Jean-Baptiste-Amédée Georges-Massonnais

Jean-Baptiste George de La Massonnais

Jean-Baptiste-Amédée George de La Massonnais , called Georges-Massonnais (born April 17, 1805 in Saint-Denis-de-Gastines , † December 20, 1860 in Périgueux ) was Bishop of Périgueux (1841-1860).

Life

Georges-Massonnais was a son of Antoine-Louis-Urbain George de La Massonnais and Michelle Françoise Lefebvre de Cheverus. His mother was a sister of the Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux, Jean Lefebvre de Cheverus (1768-1836). He received his high school education at the College of Laval and the Jesuit College in Sainte-Anne-d'Auray . He studied theology at the Saint-Sulpice seminary in Paris. Ordained priest of the Archdiocese of Bordeaux on June 13, 1829 , he went to Bordeaux to his uncle and worked there successively as chaplain at the Hospice Saint-André, vicar at the cathedral, chaplain at the Collège Royal and vicar general. After the death of his uncle in 1836 he was cathedral pastor at the Saint-André cathedral until he was appointed bishop of Périgueux , a suffragan of the ecclesiastical province of Bordeaux, in 1840 . Appointed on August 5, 1840, it was preconized on December 14, 1840 and consecrated on February 21, 1841 in St. Andrew's Cathedral by Archbishop Donnet of Bordeaux. His solemn entry into the cathedral of Périgueux (Saint-Front) followed on February 25, 1841.

Mgr Georges-Massonais' episcopate fell during a fertile period of development. He was one of the first French bishops to introduce the Roman liturgy in his diocese . He organized a pension fund for retired priests and reinstated the diocesan missionaries. He held three diocesan synods (1852, 1855 and 1860) and participated in the provincial synods (Bordeaux 1850, La Rochelle 1855, Périgeux 1858 and Agen 1860). In Périgeux he opened a seminary and handed over the old seminary in Sarlat to the Jesuits . He also opened church schools in Montignac , Belvès , Thiviers and La Roche-Chalais . The various diocesan communities of St. Martha ( Sœurs de Sainte-Marthe ) he united into a single congregation, brought the Capuchins to Périgeux and the Carmelites to Bergerac . The Carthusians settled again in 1858 the Carthusian Vauclaire in Montignac .

In 1846 Mgr Georges-Massonais traveled to Rome, where he was met by Pope Gregory XVI. was received just a few days before his death. On the return journey he made a stop in Imola , during which Bishop Mastai-Ferretti as Pius IX. succeeded the papal throne. Bishop Georges-Massonais immediately returned to Rome to pay homage to the newly elected Pope.

Bishop Georges-Massonais obtained the restoration of the partly dilapidated cathedral in the neo-Byzantine style from the state in 1852, carried out by the builder Paul Abadie , who also built the basilica Sacré-Cœur on the Parisian Montmartre in a similar style . Bishop Georges-Massonais himself donated three monumental chandeliers and a carillon with twenty bells.

Bishop Georges-Massonais died, only 55 years old, on December 20, 1860 and was buried in the cathedral. His monumental tomb can still be seen there today.

literature

• Louis-Édouard Pie: Oraison funèbre de Mgr J.-B.-A. George-Massonnais: évêque de Périgueux: prononcée par Mgr l'évêque de Poitiers, au service funèbre du 40e jour, le 30 janvier 1861, dans la cathédrale de Périgueux. V. Palmé, 1861.
• Théodore Pécaut: Un évêque: Mgr Jean-Baptiste-Amédée George-Massonnais, évêque de Périgueux et de Sarlat, 1894.
• L'Épiscopat français: Depuis le Concordat jusqu'à la Séparation (1802-1905). Paris: Librairie de Saints-Pères, 1907.
• Roger G. de La Massonnais: Deux frères: Louis, Anne, Abel George de La Massonnais, 1802–1871 ... et Jean-Baptiste, Amédée George de La Massonnais , 1805–1860. Impr. De Lahure, 1944.