LOYSON, CHARLES. - French apostate and "reformer," b. at Orléans on 10 March 1827, d. at Paris on 9 Feb. 1912. A priest (1851), he taught philosophy at Avignon, then theology at Nantes, whence he moved to Paris as parish priest of St. Sulpice.
Having entered the Dominicans at Sorèze, he passed in 1863 to the Discalced Carmelites, under the name of "père Hyacinthe," by which he became famous. He preached at Paris in 1864 to great acclaim; but the novelty of his religious ideas earned him censure from his superiors, and in 1869 he was summoned to Rome to justify himself. Having returned to Paris, and following new reproaches from the general of the Order, he left the Carmelite habit (Sept. 1869) and in a letter published what he felt about a reform of the Church, especially about the celibacy of priests, and declared himself opposed to the dogma of the Pope's infallibility. Excommunicated in Oct. 1869, he separated himself definitively from the Church, traveled in America and England, publicly adhered to the sect of the so-called "Old Catholics" (1871), contracted marriage (1872), and was then elected parish priest of the "Old Catholics" at Geneva (1873-75). In 1875 he opened a chapel for them at Paris. The reform of Catholicism remained his constant preoccupation, to the point of proposing in his last years a reconciliation of Christianity with the Koran.
Of L.'s writings the following 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).
Bibliography3 works
Ambrogio di Santa Teresa