Charles Lavigne

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Bishop Charles Lavigne SJ (1890)

Charles Lavigne SJ (born January 6, 1840 in Marvejols , France, † July 11, 1913 in France) was a Jesuit, founder of the order as well as Apostolic Vicar and Titular Bishop in India, later Diocesan Bishop of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka .

Live and act

Charles Lavigne was ordained in 1864 and was initially a secular priest . On December 27, 1866, he entered the Jesuit order . Lavigne spoke the foreign languages ​​Italian and English as well as some German and Tamil . He worked for four years as the private secretary of the Jesuit general Pierre Jean Beckx (1795–1887) in Italy.

In 1887, all Catholic Thomas Christians in India , today's Syro-Malabars , were generally removed from the Latin jurisdiction and the two Apostolic Vicariates Trichur and Kottayam were created exclusively for them (under Latin titular bishops) , which in 1896 were again divided into the three vicariates Trichur, Ernakulam and Changanacherry remodeled. That year, for the first time, Syro-Malabar titular bishops came to head the district as Apostolic Vicars.

Lavigne was appointed Titular Bishop of Milevum and Apostolic Vicar of the newly established Vicariate of Kottayam in Kerala, India on September 13, 1887 . He received episcopal ordination on November 13th of that year in Belgium from Julien Costes (1819–1890), the bishop of his home diocese of Mende .

On December 14, 1888, Bishop Lavigne founded the Syro-Malabar Sisters of the Franciscan Clarises (FCC) in his new vicariate, an order that still flourishes today and from which the first Indian saint, Sister Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception (1910-1946), emerged.

Bishop Charles Lavigne initially resided in the Carmelite Monastery of Mannanam. In 1890 he moved the residence to the city of Changanacherry, which was in his diocese.

On September 15, 1895, the Vicar Apostolic went to Rome and did not return to India, because the Thomas Christians wanted to be given bishops of their own rite. In this context, on July 28, 1896, the districts of Kottayam and Trichur were converted into the vicariates of Trichur, Ernakulam and Changanacherry (with the elimination of the vicariate of Kottayam) and they were filled with local Apostolic Vicars.

Charles Lavigne's successor as Vicar Apostolic in Changanacherry was the Thomas Christian Mathew Makil (1851-1914), his former Vicar General for the Knananite Community , whose beatification process has already begun. In 1911 he finally advanced to become the first chief shepherd of the vicariate of Kottayam, which was then re-established exclusively for the Kannanites. Bishop Lavigne held him in high regard and had personally campaigned for his successor to be appointed.

On August 27, 1898, Pope Leo XIII appointed Charles Lavigne as Bishop of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka, an office he held for over ten years. In 1912 he traveled back to Europe, where he died in France.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Paul Urumpackal: V ocations in India: The clergy . 1986, page 244, footnote 37 (on date and country of death)
  2. ↑ Source on early life
  3. ^ For consecration in Belgium
  4. ↑ On the Order of the Franciscan Clarises (FCC), with the naming of Bishop Lavigne as founder
  5. ↑ To Mannanam Monastery
  6. ↑ Changanacherry, now Changanassery in the English language Wikipedia
  7. ↑ To Bishop Mathew Makil
  8. ↑ The Bishops of Trincomalee; Charles Lavigne at the bottom of the page
personal data
SURNAME Lavigne, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Jesuit, Vicar Apostolic in India, Bishop in Sri Lanka
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Marvejols
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1913
Place of death France