BOURDEILLES, HÉLIE. - Franciscan, cardinal, born at the castle of Bourdeilles (Périgueux) between 1410 and 1415, died at the castle of Artennes (Tours) on 5 July 1484. Elected bishop of Périgueux (1437) by the cathedral chapter, and promoted (1468) to archbishop of Tours, he was created cardinal by Sixtus IV in 1483.
Austere and zealous, he devoted himself not only to the reform of the two dioceses, but also strenuously defended the rights and liberty of the Church: first, in 1452, by protesting against the reapplication of the « prammatica sanzione » by Carlo VII; then by pleading before Luigi XI, whose confessor he was, the cause of Cardinal La Balue and the bishop of Verdun, guilty indeed, but condemned and imprisoned in violation of ecclesiastical immunities; as a member of the commission for the revision of the trial of s. Giovanna d'Arco, he wrote one of the finest defenses of her.
His profound piety, great charity toward the poor, and certain extraordinary events that occurred at his tomb led to his being proclaimed blessed, and to the introduction of the process of canonization in 1526. In the Martyrologium Franciscanum (ed. I. Beschin-J. Palazzolo, Roma 1938), his feast is celebrated, as that of a blessed, on 5 July (op. cit., p. 249).
Principal works: Pro pragmaticae sanctiunii abrogatione (Roma 1486); Defensio concordatorum (Parigi 1520); Consideration sur la Pucelle de France, appended to the rehabilitation trial.