The Roman Catholic Diocese of Limoges is a diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The diocese comprises the départments of Haute-Vienne

Haute-Vienne

Haute-Vienne is a French department named after the Vienne River. It is one of three departments that together constitute the French region of Limousin.The chief and largest city is Limoges...

 and Creuse

Creuse

Creuse is a department in central France named after the Creuse River.-History:Creuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of La Marche....

. After the Concordat of 1801

Concordat of 1801

The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status....

, the See of Limoges

Limoges

Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....

 lost twenty-four parishes from the district of Nontron

Nontron

Nontron is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-History:According to the historian Ribault de Laugardière, the name Nontron derives from the Tyrian language, from Nata and Dun...

 which were annexed to the Diocese of Périgueux, and forty-four from the district of Confolens

Confolens

Confolens is a commune in southwestern France. It is one of the two sub-prefecture of the Charente department.Confolens is the administrative center of a largely rural district, which has seen the development of tourism in recent years.-Geography:...

, transferred to the Diocese of Angoulême; but until 1822 it included the entire ancient Diocese of Tulle, when the latter was reorganized.

Since 2002, the diocese has been suffragan to the Archdiocese of Poitiers

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Poitiers is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The archepiscopal see is in the city of Poitiers. The Diocese of Poitiers includes the two Departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres...

, after transferral from the Archdiocese of Bourges. Currently the see is vacant after the promotion of bishop Christophe Dufour as the new coadjutor archbishop of Aix, in the Archdiocese of Aix.

History

Saint Gregory of Tours names St. Martial, who founded the Church of Limoges, as one of the seven bishops sent from Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 to Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

 in the middle of the 3rd century. An anonymous life of St. Martial (Vita primitiva), discovered and published by Abbé Arbellot, represents him as sent to Gaul by St. Peter. Controversy has arisen over the date of this biography. The discovery in the library at Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

 of a manuscript copy written at Reichenau

Reichenau Island

Reichenau Island lies in Lake Constance in southern Germany, at approximately . It lies between Gnadensee and Untersee, two parts of Lake Constance, almost due west of the city of Konstanz. The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway that was completed in 1838...

 by Regimbertus, a monk who died in 846, places the original before that date. As it is in rhythmical prose, Mgr Bellet thinks it belongs to the 7th century while Charles De Smedt

Charles De Smedt

Charles De Smedt was a Belgian Jesuit priest and hagiographer. He was a Bollandist, and is noted for having introduced critical historical methods into Catholic hagiography, so that it became a collection of accounts of the accretion of legends, as well as the compilation of original materials.He...

 and Louis Duchesne

Louis Duchesne

Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne was a French priest, philologist, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and institutions....

 maintain that the "Vita primitiva" is much later than Gregory of Tours. M. de Lasteyrie gives 800 as the date of its origin.

In addition to the manuscript already cited, the Abbey of St. Martial

Abbey of St. Martial

St. Martial's Abbey was a monastery in Limoges, France, founded in 848 and dissolved in 1791.The buildings were razed at the beginning of the 19th century...

 at the beginning of the 11th century possessed a circumstantial life of its patron saint, according to which, and to the cycle of later legends derived from it, St. Martial was one of the seventy-two disciples who witnessed the Passion and Ascension of Christ, was present on the first Pentecost

Pentecost

Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

 and at the martyrdom of St. Stephen. followed St. Peter to Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

 and to Rome, and was sent to Gaul by the Prince of the Apostles, who assigned Austriclinium and Alpinian to accompany him. The three were welcomed at Tulle

Tulle

Tulle is a commune and capital of the Corrèze department in the Limousin region in central France. It is also the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle...

 and turned away from Ahun

Ahun

Ahun is a commune in the Creuse department in the Limousin region in central France.-Geography:A farming area comprising the village and several hamlets situated in the valley of the Creuse River, some southeast of Guéret, at the junction of the D942, D13 and the D18.It was the Roman site of...

. They set out towards Limoges, where St. Martial erected on the site of the present cathedral a shrine in honour of St. Stephen. A pagan priest, Aurelian

Aurelian of Limoges

Saint Aurelian of Limoges is venerated as a Christian saint. Christian tradition makes him the second bishop of Limoges, and the successor of St. Martial....

