Fulcran of Lodève, St.
FULCRAN OF LODÈVE, ST.
Bishop; d. Feb. 13, 1006. Fulcran's great reputation for virtue led Bishop Thierry of his native Lodève, Languedox (southern France), to ordain him priest in spite of Fulcran's reluctance. By popular acclaim he was made Thierry's successor in 949. Through periodic episcopal visitations he insisted upon regular discipline in religious houses and outspokenly condemned the sins of the highborn as well as of the low. He befriended the poor, founded Saint-Sauveur for Benedictine nuns, and built the cathedral church of St. genesius, in which he was buried. Once, upon hearing of a bishop who had fallen into Judaism, he remarked in emotion that he should be burned; and then, overwhelmed with remorse when taken literally, he undertook enormous penances and made a pilgrimage to Rome to seek forgiveness. His body was exhumed in 1127, but only some of his relics survived a Huguenot sack of his shrine in 1572.
Feast: Feb. 13 (Montpellier and Nîmes).
Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Feb. 2:711–718, 898–900. a. bec, Vie de saint Fulcran (Lodève 1858). h. reynis, Les Reliques de St. F. de Lodève (Lodève 1861). abbÈ bouty, Vie de St. F. (Montpellier 1865). j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheueux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes 12 v. (Paris 1935–56) 2:310–311.
[w. e. wilkie]