LA ROCHEFOUCAULD-BAYERS, PIERRE

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD-BAYERS, PIERRE - LOUIS de, Blessed. - French bishop and martyr, b. 12 Oct. 1744 at the château of Viviers, d. 2 Sept. 1792 in Paris. A theology student at the Seminary of S. Sulpizio, he became in 1771 vicar general to his brother Francesco Giuseppe, bishop of Beauvais. In 1775 he was elected one of the general agents of the clergy of France. Bishop of Saintes in 1781, he devoted himself to the direction of his Seminary, encouraged every work of charity aimed at helping one’s neighbour and, above all, at relieving the sufferings of the needy, and always professed an absolute and unconditional obedience to the Holy See, an attitude that made him disliked by the Jansenists. On 26 March 1789 the clergy of Saintes appointed him its representative to the Estates General. In the National Assembly he opposed every reform tending to affirm the dependence of the Church upon the State. He urged his faithful to accept the pontifical brief of 13 Apr. 1791 and condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Accused of counter-revolutionary activities, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Carmelite convent together with his brother Francesco Giuseppe. Both were massacred there by a mob of fanatics. He was beatified by Pio XI on 17 Oct. 1926.