CUÉNOT, ETIENNE-THÉODORE, Blessed. - A member of the Paris Foreign Missions, titular Bishop of Metellopoli, Apostolic Vicar of Eastern Cochinchina, consecrated missionary on 14 November 1861. Born on 18 February 1802 at Bélieu (Besançon), he was already a priest (since 1825) when he entered the seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions in 1827 and departed for Cochinchina in January 1828.
Appointed titular bishop and coadjutor to the Apostolic Vicar on 3 May 1835, he succeeded him on 31 July 1840. After 26 years of episcopate, he was taken prisoner on 14 November 1861; following the severe sufferings endured, he died in prison at Bin-Dinh. Despite continuous persecutions, he preserved the Christian community entrusted to him; he translated and had translated into Annamite some religious works, and in the same language wrote a "Schema of the principal laws of the Church as they must be applied in Cochinchina" and an apology of Christianity in four volumes, praised also for its style. He left works in Latin and French as well. Beatified by Pius X on 9 May 1909, together with other martyrs of Annam.