Sulpicius the Pious

Sulpicius II. the Pious (; died 17 January 646) was a 7th-century bishop of Bourges and saint.

Life 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.

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. 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. Sulpicius intervened with King Dagobert on behalf of his flock, of whom a too heavy tax was exacted.

Legacy In his honour the church of Saint-Sulpice was built in Paris, from which the Society of Saint-Sulpice derives its name.

The vita of Sulpicius also contains a vita of his saintly contemporary, Eustadiola.

Feast days

17 January – main commemoration (death anniversary), 18 January – main commemoration (Mozarabic Rite), 19 January – main commemoration (death anniversary), 27 August – translation of his relics from Bourges to Vatan (1757),