Charles Jean Marie Loyson (10 March 1827 – 9 February 1912), better known by his religious name Père Hyacinthe, was a famous French preacher and theologian. He was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest who had been a

Sulpician The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (french: Compagnie des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice), abbreviated PSS also known as the Sulpicians is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, ...

and a Dominican novice before becoming a

Discalced Carmelite The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...

and provincial of his order, but left the Roman Catholic Church, in 1869, after major excommunication was pronounced against him. He was known especially for his eloquent sermons at

Notre Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...

and sought to reconcile Catholicism with modern ideas.

Biography

Loyson was born in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and He was baptised Charles Jean Marie; named after the poet Charles Loyson, his uncle. He was educated in

Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pau (, ) is a Communes of France, commune overlooking the Pyrenees, and prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The city is located in the heart o ...

, by private professors where his father was rector of the University. His mother was of the noble Burnier-Fontonel family of the Chateau de Reiquier, Savoy. One brother, Jules Theodore Loyson, became a priest and professor at the

Collège de Sorbonne The College of Sorbonne (french: Collège de Sorbonne) was a theological college of the University of Paris, founded in 1253 (confirmed in 1257) by Robert de Sorbon (1201–1274), after whom it was named. With the rest of the Paris colleges, ...

in Paris, and one sister became a nun. In 1845, entered the seminary of

Saint-Sulpice, Paris , image = Paris Saint-Sulpice Fassade 4-5 A.jpg , image_size = , pushpin map = Paris , pushpin label position = , coordinates = , location = Place Saint-Sulpice 6th arrond ...

and was ordained four years later. He successively taught

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the seminary in

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

, and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the seminary in

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and officiated in his ecclesiastical capacity at Saint-Sulpice. He eventually resigned his post to assume the vows of a friar of the Order of the Carmelites, taking the

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

name of Hyacinthe. He then spent two years in the Carmelite convent in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, and attracted much attention by his preaching at the Lycée in Lyons. As a preacher in Lyon and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, Loyson acquired his reputation as the most effective pulpit orator of his day; and his success soon afterwards induced him to seek the more critical audiences of Paris, where Loyson further established his fame at the

Église de la Madeleine , other name = , native_name = , native_name_lang = French , image = Madeleine Paris.jpg , landscape = , imagesize = , caption = , imagelink ...

and

. Mullinger wrote that Loyson's "resonant voice and impassioned rhetoric possess, especially for his own countrymen, a powerful charm." His eloquence drew all

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. S ...

to his

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''. In ...

sermons in

between 1865 and 1869, but his orthodoxy fell under suspicion. In 1868, he was summoned to Rome and was ordered to stop preaching on any controversial subject, and to confine himself exclusively to those subjects upon which all Roman Catholics were united in belief. In June 1869, Loyson delivered an address before the

Ligue internationale de la paix The Ligue internationale de la paix (League of Peace and Freedom) was created after a public opinion campaign against a war between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia over Luxembourg. The Luxembourg crisis was peacefully resolved ...

, which was founded by

Frédéric Passy Frédéric Passy (20 May 182212 June 1912) was a French economist and pacifist who was a founding member of several peace societies and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He was also an author and politician, sitting in the Chamber of Deputies fro ...

, in which he spoke of the Jewish religion, the Catholic religion, and the Protestant religion, as being the three great religions of civilized peoples; this expression elicited severe censures from the Catholic press. In 1869, he protested against the manner in which the

First Vatican Council The First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the First Vatican Council or Vatican I was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecu ...

was convened. He was ordered to retract, but he refused and broke with his order in an open letter of 20 September 1869, addressed to the General of the Discalced Carmelites, but evidently intended for the governing powers of the Church. In it he protested against the "sacrilegious perversion of the Gospel", and went on to say: "It is my profound conviction that if France in particular and the Latin races in general, are given up to social, moral, and religious anarchy, the principal cause is not Catholicism itself, but the manner in which Catholicism has for a long time been understood and practised." His manifesto against the alleged abuses in the Church created intense excitement, not only in France, but throughout the civilized world, and the young monk was hailed as a powerful ally by all the open opponents of the Papacy. He was excommunicated and resumed his name as Charles Loyson. Soon after, he left France for America, landing in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 18 October 1869. He was warmly welcomed by the leading members of the various Protestant sects in the United States, and though he fraternized with them to a certain extent, he constantly declared that he had no intention of quitting the Catholic Faith. In 1870 he associated himself with

Ignaz von Döllinger Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger (; 28 February 179914 January 1890), also Doellinger in English, was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility. Among his writings which proved con ...

's protest against the dogma of

Papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks ''ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the aposto ...

. On 3 September 1872, he was married in London at the

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

Registry Office, to Emilie Jane Butterfield Meriman, daughter of Amory Butterfield and widow of Edwin Ruthven Meriman of the United States; the

Dean of Westminster The Dean of Westminster is the head of the chapter at Westminster Abbey. Due to the Abbey's status as a Royal Peculiar, the dean answers directly to the British monarch (not to the Bishop of London as ordinary, nor to the Archbishop of Canterbur ...

, Arthur Stanley, and Lady Augusta Stanley, his wife, were present. He claimed that in 1872, before he was publicly married in England, he had his marriage privately blessed in Rome by Archbishop Luigi Puecher Passavalli. A law was enacted that restricted episcopal and parochial jurisdiction in the canton unless sanctioned by the government; and that, for the future, all parish priests should be elected by the Catholic inhabitants, and be removed, if shown sufficient cause, by the State. The canton was divided into twenty-three parishes, three of which were in Geneva; and in the following March, Loyson was invited by the Old Catholics to lecture in Geneva. In a series of discourses he boldly advocated a complete system of Church reform, to be carried out in conjunction with the Old Catholic party. He urged that every nation establish a national Christian Church and the different established Churches become an international confederation. His views and talents were regarded favorably. Loyson was elected, by liberal Catholics, in the following October, in 1873, along with Hurtault and Chavard, to the three vacant parishes in Geneva. It was impossible for the bishop to retaliate under Swiss law. In 1874, he introduced reforms in worship and soon had to resign. Identified as one of the

Old Catholics The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...

, Loyson continued to write and preach and ultimately settled in Paris in 1877 and established as a separate church the Église gallicane, which drew upon the long French tradition of

Gallicanism Gallicanism is the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or the state's authority—over the Catholic Church is comparable to that of the Pope. Gallicanism is a rejection of ultramontanism; it has som ...

. He died in February 1912, in Paris, in the apartment of his playwright son, Paul Hyacinthe Loyson, and was buried in

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figures ...

References

Notes

Footnotes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loyson, Hyacinthe 1827 births 1912 deaths 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests 20th-century French clergy Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery People excommunicated by the Catholic Church Clergy from Orléans

Biography

References

Notes

Footnotes

Further reading

External links