Ecclesiastical province Tours Parishes 64 Sui iuris church Latin Church Patron saint Ursinus of Bourges Country France Cathedral Bourges Cathedral | Metropolitan Archdiocese of Tours Denomination Roman Catholic Area 14,210 km² Phone +33 2 48 24 10 91 Archbishop Armand Maillard | |
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Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2012)
549,900
502,700 (91.4%) Address 23 Rue Nicolas Leblanc, 18000 Bourges, France Similar Diocèse de Bourges, Bourges Cathedral, Maison paroissiale, Paroisse Sainte Barbe, Office de Tourisme de Bourges Profiles | ||
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bourges is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The Archdiocese comprises the departements of Cher and Indre in the Region of Val de Loire.
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Since 2002 it has lost its metropolitical function (and thus the archbishop no longer wears the pallium), its province having ceased to exist(the province had already been substantially modified from the late Roman province of Aquitania Prima with which it had initially corresponded - Albi had been erected as an archbishopric in the medieval context of heresiological conflict; Orleans, Chartres and Blois historically dependent on Sens had been attached to Paris, from which they passed to Bourges in the 1960s). The Archdiocese (also the three above- mentioned sees) is now suffragan to the Archdiocese of Tours; other dioceses until recently dependent on Bourges are now suffragans of the Clermont-Ferrand Archdiocese. Historical ecclesiastical geography has here thus been modified to correspond with France's new regions, much as diocesan and provincial boundaries from Napoleon's Concordat onwards were shaped mainly in accordance with those of the Revolution's Départements.
From 2000 it was led by Archbishop Hubert Barbier, but his resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI on September 11, 2007, making him Archbishop Emeritus. His successor as Archbishop-elect is Bishop Armand Maillard of the Diocese of Laval.
History
The diocese was founded in the 3rd century. Its first bishop was St. Ursinus of Bourges. In the Middle Ages there was a dispute between the bishop of Bourges and the bishop of Bordeaux about the primacy of Aquitaine. Bourges was the place of many synods. The synods 1225 and 1226 are the most important and dealt with the Albigenses.