ON BLESSED STEPHEN, BISHOP OF BOURGES.
A.D. 835.
CommentaryStephen, Bishop of Bourges in Gaul (Bl.)
[1] Stephen is listed as the forty-third Bishop of the Church of Bourges by Jean Chenu and Demochar, and as the forty-fourth by Claude Robert — more correctly, perhaps, the forty-fifth, since it is established that Ebroinus sat before him, whom Robert places after him. By the same Robert he is called Blessed; by the others, Saint; by Andre Saussay, only "of pious memory." But Chenu, who with special care compiled the deeds of the Archbishops of Bourges, says that he rests in the church of St. Austregisillus in the castle near the city of Bourges, and is there devoutly venerated. The feast of Bl. Stephen. Constantinus Ghinius, who also calls him a Saint, records him on February 13; but the others already cited record him on this day.
[2] Claude Robert writes that he was present at the assembly at Thionville for the restoration of Louis the Pious in 835, citing Baronius — in whom we do not find this. Nor is it altogether true, since his successor Archbishop Aiulfus was present there. Still less can it be true, as the same Robert says, that he was present at the Second Council of Aachen in the year 836. Chenu says he died on the Ides of January in the year 835, having sat for eight years in the time of Pope Gregory IV, His dates. who governed the Church from September 24, 827, to nearly the end of 843. He was, as Robert says, so modest His modesty. that he was content with one Priest and one servant, frequently having on his lips the saying: "The goods of the Church are the patrimony of the poor." Saussay also commemorates the same.