Jean-Baptiste Surian
Jean-Baptiste Surian (born May 20 or September 20, 1670 in Saint-Chamas , † August 3, 1754 in Vence ) was a Roman Catholic bishop and member of the Académie française .
Life
The oratorian and pulpit speaker
Surian, whose mother came from the noble house of Broglie , went to school in Martigues , attended the renowned oratorian college in Juilly and entered the oratorio of Aix-en-Provence in October 1685 . After a year he began a 20-year training and activity tour through France, which took him to Marseille , Notre-Dame-des-Anges in Mimet (center of Jansenism), Arles , Pézenas , Toulon (from 1691, ordained priest in 1695), Marseille, Montbrison , Saumur (1697), Caen (1699), Soissons (1705), Montpellier (1706), Aix-en-Provence (1707) finally led to Paris in 1708, where he rose to prominence as a pulpit speaker for the next 20 years and earned a diocese.
Bishop and member of the Académie française
In 1727 he was appointed Bishop of Vence ( Cathedral de la Nativité-de-Marie ), the smallest diocese in France, with which he was highly satisfied. Later to apply for more important episcopal seats, he declined. In 1733 he was elected to seat 25 of the Académie française, which his bishop colleague Henri-Charles du Cambout de Coislin had occupied before him.
Working in Vence
Surian had further income in his capacity as Commendatabab of the Abbey of Saint-Vincent de Lucq and as Prior of the Feuillantenkloster Goussainville . With his fortune he supported the poor and built the Saint Jacques hospital and hospital for the poor in Vence, which he also used as heir of his legacy. His intervening saved the city from the rioting of the imperial troops in 1746. He died after 27 years in office at the age of 84. Place Surian in Vence is a reminder of him.
Works
- Pensées et discours de JB de Surian, de l'Académie française. Edited by Abbé A. Rosne, 1886.
Quote
The wisdom of a Bishop of Vence
«J'ai fait consister mon bonheur dans un état borné; j'y ai vécu avec plaisir; j'y mourrai sans regret. La liberté de renaître me paraîtrait une punition. [...] Paris peut être un dreary séjour et Vence ou Senez une demeure aimable, selon la manière de penser et de sentir. Je me fais un Paris de Vence. Je me fais de ma campagne un Versailles. La première des sciences est de savoir être heureux. »
“I have made my fortune in limited circumstances. I lived in it with joy, I will die in it with no regrets. The right to live again appears to me to be a punishment. […] Paris can be a sad place to stay and Vence or Senez a lovable place to live, depending on how you think and feel. I'm making a Paris out of Vence, a Versailles out of my farthest province. The top science is: know how to be happy! "
literature
- Abbé A. Rosne: Un Emule de Massillon, Surian, prêtre de l'Oratoire, évêque de Vence, membre de l'Académie française, étude biographique et littéraire . In: Annales de Provence . December 20, 1884.
- Théophile Bérengier (1827–1897): Notice on Mgr Jean-Baptiste de Surian, évêque de Vence (1727–1754) . Marseille 1894. (with edition of his sermons)
Web links
- Information on Jean-Baptiste Surian in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
- Literature by and about Jean-Baptiste Surian in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
- Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
- Entry in catholic-hierarchy.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bsurian.html
- ↑ https://data.bnf.fr/fr/12992807/jean-baptiste_surian/
- ↑ Bérengier p. 53
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Surian, Jean-Baptiste |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French Roman Catholic bishop, member of the Académie française |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1670 or September 20, 1670 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-Chamas |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 3, 1754 |
| Place of death | Vence |