SAINT-FLOUR, Diocese of. - City and diocese, subprefecture of the department of Cantal in France. The diocese has the same boundaries as the department, with an area of 5,741 sq km and a population of 190,888 inhabitants, all Catholics, distributed among 317 parishes, served by 332 diocesan priests and 60 regulars; it has a major and a minor seminary, 7 male religious communities and 78 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 345). The diocese is a suffragan of Bourges; its patron is St. Flour.
The Convention sought to change the name of St-F. first to Fort-Cantal, then to Fort-Libre. The settlement of St-F. grew up on Mount Indiciat, around the tomb of St. Flour, by tradition the evangelizer of the region; around 1002 a Benedictine abbey dependent on Cluny was founded there. The diocese was created by Pope John XXII on 20 February 1317 by detaching upper Auvergne from the diocese of Clermont; at that time the city received its walls; it obtained a communal charter in 1372; in 1578 it resisted the Protestants thanks to the heroism of Jean Brisson. The bishops Pietro D'Estaing (1361-67), later archbishop of Bourges and cardinal; P. de Ribeyre (1742-1776), very munificent; L.-S.-J. de Salomon (1820-29) are remembered.
The cathedral of St-F. was built between 1396 and 1466 on the site of a previous building dedicated to St. Odilo, which had been consecrated by Pope Urban II in 1095; it is a Gothic construction with a facade with three portals and an interior with five naves without a transept. Notable is a large wooden Christ of the 15th century known as the « Bon Dieu noir de St-F. ». A marble inscription indicates the bishops buried in the Cathedral; there too is the marble monument of Msgr. De Pampignac (1877), represented kneeling. Beside the Cathedral is the Episcopal Palace (18th century), today the town hall. The church of St. Vincent, with a single nave, is from the 14th century; the ancient collegiate church of the Chapter of Notre-Dame is today occupied by the « halle au blé ». The church of St. Christiana is modern. The diocese is very rich in Marian sanctuaries, much venerated; among the most important are Notre-Dame de Claviers at Moussages with an ancient statue of the Madonna, N.-D.-des-Miracles at Mauriac, N.-D.-de-Quézac and N.-D.-de-la-Font-Sainte at St-Hippolyte.
At Mauriac was born the servant of God Catherine Jarrige (1754-1836), of the Third Order of St. Dominic, commonly called « Catinon Menette », noted for the heroic zeal with which during the French Revolution she made herself the protector of priests persecuted by the Jacobins, hiding them and saving them in a thousand ways; once the Revolution had passed, she devoted herself to the poor, the sick and prisoners. The cause of beatification was introduced on 12 June 1929 (cf. [A. P. Frutaz], Inquisitio super fontes historicos ad causam pertinentes circa vitam servae Dei auctore sac. J. B. Serres [S. R. C. sect. hist., 68], Vatican City 1947).
Aurillac, the ancient « Aureliacum », is the seat of the prefecture of the department of Cantal; situated on the right bank of the Jordanne, it had a castle (St. Stephen, today a normal school) in which was born St. Gerald, founder in 856 of an abbey that bore his name and from which came Gerbert, later Sylvester II (v.), born in 940 at Belliac. The abbey church was consecrated in 1095 by Urban II; it was visited by Callistus II. The city was sacked by the Huguenots. The ancient abbey church was rebuilt in 1643 in the ogival style; it has a portico and a bell tower erected in 1868. In the interior only the chapel of the Blessed Virgin is notable, along with some Romanesque sculptures, three wooden statues of the 16th century, the painting attributed to Zurbaran with the Death of St. Francis Xavier, the monument of Msgr. Bonange, bishop of Langres, born at Aurillac; in the sacristy is the shrine with the relics of St. Gerald. In the church of Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges, or of the Cordeliers, in the southern Gothic style of the late 16th century, is the 16th-century statue known as the « Vierge noire », much venerated. On the spot where the noble Guido of Veyre fell in 1581, fighting against the Huguenots, at the end of the same century the artistic chapel of Aurinques was erected. In the square that bears his name is the statue of Gerbert, the work of D. d'Angers, with bas-reliefs illustrating the life of Sylvester II. In the ancient College of the Jesuits (1638) are today the Museum of painting and sculpture, the school of drawing and the Library.
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Enrico Josi