, wished to throw St. Martial into prison, but was struck dead, then brought to life, baptized, ordained and later consecrated bishop by the saint. Aurelian is the patron of the guild of butchers in Limoges. Forty years after the Ascension, Christ appeared to Martial, and announced to him the approach of death. The churches of Limoges celebrate this event on 16 June. After labouring for twenty-eight years as a missionary in Gaul, the saint died at the age of fifty-nine, surrounded by his converts of Poitou

Poitou

Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century....

, Berry

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

, Auvergne

Auvergne (province)

Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....

 and Aquitaine

Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...

.

The writer of this "Life" pretends to be Aurelian, St. Martial's disciple and successor in the See of Limoges. Louis Duchesne

Louis Duchesne

Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne was a French priest, philologist, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and institutions....

 thinks it not unlikely that the real authorship of this "apocryphal and lying" work should be attributed to the chronicler Adhémar de Chabannes, noted for his fabrications; but M. de Lasteyrie is of opinion that it was written about 955, before the birth of Adhémar. Be that as it may, this "Vita Aureliana" played an important part at the beginning of the 11th century, when the Abbot Hugh (1019–1025) brought before several councils the question of the Apostolic date of St. Martial's mission. Before the Carolingian

Carolingian

The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...

 period there is no trace of the story that St. Martial was sent to Gaul by St. Peter. It did not spread until the 11th century and was revived in the seventeenth by the Carmelite Bonaventure de Saint-Amable, in his voluminous "Histoire de St. Martial". Duchesne and M. de Lasteyrie assert that it cannot be maintained against the direct testimony of St. Gregory of Tours, who places the origin of the Church of Limoges about the year 250.

Prominent Priests

The most distinguished bishops of Limoges are: St. Ruricius

Ruricius

Ruricius I , a Gallo-Roman aristocrat and bishop of Limoges from ca.485 to 510. He is one of the writers whose letters survive from late Roman Gaul depicting the influence of the Visigoths on the Roman lifestyle...

 (died 507), who built the monastery and church of St. Augustine at Limoges; St. Roricius II (d. about 553), who built the church of St-Pierre-du-Queyroix and the Basilica of St. Junianus at Limoges; St. Ferréol (d. 597), the friend of St. Yrieix

Aredius

Saint Aredius , also known as Yrieix, was Abbot of Limoges and chancellor to Theudebert II, King of Austrasia in the 6th century. He founded the monastery of Attanum, and the various French communes called St. Yrieix are named after him....

; St. Lupus, or Saint Loup

Saint Loup

Saint Lupus of Sens was an early French bishop of Sens.He was the son of Blessed Betto, a member of the royal house of the Kingdom of Burgundy.-Church in Saint-Loup-de-Naud:...

 (613-629); St. Sacerdos

Sacerdos of Limoges

Saint Sacerdos of Limoges is a French saint. He was born near Sarlat and became a monk. He was the founder and abbot of Calviac Abbey. He was later appointed bishop of Limoges...

 (Saint Sardon), Abbot of Calabrum, afterwards bishop; St. Cessa (740-761), who led the people of Limoges against the Saracens under Charles Martel

Charles Martel

Charles Martel , also known as Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks. In 739 he was offered the...

; Cardinal Jean du Bellay

Jean du Bellay

Jean du Bellay was a French cardinal and diplomat, younger brother of Guillaume du Bellay, and bishop of Bayonne in 1526, member of the privy council in 1530, and bishop of Paris in 1532.-Biography:...

 (1541–1545).

Middle Ages

The ecelesiastics who served the crypt

Crypt

In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....

 of St. Martial organized themselves into a monastery in 848, and built a church beside that of St.-Pierre-du-Sépulchre which overhung the crypt. This new church, which they called St-Sauveur, was demolished in 1021 and replaced in 1028 by a larger edifice in Auvergnat style. Urban II came in person to reconsecrate it in 1095. In the 13th century the chapel of St. Benedict arose beside the old church of St-Pierre-du-Sépulchre. It was also called the church of the Grand Confraternity of St. Martial. The different organizations which were grouped around it, anticipated and solved many important sociological questions.

