BOURGOING, FRANÇOIS. – French Oratorian, Bérulle (v.) and his second successor, born in Paris on 18 March 1585, died there on 22 October 1662. In 1611 he resigned the parish of Clichy in favor of s. Vincenzo de' paoli, in order to become one of the first six fathers of the French Oratory. He founded a series of houses of the Congregation (Rouen, Nantes, Clermont, Lyon, etc.), which he also introduced into Flanders. Elected superior general in 1641, after the death of Fr. de Condren, he governed the Oratory until his death. His administration was of great im-
portance, because he codified and had the Constitutions of the Congregation approved in Rome, and also gave it a Ratio studiorum and the Directions pour les missions. He energetically opposed Jansenist infiltrations among his brethren. Bossuet delivered his funeral oration.
B.’s place in the history of Bérullian spirituality is distinctive, although he did not possess the gifts of a great writer. His course of meditations, published in Latin (Veritates et sublimes excellentiae Verbi Incarnati J.C. in argumenta meditationum totius anni propositae, 2 vols., Antwerp 1620), and later in French, praised by Bossuet, is a vernacular rendering of the doctrine of Cardinal de Bérulle; particularly noteworthy is the Direction pour l'oraison, contenant 24 avis..., prefaced to the French edition and also printed separately. The Méditations sur divers états de J. C. (Paris 1648) seek to be even more fully an echo of the founder’s teaching, as the title of the 1661 edition states: L'esprit de l'E. card. de Bérulle, tiré de ses élévations sur les grandeurs des états différents de J. C. Finally, the first edition of the Oeuvres complètes du card. de Bérulle (Paris 1644) was produced through B.’s efforts, assisted by his confrere Gibieuf; he prefaced it with a long introduction, fundamental to an understanding of the master’s spiritual doctrine.