Hélie de Bourdeilles (ca. 1423, at the castle of Bourdeilles,

Périgord Périgord ( , ; ; or ) is a natural region and former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne department, now forming the northern part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is divided into f ...

– 5 July 1484, at Artannes near

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

) was a French

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Archbishop of Tours The Archdiocese of Tours (; ) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese has roots that go back to the 3rd century, while the formal erection of the diocese dates from the 5th century. The ecclesiastical pro ...

and

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Life

He was the son of the viscount Arnaud de Bourdeilles. Having entered the Franciscan Order at an early age, he was only twenty-four when, at the request of

Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious () or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years' War and a ''de facto'' end of the English claims to ...

, he was appointed to the See of Périgueux (1447). During the wars between France and England he was held prisoner for several years by the English, in consequence of his defence of ecclesiastical immunity. In 1468 he was appointed to the Archiepiscopal See of Tours, and in 1483 he was raised to the cardinalate by

Pope Sixtus IV Pope Sixtus IV (or Xystus IV, ; born Francesco della Rovere; (21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 until his death in 1484. His accomplishments as pope included ...

. A stanch defender of the rights of the Church against the encroachments of the State, Bourdeilles advocated the abolition of the

Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by King Charles VII of France, on 7 July 1438, required a General Church Council, with authority superior to that of the papacy, to be held every ten years, required election rather than appointment to ec ...

, as may be seen from his treatise, ''Pro Pragmaticæ Sanctionis Abrogatione'' (Rome, 1486). Bourdeilles continued, during his episcopate, to practise religious poverty and was an intimate friend of

St. Francis of Paula Francis of Paola, Order of Minims, O.M. (also known as Francis the Fire Handler; 27 March 1416 – 2 April 1507), was a Roman Catholic friar from the town of Paola, Calabria, Paola in Calabria who founded the Order of Minims. Like his patron saint ...

. He is mentioned among the Blessed in the '' Franciscan Martyrology'' for 5 July. He also wrote ''Libellus in Pragmaticam Sanctionem Gallorum'' (Rome, 1484); and a Latin defence of

Jeanne d'Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

which is attached in manuscript to the process of her rehabilitation.

Veneration

A cause for the beatification of Bourdeilles was opened, and he was granted the title of

Servant of God Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

. Theologians approved his spiritual writings on 26 February 1913.

References

Sources

Hugo von Hurter The von Hurter family belonged to the Swiss nobility; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries three of them were known for their conversions to Roman Catholicism, their ecclesiastical careers in Austria and their theological writings. Friedric ...

,'' Nomenclator'' (3d ed., Innsbruck, 1906), II, 1067–69 *For full text of his treatise on Jeanne d'Arc see Lanery de L'Arc, ''Livre d'or de Jeanne d'Arc'' (Paris, 1894)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourdeilles, Helie de 1420s births 1484 deaths People from Dordogne French Franciscans Archbishops of Tours 15th-century French cardinals Year of birth uncertain Observant Franciscan bishops French Servants of God