Saint-Barthelemy / Saint-Barthélemy

Noted and illustrated in Visites Aquitaine [http://visites.aquitaine.fr/fonts-baptismaux-18912] [accessed 26 November 2013]: "Les fonts baptismaux de l’église de Saint-Barthélemy remontent au dernier quart du XIXe siècle. [...] ils prennent la forme d’une colonne de pierre à chapiteau décoré de feuilles. Le bénitier [i.e., Les fonts baptismaux] de Saint-Barthélemy est protégé par une clôture de fer à ornementation dorée." An article by the Abbé Jean Lacouture in 1932 [ in www.saintbarthelemy40.com/pages/au-moyen-age-sous-l-ancien-regime-1299-1849-8596064.htm] [accessed 26 November 2013] informs of a manuscript, found in the vicarage of this town, containing a reference to a donation on 9 May 1299 by Anton d'Albret on the occasion of the acceptance of his bastard son to the monastery (abbey?) at la Reule; this 1299 donation, adds Lacouture, is further recorded in Veillet, Dubarat and Daranatz (1910), where there are details of the wealthy relics that were brought for the main altar of Saint-Barthélemy, especially in the 1480s. Veillet... (ibid.) also note that the church of Saint-Barthélemy had, at times, functioned as a sort of chapel-of-ease to the church of nearby Saint-André-de-Seignanx, to which it was annexed, and remained so until 1849. By 1873 it is obvious that the old church, which had become almost a ruin, no longer served the needs of the parishioners, and a new one was built. The present font belongs to that period. [NB: we have no information on the baptismal font of the original ca. 1300 church here].