Ecclesiastical province Poitiers Rite Roman Rite Pope Francis Phone +33 5 49 50 12 00 Country France Metropolitan archbishop Pascal Wintzer | Denomination Roman Catholic Established 8 December 2002 Area 13,098 km² Patron saint Hilary of Poitiers Cathedral Poitiers Cathedral | |
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Population
- Total
- Catholics (as of 2013)
790,900
670,000 (84.7%) Address 1 Rue Sainte-Croix, 86000 Poitiers, France Similar Cathédrale Saint‑Pier, Cure de Saint Porchaire, Montbern, Maison Diocésaine, Abbaye Saint Martin | ||
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers (Latin: Archidioecesis Pictaviensis; French: Archidiocèse de Poitiers) is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The archepiscopal see is in the city of Poitiers. The Diocese of Poitiers includes the two Departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres. The Concordat of 1802 added to the see besides the ancient Diocese of Poitiers a part of the Diocese of La Rochelle and Saintes.
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Erected in the third century, as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Bordeaux, the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese in 2002. The archdiocese is the metropolitan of the Diocese of Angoulême, the Diocese of La Rochelle, the Diocese of Limoges, and the Diocese of Tulle.
The Cathedral Church of Saint-Pierre had a Chapter composed of the bishop and twenty-four canons. The officers of the Chapter were: the Dean, the Cantor, the Provost, the sub-Dean, the sub-Cantor, and the three archdeacons (who are not prebends). The Abbé of Nôtre-Dame-le-Grand was also a member of the Chapter ex officio.
Before the Revolution, the diocese had three archdeacons: the Archdeacon of Poitiers, the Archdeacon of Briançay (or Brioux), and the Archdeacon of Thouars.
The current archbishop is Pascal Wintzer, who was appointed in 2012.
History
Louis Duchesne holds that its earliest episcopal catalogue represents the ecclesiastical tradition of Poitiers in the twelfth century. The catalogue reckons twelve predecessors of Hilary of Poitiers, among them Nectarius, Liberius, and Agon, and among his successors Sts. Quintianus and Maxentius. Duchesne does not doubt the existence of the cults of these saints but questions whether they were bishops of Poitiers. In his opinion, Hilary (350 – 367 or 368) is the first bishop of whom we have historical evidence. In this he concurs with the Benedictine editors of Gallia Christiana.
Notable bishops
Among his successors were Pientius (c. 544 – 560); Fortunatus (c. 599); Peter (1087–1115), exiled by William IX, Count of Poitiers, whose divorce he refused to sanction; Gilbert de la Porrée (1142–54); William Tempier (1184–97), who, as Barbier de Montault has shown, was irregularly venerated as a saint in certain parts of the diocese since he died subsequent to the declaration of Pope Alexander III which reserved canonizations to the Holy See; Blessed Gauthier de Bruges (1278–1306); Arnauld d'Aux (1306–12), made cardinal in 1312; Guy de Malsec (1371–75), who became cardinal in 1375; Simon de Cramaud (1385–91), indefatigable opponent of the antipope Benedict XIII, and who again administered the diocese (1413–23) and became cardinal in 1413; Louis de Bar (1394–95), cardinal in 1397; Jean de la Trémouille (1505–07), cardinal in 1507; Gabriel de Gramont (1532–34), cardinal in 1507; Claude de Longwy de Givry (1538–52), became cardinal in 1533; Antonio Barberini (1652–57), cardinal in 1627; Abbé de Pradt (1805–09), Chaplain of Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and afterwards Archbishop of Mechlin, Louis Pie (1849–80), cardinal in 1879.
St. Emmeram was a native of Poitiers, but according to the Bollandists and Duchesne the documents which make him Bishop of Poitiers (c. 650) are not trustworthy; on the other hand Bernard Sepp (Analec. Boll., VIII) and Dom Chamard claim that he did hold the see, and succeeded Didon, bishop about 666 or 668 according to Dom Chamard.
Education at Poitiers
As early as 312 the Bishop of Poitiers established a school near his cathedral; among its scholars were Hilary, St. Maxentius, Maximus, Bishop of Trier, and his two brothers St. Maximinus of Chinon and St. John of Marne, Paulinus, Bishop of Trier, and the poet Ausonius. In the sixth century Fortunatus taught there, and in the twelfth century students chose to study at Poitiers with Gilbert de la Porrée.
Charles VII of France erected a university at Poitiers, which was his temporary capital, since he had been driven from Paris, in 1431. The new foundation stood in opposition to Paris, where the city was in the hands of the English and the majority of the faculty had accepted Henry VI of England. With a Bull of 28 May 1431, on the petition of Charles VII, Pope Eugene IV approved the new university and awarded it privileges similar to those of the University of Toulouse. In the reign of Louis XII there were in Poitiers no less than four thousand students — French, Italians, Flemings, Scots, and Germans. There were ten colleges attached to the university. In 1540, at the Collège Ste. Marthe, the famous Classicist Marc Antoine Muret had a chair; Gregory XIII called him to Rome to work on his edition of the Septuagint, pronouncing him the torch and the pillar of the Roman School. The famous Jesuit Juan Maldonado and five of his confrères went in 1570 to Poitiers to establish a Jesuit college at the request of some of the inhabitants. After two unsuccessful attempts, the Jesuits were given the Collège Ste. Marthe in 1605. François Garasse was professor at Poitiers (1607–08), and had as a pupil Guez de Balzac. Garasse was well known for his violent polemics. He died of the plague at Poitiers in 1637. Among other students at Poitiers were Achille de Harlay, President de Thou, the poet Joachim du Bellay, the chronicler Brantome Descartes, François Viète the mathematician, and Francis Bacon. In the seventeenth century the Jesuits sought affiliation with the university and in spite of the opposition of the faculties of theology and arts their request was granted. Jesuit ascendancy grew; they united to Ste. Marthe the Collège du Puygareau. Friction between them and the university was continuous, and in 1762 the general laws against them throughout France led to the Society being expelled from Poitiers and from France. Moreover, from 1674 the Jesuits had conducted at Poitiers a college for clerical students from Ireland.
In 1806 the State reopened the school of law at Poitiers and later the faculties of literature and science. These faculties were raised to the rank of a university in 1896. From 1872 to 1875 Cardinal Pie was engaged in re-establishing the faculty of theology. As a provisional effort he called to teach in his Grand Séminaire three professors from the Collegio Romano, among them Père Schrader, the commentator of the Syllabus, who died at Poitiers in 1875.