Georges Darboy
| Servant of God Georges Darboy | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Paris | |
Georges Darboy in 1865.
| |
| See | Paris |
| Installed | January 1863 |
| Term ended | May 1871 |
| Predecessor | François-Nicholas-Madeleine Morlot |
| Successor | Joseph Hippolyte Guibert |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 17 December 1836 |
| Consecration | 30 November 1859 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 January 1813 Fayl-Billot, Haute-Marne, France |
| Died | 24 May 1871 (aged 58) Paris, France |
| Cause of death | Execution by shooting |
Georges Darboy (French: [ʒɔʁʒ daʁbwa]; 16 January 1813 – 24 May 1871) was a French Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Nancy and later Archbishop of Paris. He was among a group of prominent hostages executed as the Paris Commune of 1871 was about to be overthrown.
Biography
Darboy was born in Fayl-Billot, Haute-Marne in north-east France. He studied with distinction at the seminary at Langres, and was ordained priest in 1836. Transferred to Paris as almoner of the college of Henry IV, and honorary canon of Notre Dame, he became the close friend of Archbishop Affre and of his successor Archbishop Sibour. He was appointed bishop of Nancy in 1859, and in January 1863 was raised to the archbishopric of Paris.
Darboy was a strenuous upholder of episcopal independence in the Gallican sense, and involved himself in a controversy with Rome by his endeavours to suppress the jurisdiction of the Jesuits and other religious orders within his diocese. Pope Pius IX refused him the cardinal's hat, and rebuked him for his liberalism in a letter which was probably not intended for publication. He is also known for his opposition in 1868 to Jacques-Paul Migne, forbidding him to continue his low-cost books business after the burning of his printing establishment, and suspending him from his priestly functions. At the First Vatican Council he vigorously maintained the rights of the bishops, and strongly opposed the dogma of papal infallibility, against which he voted as inopportune. When the dogma had been finally adopted, however, he was one of the first to set the example of submission.
Commune and execution
Immediately after his return to Paris the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and his conduct during the disastrous year that followed was marked by a devoted heroism which has secured for him an enduring fame. He was active in organizing relief for the wounded at the commencement of the war, remained at his post during the siege, and refused to seek safety by flight during the brief triumph of the Paris Commune. On 4 April 1871, he was arrested by the Communards as a hostage and confined in Mazas Prison. The Communards offered to exchange him and several priests for Louis Auguste Blanqui, who was being held by the Versailles government.[1][2] He was transferred to La Roquette Prisons on the advance of the Versailles army, and on 24 May he was shot within the prison along with several other prominent hostages. The execution was ordered by Théophile Ferré, who later was executed by firing squad by the French government after the fall of the Commune.[3]
Legacy
Darboy died in the attitude of blessing and uttering words of forgiveness. His body was recovered with difficulty, and, having been embalmed, was buried with imposing ceremony at public expense on 7 June. He was the third archbishop of Paris to die violently between 1848 and 1871 after Denis Auguste Affre (killed 1848) and Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour (assassinated in 1857).
A cause for the beatification of Darboy and the other hostages was formally opened on 16 March 1937, granting them the title of Servant of God.[4]
Works
- Œuvres de Saint Denys l'Aréopagite (1845).
- Les Femmes de la Bible (1846–1849).
- Les Saintes Femmes (1850).
- Lettres à Combalot (1851).
- Jérusalem et la Terre Sainte (1852).
- L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ (1852).
- Statistique Religieuse du Diocèse de Paris (1856).
- Saint Thomas Becket (1858).
- Du Gouvernement de Soi-même (1867).
