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 Baltimore in 1830, he was a seminary professor, then a parish priest, and finally apostolic vicar of Florida. Consecrated on 25 April 1858, he found himself, in his new ecclesiastical jurisdiction, facing immense difficulties, since Florida was truly a missionary land. He immediately set to work energetically, had ruined churches rebuilt, founded new ones, established elementary schools in St. Augustine, brought in priests and nuns, and in various ways promoted 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 Union prisoners in the Andersonville camp, where, due to lack of food and medicine and in inhuman conditions of overcrowding, about thirteen thousand prisoners died in thirteen months.
Once the storm of fratricidal conflict had passed, he began rebuilding the destroyed ecclesiastical establishments. In 1870 he took part in the Vatican Council. Initially opposed to the definition of papal infallibility, he later submitted to the will of the majority. In the same year the apostolic vicariate of Florida was suppressed: in its place the diocese of St. Augustine was established, of which V., after renouncing the see of Savannah, became the first incumbent.