In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, Limoges comprised two towns: one called the "City", the other the "Chateau" or "Castle". The government of the "Castle" belonged at first to the Abbots of St. Martial who claimed to have received it from king Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...

. Later, the viscount

Viscount

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...

s of Limoges claimed this authority, and constant friction existed until the beginning of the 13th century, when owing to the new communal activity, consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

s were appointed, to whose authority the abbots were forced to submit in 1212. After two intervals during which the English kings imposed their rule, king Charles V of France

Charles V of France

Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...

 in 1371 united the "Castle" with the royal demesne

Crown lands of France

The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or domaine royal of France refers to the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France...

, and thus ended the political rule of the Abbey of St. Martial. Until the end of the old regime, however, the abbots of St. Martial exercised direct jurisdiction over the Combes quarter of the city.

In 1534, Abbot Matthieu Jouviond, finding that the monastic spirit had almost totally died out in the abbey, thought best to change it into a collegiate church

Collegiate church

In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...

, and in 1535 the king and the pope gave their consent. It was suppressed in 1791, and early in the 19th century even the buildings had disappeared. In the 13th century, the Abbey of St. Martial possessed the finest library (450 volumes) in France after that of Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three churches built in succession from the 10th to the early 12th centuries....

 (570 volumes). Some have been lost, but 200 of them were bought by Louis XV in 1730, and to-day are one of the most valuable collections in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. Most manuscripts, ornamented with beautiful miniatures, were written in the abbey itself. M. Emile Molinier and M. Rupin admit a relation between these miniatures of St. Martial and the earliest Limoges enamels, but M. de Lasteyrie disputes this theory. The Franciscans settled at Limoges in 1223. According to the chronicle of Pierre Coral, rector of St. Martin of Limoges, St. Anthony of Padua established a convent there in 1226 and departed in the first months of 1227. On the night of Holy Thursday, it is said, he was preaching in the church of St. Pierre du Queyroix, when he stopped for a moment and remained silent. At the same instant he appeared in the choir of the Franciscan monastery and read a lesson. It was doubtlessly at Châteauneuf

Châteauneuf

Places in France known as Châteauneuf:* Châteauneuf, Côte-d'Or* Châteauneuf, Loire* Châteauneuf, Saône-et-Loire* Châteauneuf, Savoie* Châteauneuf, Vendée-See also:Places in France known as Châteauneuf:* Châteauneuf, Côte-d'Or...

in the territory of Limoges that took place the celebrated apparition of the Infant Jesus to St. Anthony.

Patrons

The diocese specially honours the following: St. Sylvanus

Silvanus of Ahun

Silvanus of Ahun is venerated as a martyr and saint. According to tradition, he was a deacon who was killed by Vandals at Agedunum or Acitodunum on October 16, 407.-Veneration:...

 (Silvain), a native of Ahun

Ahun

Ahun is a commune in the Creuse department in the Limousin region in central France.-Geography:A farming area comprising the village and several hamlets situated in the valley of the Creuse River, some southeast of Guéret, at the junction of the D942, D13 and the D18.It was the Roman site of...

, martyr; St. Adorator disciple of St. Ambrose, suffered martyrdom at Lubersac

Lubersac

Lubersac is a commune in the Corrèze département in central France near Arnac-Pompadour and Uzerche.It was formerly called Louparsat , named from the legend of a knight who killed a wolf with a blow of his sword to save his beloved...

; St. Victorianus, an Irish hermit; St. Vaast, a native of the diocese who became Bishop of Arras and baptized king Clovis

Clovis I

Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...

 (5th-6th century); St. Psalmodius, a native of Britain, died a hermit at Eymoutiers

Eymoutiers

Eymoutiers is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in western France.Inhabitants are known as Pelauds.-History:...

; St. Yrieix

Aredius

Saint Aredius , also known as Yrieix, was Abbot of Limoges and chancellor to Theudebert II, King of Austrasia in the 6th century. He founded the monastery of Attanum, and the various French communes called St. Yrieix are named after him....

, d. in 591, chancellor to Theudebert II

Theudebert II

Theudebert II , King of Austrasia , was the son and heir of Childebert II. He received the kingdom of Austrasia plus the cities of Poitiers, Tours, Vellay, Bordeaux, and Châteaudun, as well as the Champagne, the Auvergne, and Transjurane Alemannia, on the death of his father in 595, but was...

