Louis Savinien Dupuis

Photo around 1865

Posthumous portrait after photo, around 1880

Louis Savinien Dupuis (born August 18, 1806 in Sens (Yonne) , Burgundy ; † June 4, 1874 in Pondicherry , India) was a Catholic priest of the Paris Mission and founder of the first indigenous order of sisters in India, the "Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ".

Live and act

Priest and missionary

Louis Savinien Dupuis was born as the second child of Edme Louis Dupuis and Victoire. Remy, born in the Burgundian town of Sens. He grew up in a very religious family and attended the Jesuit school in his hometown, as well as the local seminary.

In Sens he was ordained a priest on April 25, 1829 by Auxiliary Bishop Jacques-Marie-Antoine-Célestin Dupont (1792-1859), who later became cardinal. On May 25, 1831, the young clergyman joined the Paris Mission Society . This community looked after u. a. French India and its capital Pondicherry, wherever he was sent. Dupuis reached India on April 9, 1832 and initially worked as a pastor in Bangalore , in 1840 he founded the "Mission Press", a church printing company in Pondicherry. Together with his religious brother, Father Louis Marie Mousset (1808–1888), he published the first Tamil-French-Latin dictionary "Dictionarium Latino-Gallico-Tamulicum" here in 1846

Founding of the order

Louis Savinien Dupuis always tried to improve the education of the people and was a missionary pioneer in the school system. At a Synod of Bishops in Pondicherry in January 1844, the Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Clément Bonnand (1796–1861) spoke very emphatically about the disadvantage of women in Indian society, which is particularly caused by their low level of education. Father Dupuis received the suggestion to found an order of local sisters, where they themselves should receive a good education and, as multipliers, would again educate children, especially girls, religiously, morally and scientifically. So on October 16, 1844, the priest founded the Congregation of the "Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary" in Pondicherry, which on February 23, 1859 was officially affiliated to the Regulartartiars of the 3rd Order of St. Francis. Under its founder, the community of sisters grew rapidly over the next 15 years and quickly spread to other dioceses in the country, mainly on the Coromandel coast .

Father Dupuis died in Pondicherry in 1874 and was buried in the cathedral there.

In 1907, Bishop Alois Benziger called the order to his diocese of Quilon , which now also spread it on the opposite Malabar coast , in what is now Kerala . While Tamil is spoken in Pondicherry and on the Coromandel Coast, the national language on the Malarbar Coast is Malayalam . Therefore, the order was divided into 2 separate communities in 1947 according to the different languages. The Tamil order with a generalate in Pondicherry has been called the "Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary", the Malayalam-speaking, with a generalate in Kollam, the former Quilon, "Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Quilon". During the division, the nuns on the Malabar Coast were free to choose which of the two orders they wanted to belong to.

Both orders run numerous schools, old people's homes and various hospitals. The Tamil Congregation currently (2010) has more than 1000 nuns who work in 5 countries. The "Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Quilon", based in Kollam , is a little smaller and currently has around 500 women religious with 52 convents in India, Germany and Italy.

Post fame

Monument to Father Dupuis in Pondicherry

Both sister orders jointly wish the beatification of their founder and for this purpose collect news of answers to prayer. The process of beatification for Father Louis Savinien Dupuis has started at the diocesan level. The relics were lifted from the old grave in the cathedral on April 13, 1989 and transferred to a new resting place, which is located in a monastery church of the Sisters of Pondicherry. In Pondicherry there is also a monument in honor of the French priest.

literature

• Anand Amaladass: Indian Christian thinkers , Volume 3. Chennai, 2005, ISBN 81-903656-2-2

Web links

• Personal letter from Father Dupuis about the motivations behind his founding of the Order and report from the General Superior at the time about his death.
• Website of the Tamil Order in Pondicherry with a portrait and information about Father Dupuis
• Website of the Order of Quilon with a portrait and information about Father Dupuis
• Biographical page about Father Louis Savinien Dupuis
• Official website of the Paris Mission (French) with a photo of Father Louis Savinien Dupuis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source on origin and parents
2. ^ Entry on Jacques-Marie-Antoine-Célestin du Pont on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved July 20, 2016.
3. ^ Dupont, Jacques-Marie-Antoine-Célestin. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website ), accessed July 20, 2016.
4. ↑ Foundation of the Mission Press by Father Dupuis ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Source on Father Louis Marie Mousset
6. ↑ Source for printing the dictionary
7. ↑ About the Tamil-French dictionary edited by Fathers Mousset and Dupuis, in the chapter: "Lexicography and Comparative Dravidian" ( Memento of August 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Data page on Bishop Clément Bonnand
9. ↑ On the work of Bishop Clément Bonnand in India, Chapter 2: "Reorganization and reform"
10. ↑ Suggestion for founding an order
11. ↑ Source on number and branches of the FIH sisters of Pondicherry  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Source on the number and branches of the FIH Sisters of Quilon ( Memento of January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Prayer for beatification and request to report answers to prayer for the beatification process  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ Source on the reburial of Father Dupuis ( Memento of June 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )