Louis-Charles-Auguste Hébert (31 December 1763 – 3 October 1836) was a missionary of

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (french: Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris, short M.E.P.) is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons ...

and was the Vicar Apostolic of Madurai and Coromandel Coast from 8 July 1836 until his death on 3 October 1836.

Biography

He was born in

Villedieu-lès-Bailleul Villedieu-lès-Bailleul (, literally ''Villedieu near Bailleul'') is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France. See also *Communes of the Orne department The following is a list of the 385 communes of the Orne department of Fr ...

, France on 31 December 1763. He left for the Malabar Mission on 29 January 1792 and arrived in

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

the same year. He was given charge of the newly constituted College (

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

). At the same time he was asked to be in charge of the parishes of Oulgaret and Nellitope in Pondicherry. In 1806 he was nominated Bishop of Halicarnasse (titular see) and coadjutor to Mgr. Champenois who, because of Hébert's poor health, refused to ordained him bishop. When after 5 years he consented to do so, it was Fr. Hébert who refused to be consecrated that nobody was available to replace him in his parishes as well as procurator of the mission. After the death of Mgr. Champenois and Fr. Hebert had to go to Verapoly in a bullock-cart to be consecrated as bishop by carmelite Paolo Antonio Roviglia, titular bishop of Sura and Apostolic Vicar of Malabar, on 2 March 1811. Having left Pondicherry on 5 February on his bullock-cart, he was back on 4 April, covering almost 1000 km for his consecration. His episcopal motto was ''Euntes Prædicate'', which means ''Go Preach'', taken from Mark 16:15. Because of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and subsequently the

Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, the Malabar mission was in a very critical situation. Priests and financial resources were scarce. Only after 1819 was it possible to send young missionaries and only 6 local priests were ordained between 1814 and 1823. During the epidemic of cholera in 1829, the Bishop distributed as much help as he was able to. He even has to melt the sacred vessels and sell them to make some money to help the victims of the famine. Mgr. Hebert obtained from Rome the title of Vicar Apostolic but died on 3 October 1836 before the Brief reached him. Under his administration, the

Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny The Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in 1807. Located around the world, its members perform a variety of charitable works, but they devote themselves especially to missionary work and providing educat ...

came to

to open an orphanage for girls. In 1828, he chose Father Clément Bonnand as his coadjutor and consecrated him on 1833.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hebert, Louis-Charles-Auguste 1763 births 1836 deaths Roman Catholic archbishops of Pondicherry and Cuddalore 19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in India Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries People from Orne French Roman Catholic bishops in Asia Roman Catholic missionaries in India French expatriates in India