 King of Austrasia and founder of the monastery of Attanum (the towns of Saint-Yrieix are named after him); St. Etienne de Muret (1046–1126), who together with Guillaume d'Uriel, Bishop of Limoges, founded the famous Benedictine abbey of Grandmont.

Mention must also be made of the following natives of Limoges: Bernard Guidonis (1261–1313), born at La Roche d'Abeille, Bishop of Lodève and a celebrated canonist; the Aubusson family, one of whom, Pierre d'Aubusson

Pierre d'Aubusson

Pierre d'Aubusson was a Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem and a zealous opponent of the Ottoman Empire.Pierre probably joined the Knights of St...

 (1483–1503), was Grand Master

Grand Master (order)

Grand Master is the typical title of the supreme head of various orders of knighthood, including various military orders, religious orders and civil orders such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Orange Order...

 of the Order of Jerusalem

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

 and one of the defenders of Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...

 against the Ottomans; Marc Antoine Muret, called the "Orator of the Popes" (1526–1596). Three popes came from the Diocese of Limoges: Pierre Roger

Pope Clement VI

Pope Clement VI , bornPierre Roger, the fourth of the Avignon Popes, was pope from May 1342 until his death in December of 1352...

, born at Maumont (today part of the commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons

Rosiers-d'Égletons

Rosiers-d'Égletons is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.-Population:-References:*...

), elected pope in 1342 as Clement VI, died in 1352; Etienne Albert, or Étienne d'Albret, born at Monts, elevated to the papacy in 1352 as Innocent VI, died in 1362. Pierre Roger de Beaufort, nephew of Clement VI, also born at Maumont, reigned as Gregory XI from 1371 till 1378. Maurice Bourdin, Archbishop of Braga (Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

), antipope

Antipope

An antipope is a person who opposes a legitimately elected or sitting Pope and makes a significantly accepted competing claim to be the Pope, the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic Church. At times between the 3rd and mid-15th century, antipopes were typically those supported by a...

 for a brief space in 1118, under the name of Gregory VIII

Antipope Gregory VIII

Gregory VIII , born Mauritius Burdinus , was antipope from 10 March 1118 until 22 April 1121.He was born in the Limousin, part of Aquitaine, Occitania, France. He was educated at Cluny, at Limoges, and in Castile, where he was a deacon at Toledo. In 1098/1099 his Cluniac connections recommended him...

, also belonged to this diocese. St. Peter Damian came to Limoges in 1062 as papal legate

Papal legate

A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....

, to compel the monks to accept the supremacy of the Order of Cluny.

Council of Limoges

The Council of Limoges, held in 1031, is noted not only for its decision with regard to St. Martial's mission, but because, at the instigation of Abbot Odolric, it proclaimed the "Truce of God" and threatened with general excommunication

Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...

 those feudal lords who would not swear to maintain it. It was at the priory of Bourganeuf in this diocese that Pierre d'Aubusson

Pierre d'Aubusson

Pierre d'Aubusson was a Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem and a zealous opponent of the Ottoman Empire.Pierre probably joined the Knights of St...

 received the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 prince Zizin, son of Sultan Mohammed II of Turkey, after he had been defeated in 1483 by his brother, Bajazet II.

Pilgrimages and Feasts

In 994, when the district was devastated by a plague (mal des ardents), the epidemic ceased immediately after a procession ordered by Bishop Hilduin on the Mont de la Joie, which overlooks the city. The Church of Limoges celebrates this event on 12 November.

The principal pilgrimages of the diocese are those of: Saint Valtéric (hermit) at Saint-Vaubry (6th century); Our Lady of Sauvagnac at Saint-Léger-la-Montagne

Saint-Léger-la-Montagne

Saint-Léger-la-Montagne is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in west-central France.Inhabitants are known as Saint-Légeois.-References:*...

 (12th century); Notre-Dame-du-Pont, near St-Junien (14th century), twice visited by Louis XI; NotreDame-d'Arliguet, at Aixe-sur-Vienne (end of the 16th century); Notre-Dame-des-Places, at Crozant (since 1664).

