VEROT, JEAN-MARCEL-PIERRE-AUGUSTE. - Bishop, b. 23 May 1805 at Le Puy (France), d. 10 June 1876 at St. Augustine (Florida).
Ordained priest in 1828 and sent to Baltumora in 1830, he was a seminary professor, then parish priest, and finally apostolic vicar of Florida. Consecrated on 25 Apr. 1858, he found himself, in his new ecclesiastical jurisdiction, confronted with immense difficulties, since Florida was truly a mission land. He immediately set energetically to work, had the destroyed churches rebuilt, founded new ones, established elementary schools at St. Augustine, brought in priests and nuns, and in short promoted in the most diverse ways the spread of the Catholic faith. In 1861 he was transferred, while retaining the vicariate of Florida, to the see of Savannah (Georgia). During the Civil War he brought words of comfort to Northern prisoners in the Andersonville camp, where, owing to lack of food and medicines and to inhuman conditions of overcrowding, approximately thirteen thousand prisoners died in thirteen months.
Once the turmoil of the fratricidal conflict had ceased, V. began the reconstruction of the destroyed ecclesiastical establishments. In 1870 he took part in the Vatican Council. An anti-infallibilist, he subsequently submitted to the will of the majority. In the same year the apostolic vicariate of Florida was suppressed, and in its place the bishopric of St. Augustine was established; after resigning the see of Savannah, V. became its first holder.