Ignace Cotolendi, MEP (23 March 1630 – 16 August 1662) was a French

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

. He was a founding member of the

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 de ...

and became a missionary in Asia.

Life

Born in

Brignoles Brignoles (; oc, Brinhòla) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Alongside Draguignan, it is one of two subprefectures in Var. It was the summer residence of the counts of Pro ...

, Var, Cotolendi was recruited by Alexander de Rhodes, SJ, as a

secular clergy In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogr ...

volunteer to become a missionary in Asia, together with

François Pallu François Pallu, MEP (1626–1684) was a French bishop. He was a founding member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and became a missionary in Asia. Life Born in Tours, now in Indre-et-Loire, Pallu was recruited by Alexander de Rhodes, SJ, ...

and

Pierre Lambert de la Motte Pierre Lambert de la Motte, MEP (16 January 1624 – 15 January 1679) was a French bishop. He was a founding member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and became a missionary in Asia. Biography Lambert de la Motte was born 16 January 1624 in ...

. These were sent to the Far-East as Apostolic vicars. In 1660 Ignace Cotolendi was nominated as titular Bishop of Metellopolis and Vicar Apostolic of Nanjing, with three regions of northeastern China,

Tartary Tartary ( la, Tartaria, french: Tartarie, german: Tartarei, russian: Тартария, Tartariya) or Tatary (russian: Татария, Tatariya) was a blanket term used in Western European literature and cartography for a vast part of Asia bound ...

and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

under his responsibility. On 6 November 1660, he was consecrated bishop in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

by François de Harlay de Champvallon,

Archbishop of Rouen The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rouen (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Rothomagensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Rouen'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. As one of the fifteen Archbishops of France, the Arch ...

with Toussaint de Forbin de Janson,

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox a ...

of ''Philadelphia in Arabia'', and

of ''Heliopolis in Augustamnica'', serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches ...

. He was the first

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

of what is now the Archdiocese of Nanjing. The three bishops left France (1660–62) to go to their respective missions, and crossed

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and India on foot, since Portugal would have refused to take non-

Padroado The ''Padroado'' (, "patronage") was an arrangement between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Portugal and later the Portuguese Republic, through a series of concordats by which the Holy See delegated the administration of the local churches and gr ...

missionaries by ship, and the Dutch and the English refused to take Catholic missionaries. Cotolendi left with three missionaries on 3 September 1661. After travelling overland to India, Ignace Cotolendi died near Masulipatam as he was waiting for his passage to

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

.''Asia in the making of Europe'' p.232-233
/ref>

Notes

References

*Mantienne, Frédéric 1999 ''Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine'' Eglises d'Asie, Série Histoire, *''Missions étrangères de Paris. 350 ans au service du Christ'' 2008 Editeurs Malesherbes Publications, Paris {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotolendi 1630 births 1662 deaths French Roman Catholic titular bishops Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries French Roman Catholic missionaries French Roman Catholic bishops in Asia Roman Catholic missionaries in China French expatriates in China

Life

See also

Notes

References