Orders

Before the Associations Law

Associations Law

The Associations Law was a law in Iraq, which legally regulated political parties. The law was promulgated on January 1, 1960. Prior to the adoption of this law, political parties had been banned since 1954...

 of 1901, there were in the diocese of Limoges Jesuits, Franciscans, Marists, Oblates of Mary Immaculate and Sulpicians. The principal congregations of women which originated here are the Sisters of the Incarnation founded in 1639, contemplatives and teachers, who were restored in 1807 at Azerables, and have houses in Texas and Mexico. The Sisters of St. Alexis, nursing sisters, founded at Limoges in 1659. The Sisters of St. Joseph

Sisters of St. Joseph

The title Sisters of St. Joseph applies to several Roman Catholic religious congregations of women. The largest and oldest of these was founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France...

, founded at Dorat

Dorat

Dorat may refer to:* Jean Daurat , , French poet and scholar, member of the Pléiade* Claude Joseph Dorat , French writer, also known as Le Chevalier Dorat...

 in February, 1841, by Elizabeth Dupleix, who had visited the prisons at Lyons with other pious women since 1805. The Congregation of Our Saviour and the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, a nursing and teaching congregation founded at la Souterraine, in 1835, by Joséphine du Bourg.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd (also called 'Marie Thérèse nuns'), nursing sisters and teachers, had their mother-house at Limoges.

Statistics

As of 2004, the diocese has a population of 478,363 and 97 parishes; 126 priests, of whom 104 are diocesan priests and 22 are religious priests; and 214 nuns.

To 1000

• Saint Martial
  Saint Martial
  Saint Martial was the first bishop of Limoges in today's France, according to a lost vita of Saturnin, first bishop of Toulouse, which Gregory of Tours quotes in his History of the Franks.-Life:...
  
  , 3rd century
• Saint Aurelian
  Aurelian of Limoges
  Saint Aurelian of Limoges is venerated as a Christian saint. Christian tradition makes him the second bishop of Limoges, and the successor of St. Martial....
  
  , 3rd century
• Ebulus
• ?
• Alticus
• ?
• Emerinus
• ?
• Hermogenian
• ?
• Adelfius I.
  Adelphius
  Adelphius , was a Bishop of Limoges at Haute Vienne from ca. 420. His son, born ca. 420, was the father of Saint Ruricius.He had an older brother named Hermogenianus, both children of Pontius, born ca...
  
  
• ?
• Dativus 4th century
• Adelfius II. 4th century
• Exuperius 4th century
• Astidius 4th century
• Peter du Palais 506
• Rorice I.
  Ruricius
  Ruricius I , a Gallo-Roman aristocrat and bishop of Limoges from ca.485 to 510. He is one of the writers whose letters survive from late Roman Gaul depicting the influence of the Visigoths on the Roman lifestyle...
  
   507
• Rorice II. 535-553
• Exochius 6th century
• Saint Ferreol 575-597
• Asclepius 613
• Saint Loup 614-631
• Simplicius 7th century
• Felix ca. 650
• Adelfius III.
• Rusticus 669
• Hergenobert 7th century
• Ermenon 8th century
• Salutaris 8th century
• Saint Sacerdos
  Sacerdos of Limoges
  Saint Sacerdos of Limoges is a French saint. He was born near Sarlat and became a monk. He was the founder and abbot of Calviac Abbey. He was later appointed bishop of Limoges...
  
   720
• Ausuindus 8th century
• Saint Cessadre 732
• Rorice III. 8th century
• Ebulus I. 752-768
• Asclepius ca. 793
• Reginbert 817
• Odoacre 821-843
• Stodilus 850-861
• Aldo 866
• Geilo 869
• Anselm 869-896
• Turpin D’Aubusson 905-944
• Ebalus II. 958-963
• Hildegaire 969-989
• Alduin 990-1012

