Saint-Omer

SAINT-OMER. - An ancient diocese and city, seat of a subprefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France, situated on the river Aa, where it joins the Neuflusse canal.

Its origin and its name are due to the monk Audomarus or Otmar, who came there from Luxeuil around the middle of the 7th century to evangelize the region and who later became bishop of Thérouanne. He obtained from Adroald, the local lord, the land in a locality called Sithiu and founded a monastery there, where his companion monks Momelin, Bertin and Ebertram arrived; the first founded the monastery that took its name from him (St-Momelin), and later was bishop of Noyon; the second founded the monastery that likewise bore his name (St-Bertin); the monastery was later dedicated to St. Otmar (St-O.), buried in the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; around this monastery the city slowly formed, taking the name St-O.; it belonged first to the counts of Flanders, then to the counts of Artois, and then to the dukes of Burgundy. The kings of France occupied it in 1677 and the Treaty of Nijmegen the following year confirmed their possession of it. The diocese was created after the destruction of Thérouanne (1553) and was suppressed by the Revolution. It was a suffragan of Cambrai; after the Revolution the territory passed to the diocese of Arras and the bishop retains the title.

The ancient Cathedral (Notre-Dame) dates almost entirely to the 13th century. It has vast proportions (100 x 53 m and 22 in height), three vaulted naves divided by pillars, a transept; it ends in an apse with an ambulatory. The tomb of St. Omer has a 13th-century cenotaph; nearby is the tomb of Eustache de Croy, provost of St-O. and later bishop of Arras (d. 1538). After the destruction of Thérouanne, Charles V in 1553 donated to the Cathedral the 13th-century group that adorned the portal of that city, representing the Redeemer between the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Baptist. In the transept is the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Miracles with the venerated wooden statue of the Madonna of the 13th century, crowned on 15 July 1875. Also venerated is the tomb of St. Erkembode (an 8th-century monument). The exterior is surmounted by a tall (50 m) square tower completed in 1499. In the four portals (13th-14th century) there are decorations with representations of the Blessed Virgin and of the Last Judgment. Noteworthy are the remains of the church of St-Bertin, adjacent to the abbey (1326-1520); the surviving tower, 58 m high (1431-1520), collapsed on 22 July 1947. The college of St-O. was founded in 1592-93 in the abbey of St-Bertin by Fr. R. Person S.J. and was endowed by Philip II, for the formation of young men. When the Jesuits were expelled from France in 1773, the students took refuge in Bruges, then in Liège and finally at Stonyhurst in England; the College resumed with the clergy of the College of Douai until 1793, when all were imprisoned; freed in 1795, the students returned to England to Old Hall (College of St. Edmund).

The city has a rich Library: 400,000 vols., 1,680 manuscripts and 212 incunabula; notable are an illuminated Bible of the 13th century and the illuminated Missal known as that of St-O. (14th century); the Life of St. Omer (8th century); the Gutenberg Bible and the charter of enfranchisement granted in 1127 by William Clito, count of Flanders, to the city. The Museum of Fine Arts is rich in ceramics and paintings; the Henri Dupuis Museum has the donor's collections and natural history collections.

Enrico Josi