Pie Eugène Joseph Neveu (February 23, 1877 – October 17, 1946) was a French

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

. He was a member of the

Assumptionists The Assumptionists, formally known as the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption (; abbreviated AA), is a worldwide congregation of Catholic priests and brothers. It is active in many countries. The French branch played a major rol ...

and was ordained a priest in 1905. He arrived in Russia in 1907 and remained there until 1936, serving as the

Apostolic Administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

from 1926 after being consecrated as a bishop. Neveu was appointed to the

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

Citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

Early life and work

Neveu was born in

Gien Gien () is a Communes of France, commune in the Loiret Departments of France, department in north-central France. Gien is on the river Loire, from Orléans. Gien station has rail connections to Montargis, Nevers and Paris. The town was bought ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, on February 23, 1877, and entered the Assumptionist order on December 8, 1895. He took his first vows some time in 1896 and took his perpetual vows on December 25, 1897. Neveu was ordained as a priest on March 18, 1905, in a branch of the Assumptionists that was focused on serving Slavic Christians. He spoke Russian and several other languages, and was first sent to work in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. Neveu arrived in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in 1907 as a missionary and became the founder and pastor of the Church of St. Joseph, serving a group of Belgian and French Catholics working in the mining industry in Makeyevka, in the

Donets Basin The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets (), is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv ...

. He became familiar with the

Byzantine rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, is a liturgical rite that is identified with the wide range of cultural, devotional, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Chri ...

of Christianity in addition to the

Latin rite Latin Rite may refer to: *The Latin Church, a ''sui iuris'' church of the Catholic Church *The Latin liturgical rites, a family of Christian rites and uses which includes the Roman Rite *The Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritua ...

. He survived through the hardships of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

and sent a letter to Rome in 1922 confirming that he was still alive, and requested resources. Neveu stayed out of local political and ethnic conflicts, and was effective at keeping himself out of trouble with the authorities. During his tenure as the head of that parish, the region was at different times under the control of the Russians, Germans, Ukrainians, White Russians, Makhno's anarchists, and finally the Soviets.

Apostolic delegate in the USSR

In early 1926, when

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI (; born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, ; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939) was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was also the first sovereign of the Vatican City State u ...

was considering secretly establishing a provisional Roman Catholic hierarchy inside the Soviet Union, he spoke to the

superior general A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The super ...

of the Assumptionists, Gervais Quénard, who had been a missionary in Russia. When the pope asked about Neveu, Quénard described him as pious and peaceable, but also cunning. They agreed that he would be the right candidate to become a bishop. In February the pope sent the French Jesuit bishop

Michel d'Herbigny Michel-Joseph Bourguignon d'Herbigny (; May 8, 1880 – December 23, 1957) was a French Jesuit scholar and Catholic Church, Catholic bishop. He was president of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome and of the Pontifical Commission for Russia ...

to the Soviet Union with the papal authority to create a hierarchy there, including to consecrate Neveu and several others as bishops. In April, Neveu was given permission by the Soviets to travel from the Donbass to Moscow to become the pastor of the Church of St. Louis des Français, which was owned by the French and served the foreign Catholics in the city. He met with d'Herbigny in Moscow on April 21, and was surprised to be consecrated as a bishop, as well as being appointed as

apostolic delegate An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

in the Soviet Union. In addition, Neveu was named as the head of one of the

apostolic administration An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

s that d'Herbigny planned to set up in the country, that of Moscow. Neveu gave him a list of candidates he thought could lead the administrations. In September he received authorization by the Holy See via d'Herbigny to appoint future apostolic administrators in the event of vacancies and to be responsible for the

Catholic Church in Russia The Catholic Church in Russia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. According to the 2016 Annuario Pontificio, there are approximately 773,000 Catholics in Russia, which is 0.5% of the t ...

. Furthermore, the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Russia was subordinated to the Latin administration of Moscow due to the arrest of Exarch

Leonid Feodorov Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov (; 4 November 1879 – 7 March 1935) was a Studite hieromonk from the Russian Greek Catholic Church, the first Exarch of the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Russia, and a survivor of the Gulag at Solovki pris ...

, and Neveu was also given the power to receive Orthodox clergy and faithful into the Catholic Church secretly. Neveu was a sharp analyst of the situation inside the Soviet Union and a capable administrator. After d'Herbigny was forced to leave by the Soviets, Neveu sent him reports every two weeks. Although the Church of St. Louis des Français was within sight of the Soviet

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...

headquarters, it was owned by the French government, and Neveu had political protection as a French citizen. The Soviets were aware that d'Herbigny was setting up a secret Catholic hierarchy, and while they could not arrest Neveu due to his political protection, they did begin arresting most of the other Catholic clergy in early 1927, putting the Church into a difficult position. Despite this, Neveu continued to secretly receive Orthodox into the Catholic Church over the next several years, and served the members of his parish in Moscow, who were of different ethnic backgrounds. Although he was Latin rite, he also preached in the vernacular, Russian, despite the opposition to it among some Poles. Together with d'Herbigny, he was able to arrange for thousands of religious artifacts from Russia to be preserved by having them sent to the

Pontifical Oriental Institute The Pontifical Oriental Institute, also known as the Orientale, is a Catholic institution of higher education located in Rome and focusing on Eastern Christianity. The plan of creating a school of higher learning for Eastern Christianity had bee ...

in Rome. In 1936 Neveu had go to France for medical treatment and was not allowed to return to the Soviet Union afterward. The Soviet embassy in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

denied his repeated requests for an entry visa. He died in Paris on October 17, 1946, and was buried at the Church of St. Joan of Arc in Gien.

Citations

References

* * * * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Neveu, Pie Eugène 1877 births 1946 deaths Assumptionists French Roman Catholic titular bishops Roman Catholic bishops in the Soviet Union Exiles from the Soviet Union French expatriates in the Ottoman Empire French expatriates in the Russian Empire French expatriates in Bulgaria People from Gien