LAOUÉNAN, FRANÇOIS-JEAN-MARIE. - B. on 9 Nov. 1822 at Lannion (Côtes du Nord), d. at Montbeton on 29 Sept. 1892. He entered the Seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions on 29 Sept. 1843 and, ordained priest on 6 June 1846, left in Aug. of that same year for the mission of Pondichéry, where he was first a professor and then superior of the colonial college; in 1857 he was entrusted with the station of Kumbakonam, now an episcopal see.
From 1859 to 1862 he accompanied his bishop on the apostolic visitation of the missions of India. Thus he was able to write, in 1884, Le brahmanisme et ses rapports avec le judaïsme et le christianisme. On 5 June 1868 he was appointed apostolic vicar of Pondichéry; he gave great impetus to the apostolate and devoted himself to all during the famine of 1876-78. In 1874 he published the Statuts du Vic. Ap. de Pondichéry, which in 1879 were revised under the name of Directoire. He took an active part in the studies concerning the establishment of the hierarchy in India and in 1884 was consulted on the matter by Leone XIII, who in reward appointed him Assistant to the Throne. After the erection of the hierarchy, L. became the first archbishop of Pondichéry on 7 June 1887.