See also
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Georges Darboy — Archbishop of Paris and ecclesiastical writer, b. at Fayl-Billot, near Langres, 1813; killed by Communists at Paris, 24 May, 1871. Ordained priest in 1836, he served for a time as curate of Notre-Dame at Saint-Dizier and as professor at the Grand Séminaire of Langres, then joined Mgr. Affre at Paris, 1845, where from "prêtre auxiliaire à la maison des carmes" and chaplain of the Lycée Henri-IV, he soon rose to the position of canon of Notre-Dame, vicar-general and archdeacon of Saint-Denis, having previously been made prothonotary Apostolic. In 1859 he was appointed to the See of Nancy. During his three years as incumbent of that see, he took a special interest in educational matters, established the Ecole-Saint-Léopold, enlarged the Grand Séminaire, and wrote (1862) his famous letter, "Sur la nécessité de l'étude". Promoted by an imperial decree of 10 January, 1863, to the Archbishopric of Paris, made vacant by the death of Mgr. Morlot, he consecrated within a year the basilica of Notre-Dame, then completely restored, and was honoured with the titles of Grand Almoner, Senator, and Imperial Councillor. Though lacking the independence of Mgr. Affre, the administrative skill of Mgr. Sibour, and the affability of Cardinal Morlot, Darboy was a learned, conscientious, and respected prelate. With the help of such men as Buquet, Isoard, Langénieux, Meignan, and Foulon, he gave a new impetus to the somewhat remiss administration of his aged predecessor. The Gallicanism of Darboy made him unduly subservient to imperial wishes and caused him to assume against the exemptions of the religious an attitude which Rome (1869) compelled him to abandon. It was his chief motive for siding, during the Vatican Council, with the minority which deemed inopportune the definition of papal infallibility, his reasons being more of a political than of a theological nature. Darboy was one of those who suggested diplomatic intervention as a means of ending difficulties. He left Rome before the final vote of 18 July, 1870, and expressed sentiments which, however, he generously retracted when, several months after the definition, he subscribed to it. During the siege of Paris Darboy showed himself a true pastor and won the admiration of all. Arrested 4 April, 1871, by order of the Commune, and confined to Mazas Prison, the best efforts of his friends failed to save him; he was shot at Roquette, 24 May, and died blessing his executioners. As soon as order could be restored a national funeral was celebrated for him and the other victims of the Commune. The Abbé Perraud delivered his eulogy at Paris, and Père Didon at Nancy. Darboy was the author of the following works: "OEuvres de saint Denys l'Aréopagite, traduites du grec" (Paris, 1845); "Les femmes de la Bible" (Paris, 1846-9); "Les saintes femmes" (Paris, 1850); "Lettres à Combalot" (Paris, 1851); "Jérusalem et la terre sainte" (Paris, 1852); "L'imitation de Jésus-Christ, traduction nouvelle" (Paris, 1852); "Statistique religieuse du diocèse de Paris" (Paris, 1856); "Saint Thomas Becket" (Paris, 1858). He also contributed to the "Correspondant" (1847-1855) and was for a year (1850) director of the "Moniteur Catholique". His pastoral works (2 vols., Paris, 1876) were edited by his biographer, Foulon.
FOULON, Histoire de la vie et des oeuvres de Mgr Darboy (Paris, 1889); JÉROME in L'épiscopat français, 1802-1905 (Paris, 1907), 390; PISANI (ibid., 463) gives an exhaustive bibliography; Darboy et le Saint-Siège, documents inédits in Rev. d'hist. et de lit. relig. (May-June, 1907).
References
- Back to citation Marx, Karl The Civil War in France Chapter 6
- Back to citation Fernbach, David (ed.) Marx: The First International and After, p. 230
- Back to citation "The Recent Executions". The Times. No. 27234. London. 30 November 1871. p. 12.
- Back to citation Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 85.
Further reading
- Baisnée, Jules A. “The French Clergy in the Nineteenth Century.” The Catholic Historical Review 23, no. 2 (1937): 185–204.
- Gibbons, James Card. “Personal Reminiscences of the Vatican Council.” The North American Review 158, no. 449 (1894): 385–400.
- Horne, Alistair (2012). The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870–71. Picador. OCLC 922079975.
- Horvath-Peterson, Sandra (1982). "Abbé Georges Darboy's 'Statistique Religieuse du Diocèse de Paris' (1856)," The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, pp. 401–450.
- Katz, Philip M. (1994). "'Lessons from Paris': The American Clergy Responds to the Paris Commune," Church History, Vol. 63, No. 3, pp. 393–406.
- Parsons, Reuben (1901). "The Clerical Victims of the Commune of 1871." In: Studies in Church History, Vol. VI. New York: Fr. Pustet & Co., pp. 85–110.
- Price, Lewis C. (1915). Archbishop Darboy and Some French Tragedies, 1813-1871. London: George Allen & Unwin.
- Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred (1914). My Adventures in the Commune, Paris, 1871. London: Chatto & Windus.