1000 to 1300

• Géraud I 1012-1020
• Jourdain de Laront 1029-1051
• Itier Chabot 1052-1073
• Guy de Laront 1076-1086
• Humbauld de Saint-Sèvère 1087-1095
• Guillaume D'Uriel 1098-1100
• Pierre Viroald 1100-1105
• Eustorge 1106-1137
• Gérald II du Cher 1142-1177
• Sébrand Chabot 1179-1198
• Jean de Veyrac 1198-1218
• Bernard de Savène 1219-1226
• Guy de Cluzel 1226-1235
• Guillaume du Puy 1235
• Durand ca. 1240-1245
• Aymeric de La Serre 1246-1272
• Gilbert de Malemort 1275-1294
• Raynaud de La Porte 1294-1316

1300 to 1500

• Gérard Roger 1317-1324
• Hélie de Talleyrand 1324-1328
• Blessed Roger le Fort 1328-1343
• Nicolas de Besse 1343-1369
• Guy de Comborn 1346-1347
• Jean de Cros 1348-1371
• Aymeric Chati de L’Age-au-Chapt 1372-1390
• Bernard de Bonneval 1391-1403
• Hugues de Magnac 1403-1412
• Ramnulfe de Peyrusse des Cars 1414-1426
• Hugues de Rouffignac 1426-1427
• Pierre de Montbrun 1427-1456
• Jean de Barthon I. 1457-1486
• Jean de Barthon II. 1486-1510

1500 to 1800

• René de Prie 1510-1517
• Philippe de Montmorency 1517-1519
• Charles de Villiers de L`Isle-Adam 1522-1530
• Antoine de Lascaris 1530-1532
• Jean de Langeac 1533-1541
• Jean du Bellay
  Jean du Bellay
  Jean du Bellay was a French cardinal and diplomat, younger brother of Guillaume du Bellay, and bishop of Bayonne in 1526, member of the privy council in 1530, and bishop of Paris in 1532.-Biography:...
  
   1541-1544
• Antoine Senguin 1546-1550
• César des Bourguignons 1555-1558
• Sébastien de L'Aubespine 1558-1582
• Henri de La Marthonie 1587-1618
• Raymond de La Marthonie 1618-1627
• François de Lafayette 1628-1676
• Louis de Lascaris D'Urfé 1676-1695
• François de Carbonel de Canisy 1695-1706, † 1723
• Antoine de Charpin de Genetines † (13 Sep 1706 Appointed - 21 Jun 1739 Died)
• Jean-Gilles du Coëtlosquet
  Jean-Gilles du Coëtlosquet
  Jean-Gilles du Coëtlosquet was a French ecclesiastic, bishop of Limoges and preceptor to the grandchildren of Louis XV.-Life:...
  
   (1739–1758)
• Louis-Charles du Plessis d'Argentré † (3 Sep 1758 Appointed - 28 Mar 1808 Died)

From 1800

• Marie-Jean-Philippe Dubourg † (29 Apr 1802 Appointed - 31 Jan 1822 Died)
• Prosper de Tournefort † (13 Oct 1824 Appointed - 7 Mar 1844 Died)
• Bernard Buissas † (21 Apr 1844 Appointed - 24 Dec 1856 Died)
• Florian-Jules-Félix Desprez † (4 Feb 1857 Appointed - 30 Jul 1859 Appointed, Archbishop of Toulouse)
• Alfred Duquesnay † (16 Oct 1871 Appointed - 17 Feb 1881 Appointed Archbishop of Cambrai)
• Pierre Henri Lamazou † (17 Feb 1881 Appointed - 3 Jul 1883 Appointed Bishop of Amiens)
• François-Benjamin-Joseph Blanger † (3 Jul 1883 Appointed - 11 Dec 1887 Died)
• Firmin-Léon-Joseph Renouard † (28 Feb 1888 Appointed - 30 Nov 1913 Died)
• Hector-Raphaël Quilliet † (24 Dec 1913 Appointed - 18 Jun 1920 Appointed Bishop of Lille)
• Alfred Flocard † (16 Dec 1920 Appointed - 3 Mar 1938 Died)
• Louis-Paul Rastouil † (21 Oct 1938 Appointed - 7 Apr 1966 Died)
• Henri Gufflet † (7 Apr 1966 Succeeded - 13 Jul 1988 Retired)
• Léon-Raymond Soulier (13 Jul 1988 Succeeded - 24 Oct 2000 Retired)
• Christophe Dufour (24 Oct 2000 Appointed - 20 May 2008 Appointed, Coadjutor Archbishop of Aix)