Nuirate, Louis-Thomas

NUIRATE, LOUIS-THOMAS. - Minim, theologian, martyr of the French Revolution, b. at Marseille on 21 Dec. 1724, d. there on 23 July 1792; he entered the Order of Minims at the age of sixteen.

A professor of rhetoric and theology for several years, superior in several convents of his province of Provence, at Rome at the Trinità dei Monti, and finally recalled to his homeland as head of the vast province, he was zealous for regular discipline, promoted studies, and enlarged the conventual Library of Marseille, which after the Revolution served as the foundation for that of the Commune. With the French Revolution the Church of Marseille saw its clergy scattered, a constitutional bishop installed, and the Jesuits and religious driven out. N., however, assisted by his young confrere Father Luigi Taxy (1765-92), continued secretly to assist the faithful and the hidden religious. Once discovered, the two champions of the faith were condemned to death and hanged from a lantern. The intruded bishop himself, Roux, unable to master his emotion, fell to his knees exclaiming: "They are two saints!" The cause of beatification has been introduced, associating with it a third confrere, Father Gian Gabriele Vigne (1736-92), who was likewise killed for the faith a month later, in the city of Aix. Father N. published: Oraison funèbre de mgr de Belvance, évêque de Marseille (Marseille 1756); Cantiques spirituels à l'usage des missions des prêtres séculiers (ibid. 1775, 2nd ed. 1783); Vie du b. Gaspar Bon, de l'Ordre des Minimes (ibid. 1788).

Gennaro Moretti