Lucien Bidaud

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Lucien Bidaud ( February 17, 1930 , † October 1987 ) was a French priest in Burkina Faso .

In his early years as a priest, Bidaud worked in the slums of the French capital, Paris , where thousands and thousands of North African guest workers live. This was the impetus for him to see his task in the world of Islam . In Burkina Faso, the former Upper Volta, he had to look after a congregation the size of Belgium, with only a few hundred Christians. His whereabouts changed constantly: sometimes in Gorom-Gorom , sometimes in Dori , sometimes in the capital Ouagadougou . He died an unexplained death in October 1987. With two men from Lorraine and a Belgian priest, he came from Europe in two cars to bring medicines, seeds and agricultural material. Shortly before the border to Burkina Faso, the bodies of the two men from Lorraine were found in Niger; two days later and 40 km further away the two priests. There was no trace of the cars.

Lucien Bidaud looked after a Christian community in Dori. The majority of the population there belongs to different ethnic religions (in 1980 it was 75%, today it is 55%), followed by Muslims (in 1980 it was 15%, today it is 35%). The proportion of Catholic Christians was around 8% in 1980; today it is around 9%. The development was in favor of Islam.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bidaud, Lucien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French missionary to Africa
DATE OF BIRTH 17th February 1930
DATE OF DEATH October 1987