LA ROCHEFOUCAULD-BAYERS, FRANÇOIS-JOSEPH de, Blessed. - Bishop, b. at Angoulême on 28 Apr. 1736, d. at Paris on 2 Sept. 1792. Descended from a cadet branch of the house of La Rochefoucauld, he entered the Seminary of S. Sulpizio in 1757 and was ordained priest in 1762. Vicar general of the archbishop of Rouen in 1764 and archdeacon of Vexiu, he was consecrated bishop of Beauvais on 12 July 1771.
On 13 March 1789 he was elected by the bailliage of Clermont en Beauvois as a deputy of the clergy to the Estates General; he was charged by his electors to oppose any attempt by the Third Estate to substitute individual voting for voting by estates, and he stated this firmly on 20 June of that year. In the Constituent Assembly he opposed laws detrimental to the rights of the Church and, in his diocese, fought the Civil Constitution of the Clergy by every means. He was denounced to the Legislative Assembly as a member of a counter-revolutionary committee and consequently sought refuge, together with his brother Pierre-Louis, bishop of Saintes, with a sister who was abbess at Notre-Dame de Soissons. Discovered, he was transferred to Paris and imprisoned at the Carmes. In 1792 he was murdered, after being seriously wounded, by a mob of fanatics, together with 119 other prisoners. Pius XI beatified him on 17 Oct. 1926.