CUENOT, ETIENNE-THÉODORE, blessed. - Of the Paris Foreign Missions, titular bishop of Metellopolis, apostolic vicar of eastern Cochinchina, where he was martyred on 14 Nov. 1861. B. 18 Feb. 1802 at Bélieu (Besançon), already a priest (since 1825), he entered the seminary of the Foreign Missions in 1827 and left in Jan. 1828 for Cochinchina.
Appointed titular bishop and coadjutor to his apostolic vicar on 3 May 1835, whom he succeeded on 31 July 1840, after 26 years in the episcopate he was taken prisoner on 14 Nov. 1861; as a result of the severe sufferings endured, he died in prison at Bin-Dinh. Despite continual persecutions, he caused the Christian community entrusted to him to flourish; he translated and had translated into Annamite certain religious works, and in the same language wrote an “Outline of the principal laws of the Church to be applied in Cochinchina” and an apology for Christianity in 4 vols., praised also for its style. He also left works in Latin and French. He was beatified by Pius X, on 9 May 1909, together with other martyrs of Annam.