Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

Félix Kir (22 January 1876 - 26 April 1968) was a French Catholic priest, resistance fighter and politician.

Life

He was born at Alise-Sainte-Reine on the

Côte-d'Or Côte-d'Or () is a département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 534,124.

. He entered a small seminary at Plombières-lès-Dijon in 1891 and was ordained in 1901. He then worked as a parish priest. During the occupation of France during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he took an active part in the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

, helping with the escape of 5,000 prisoners of war from a camp at Longvic. He was arrested and condemned to death, but he was released because of his status. He continued organising operations and was seriously wounded, but escaped interrogation by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. In 1945, he was made a knight of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

and was elected to the position of

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

and to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

. He remained the mayor of Dijon up to his death in 1968.

Legacy

A local drink, then locally known as ''blanc-cassis'', consists of white burgundy wine, traditionally

Aligoté Aligoté is a white grape used to make dry white wines, especially in the Burgundy region of France where it was first recorded in the 18th century.winepros.com.au. Since it is tolerant to cold, this variety is also cultivated in Eastern Eur ...

, mixed with

crème de cassis Crème de cassis () (also known as cassis liqueur) is a sweet, dark red liqueur made from blackcurrants. Several cocktails are made with crème de cassis, notably the popular wine cocktail kir and its sparkling variant, the kir royal. Other ...

, a sweet, blackcurrant-flavoured liqueur. Kir habitually served this local drink to delegations, and so the drink itself is now known internationally as a '' Kir''.Dale DeGroff, ''The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks'' (Random House Digital, Inc., 2008)."Sherry-Lehmann Reports on the Apéritif Hour," ''New York Magazine'', Oct 23, 1972. Vol. 5, No. 43, p.45.A. J. Rathbun, ''Wine Cocktails: 50 Stylish Sippers That Show Off Your Reds, Whites, and Roses'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009). Alternately, some contend that German soldiers confiscated most of the region's red wine, so Kir converted a local brew of red wine and crème de cassis into a combination of white wine and crème de cassis, thus creating the drink. An artificial lake built to the west of Dijon was named '' Lac Kir'' in his honour. ()

References

External links

1876 births 1968 deaths Mayors of Dijon French Roman Catholic priests National Centre of Independents and Peasants politicians Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945) Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946) Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic French Resistance members Commanders of the Legion of Honour Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People from Côte-d'Or {{France-RC-clergy-stub

Life

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links