Eudoxe-Irénée Mignot

Eudoxe-Irénée Mignot (born September 20, 1842 in Brancourt-le-Grand , † March 18, 1918 in Albi ) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman, bishop and archbishop.

Life

Spiritual career

Mignot was the son of an elementary school teacher. From 1856 to 1860 he attended the small seminary in Soissons , then he entered the St. Sulpice seminary , where he had John Baptist Hogan (1829-1901) as a teacher and in 1864 was allowed to read La vie de Jésus by Ernest Renan . He was ordained a priest in 1865, taught in Liesse-Notre-Dame until 1868 , was then chaplain in Saint-Quentin until 1871 , pastor in Beaurevoir until 1875 , hospital chaplain in Laon until 1878 , dean in Coucy-la-Ville until 1883 , then in La Fère . From 1887 he was Vicar General of the Diocese of Soissons . From 1890 to 1900 he was Bishop of Fréjus , from 1900 until his death Archbishop of Albi .

Defender of the Modernists

Mignot self-taught himself to the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation and remained in benevolent contact with the leading modernists of his time, especially Alfred Loisy and Friedrich von Hügel , throughout his life . During the term of office of Pope Pius X (1903–1914) this brought him himself under suspicion of modernism. His efforts to save Loisy from condemnation by the Pontifical Biblical Commission were unsuccessful. On the other hand, like Loisy or George Tyrrell , he did not lose faith and retained the respect of the anti-modernist majority of French bishops, who regarded him as a kind of Erasmus of modernism. In a memorial to Pope Benedict XV. , Mignot settled accounts with Pius X in 1914, whose personal sanctity he recognized, but whose conscience-suppressing work he condemned. He also regretted Marc Sangnier's condemnation of the Catholic labor movement and the tolerance of Action française under Charles Maurras . Half a century after his death, the results of the Second Vatican Council allowed him to be seen as a prophetic figure.

Honors

Mignot was the commander of the Legion of Honor . His candidacy for the Académie française (successor to Cardinal François-Désiré Mathieu ) was denied him twice by opposing candidates, first by Archbishop de Cabrières , then by Alfred Baudrillart . Finally, Louis Duchesne (1910) was elected.

Works

• La méthode de la théologie. Discours prononcé à la séance de rentrée de l'Institut catholique de Toulouse le 13 November 1901 . In: Revue du clergé français 29, 1901, pp. 113-132.
• Lettres sur les études ecclésiastiques . Lecoffre, Paris 1908.
• L'Église et la critique . Lecoffre, Paris 1910.
• (Excerpts in :) Joseph Schnitzer (Ed.): The Catholic Modernism . Berlin-Schöneberg 1912, pp. 101-111.
• Confiance, prière, espoir. Lettres sur la guerre . Bloud & Gay, Paris 1915.
  • (Spanish) Confianza, oracián, esperanza. Cartas sobre la guerra . Bloud y Gay, Barcelona 1915.

literature

• Germain Gazagnol: The New Movement of Catholicism in France . G. Schuh, Munich 1903.
• Louis-Pierre Sardella (* 1946): Mgr Eudoxe Irénée Mignot (1842-1918). Un évêque français au temps du modernisme . Cerf, Paris 2004.
• Bernard Joassart: Figures du modernisme. Eudoxe Irénée Mignot and Marie-Joseph Lagrange. Speaking of livres récents . In: Nouvelle revue théologique 127, 2005, pp. 615–622.
• Louis Porte: Histoire du diocèse de Fréjus-Toulon . Editions du Lau 2017, pp. 144–148.

Web links

• Information on Eudoxe-Irénée Mignot in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
• Literature by and about Eudoxe-Irénée Mignot in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries )
• Short biography , French
• Entry in catholic-hierarchy.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sardella 2004, p. 494 ff.