Pressy, FrançoIs-joseph-gaston dE pArtz dE

Pressy, François-Joseph-Gaston de Partz de a French prelate, was born in 1712 at the castle of Ecuire (diocese of Boulogne). He was one of the most distinguished pupils of Saint-Sulpice. He was called, Dec. 25, 1742, to the episcopal see of Boulogne. He administered his diocese during nearly forty-seven years with unremitting zeal, and spent considerable sums for the ransom of the Christians captive among the Mohammedans, and for the expansion of the faith by foreign missions. In 1752 he joined a protestation addressed to the king (June 11), by twenty-one bishops, against parliamentary encroachments on ecclesiastical authority. A mandement which he subsequently published on the subject was suppressed. He died at Boulogne Oct. 8, 1789. His principal writings are, Statuts synodaux (1746, 4to): — a collection of Instructions pastorales and Dissertations theologiques (2 vols. 4to): — a Rituel du Diocese de Boulogne (Boulogne, 1780, 4to): — and a prayer- book in French, under the title of Heures (Lille, 1820, 8vo). See Gallia

Christiana, t. 10; Gazette de France, 1742-89; Fisquet, France Pontifcale (not published). Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, s.v.