Marseille Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins

Marseille Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins
The church of the Augustins or Saint-Ferréol les Augustins, also known as the Saint-Ferréol sanctuary, is located in the 1st arrondissement of Marseille, on the Quai des Belges, between the rue du Beausset (formerly rue des Augustins), the rue de la Queen Elisabeth (formerly Rue des Templiers) and Rue des Augustins (formerly Rue Neuve des Augustins). The church has been entrusted by the Archbishop of Marseille to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) since September 2017.
The Augustinians in Marseille
Several eremitic movements having claimed St. Augustine, Pope Innocent IV wished, in his bull “Incumbit nobis” of 1243, to bring together the different communities. However, it was Alexander IV who, in his bull “Licet Ecclesia” of April 9, 1256, united the hermits of Saint-Augustin1 into a single congregation. Barely two years after the official start of their order, the Augustinians decided to settle in Marseille, at the top of Rue d'Aubagne, near Rue Fongate.
Thanks to the help of King Robert I of Naples, Count of Provence, the monks managed to settle down, but in 1361 they had to abandon their neighborhood which was razed so as not to risk offering a logistical base favorable to armed bands. and are forced to take refuge within the city walls. The Augustinians then considered acquiring a house which had belonged to the Order of the Temple. They obtained authorization from the new Pope Urban V to deal with the Hospitallers of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, to whom the premises had been granted. The Augustinians remained there until the Revolution.
The construction of the convent and the church
The land selected is therefore located at the bottom of the Old Port, near the Fourmiguier plan, an area occupied by the shipbuilding yards, then by the galley arsenal. The construction of the church is all the more delicate as it is located on alluvial soil and unstable embankments of the old horn of the port which silted up in the Middle Ages and whose end is visible in the Garden remains.
This construction will be carried out over a long period. Work began very slowly in 1447. The Augustinians used wood from a disused galley donated by Jean de Villages, nephew of Jacques Cœur, to build the framework. However, the work is sufficiently advanced to welcome Pope Clement VII who came to accompany his niece Catherine de Medici who is coming to marry the second son of the King of France who will later be crowned King of France under the name of Henri II.
The consecration of the church was carried out on January 15, 1542 by Barthélemy Portalenqui, bishop in partibus of Troy and auxiliary to the bishop of Fréjus, Leone Orsini, while the nave was only covered with a simple wooden frame. For some historians this is evidence of the financial difficulties encountered by the Augustinians, while for others it simply reflects their spirit of poverty
On July 8, 1791, the town council proposed the demolition of the church because its sale would have brought in a lot of money because of its location near the port. Shortly after, on August 16, 1791, a decree from the constituent assembly made the church the seat of a parish which took the name of Saint Augustin15. The architect Ponge drew up several projects including that of 1793 which consisted of extending the lower part of the old rue des Augustins by demolishing the eastern part of the church. The fifth bay will therefore be removed16. Likewise, the convent was razed with the exception of its part adjoining the church choir and the bell tower, in order to allow the creation of a new road which would take the name of rue nouvelle des Augustins then rue des Augustins17 when the old rue des Augustins will be renamed rue du Beausset. Buildings will be built between this new street and the cul-de-boeuf square, currently Place Gabriel Péri.
The church was sold on July 20, 1796 to the merchant Charles Guinot who was then deprived of his rights for not having paid the asking price18. On April 9, 1799 the building was made available to the forage service. It was around 1801 that the demolition work of the fifth bay and the construction of a new facade were carried out.
The Saint Ferréol church which was located at the end of the street of that name, on the site of Place Saint Ferréol, had been demolished in 1794. In 1803 Bishop Champion de Cicé transferred the name of Saint Ferréol to the church which will henceforth bear the composite name of “Saint Ferréol les Augustins”19.