sulpice at Bourges is said to have been founded by him under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin; it now belongs to the congregation of Saint Maur, and is enriched with part of his relics, and some of the blood of Saint Stephen, titular saint of the stately cathedral. A bone of one of the arms of Sulpicius is kept in the famous parochial church in Paris (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Farmer, Husenbeth).
In art Saint Sulpicius is portrayed visiting the sick (Roeder).