LOYSON, CHARLES. — French apostate and “reformer,” born at Orléans on 10 March 1827, died in Paris on 9 February 1912. A priest (1851), he taught philosophy at Avignon, then theology at Nantes, from which he moved to Paris as parish priest of S. Sulpizio.
Having entered the Dominicans at Sorèze, in 1863 he joined the Discalced Carmelites, taking the name “père Hyacinthe,” by which he became famous. He preached in Paris in 1864 to great acclaim; but the novelty of his religious ideas earned him a reprimand from his superiors, and in 1869 he was summoned to Rome to justify himself. Returning to Paris, and following further reproaches from the superior general of the Order, he abandoned the Carmelite habit (September 1869) and, in a letter, published his views on a reform of the Church, especially concerning the celibacy of priests; he also declared himself opposed to the dogma of papal infallibility. Excommunicated in October 1869, he definitively separated himself from the Church, travelled in America and England, publicly joined the sect of the so-called “Old Catholics” (1871), married (1872), and was subsequently elected parish priest of the “Old Catholics” in Geneva (1873–75). In 1875, he opened a chapel for them in Paris. The reform of Catholicism remained his constant concern, until in his final years he proposed a reconciliation of Christianity with the Coran.
Among L.’s writings are remembered: Conférences prêchées à Notre-Dame de Paris (Toulouse 1867); De la réforme catholique (2 vols., Paris 1872–74); Les principes de la réforme catholique (ibid. 1878).
BIRL.: V. Martin, Un ennemi du r. p. Hyacinthe, Paris 1867; Alex. de St-Albin, Le r. p. Hyacinthe de l'Immaculée Conception O. C. D., ibid. 1867; E. Campana, s. V. in Enc. Ital., XXI, p. 535 (with bibliography). Ambrogio di Santa Teresa