Blessed Pierre-Louis de La Rouchefoucauld-Bayers, Bishop and Martyr

Blessed Pierre-Louis de La Rouchefoucauld-Bayers, Bishop and Martyr
Le Vivier, Blanzaguet, France, October 12, 1744 – Paris, September 2, 1792


Pierre-Louis de La Rouchefoucauld-Bayers was born in “Le Vivier” Blanzaguet, parish St-du-Cybard d’Eyrat, 12 October 1744. He was son of Messire Jean de La Rochefoucauld, lord of Maumont, Magnac, bars, and other places Vivier, knight of the military orders of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel and St-Lazarre de Jérusalem, and Marguerite des Escots. His parents intended him to have an ecclesiastical career, Pierre-Louis was appointed in 1770 prior to commendatory Nanteuil, becoming the general agent of the Clergy in 1775. He was then appointed Bishop of Saintes in 1781. In this city he organized a relief fund against fire.


“ On 24 March 1789, he was elected deputy of the clergy to the States General for the “Sénéchaussée de Saintes. He sat among the ranks of minorities and demonstrated hostility to reform, and after the session took refuge with his brother Francois-Joseph, Bishop of Beauvais, his sister abbess of Notre Dame de Soissons. But the French Revolution was still raging and they were discovered. Francois-Joseph was arrested on August 13, while Pierre-Louis asked partegiare his imprisonment and refused to flee from the Carmelite house in Paris a few days before the massacre. Right here, in fact, it happened on September 2, 1792, the massacre of 95 Christian martyrs much hatred to their faith, led by two brothers and another bishop, Jean-Marie du Lau.


“ Along with other victims of religious persecution who died in those days in Paris, for a total of 191 people, Pierre-Louis de La Rouchefoucauld-Bayers was beatified by Pope Pius XI on October 17, 1926.
Author: Fabio Arduino

Source: Santi e Beati