Denys Affre

Denys Auguste Affre , born with Saint-Rome-of-Tarn (Aveyron), on September 27th, 1793, died in Paris, on June 27th, 1848 was the 126e archbishop of Paris.

At the fourteen years age it entered to the seminar of Saint-Sulpice, then under the direction of his uncle, Denis Boyer. It completed its studies brilliantly and was some time the professor of philosophy to the seminar of Nantes. It was ordered priest on May 16th, 1818 and joined the sulpicians. He was successively general vicar of the dioceses of Luçon and Amiens, then bishop coadjutor of Strasbourg in 1839. He never fulfills this last function, having been called as capitulary vicar of Paris, jointly with Misters Foret and Morille, with died of the archbishop Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen. August 6th, 1840, it was ordered archbishop at Notre-Dame de Paris.

In the exercise of this load it was announced by an attention impassioned for the improvement of the ecclesiastical studies and the Liberté of teaching. One owes him the creation of the school of the Carmelite friars and the school of theology of the Sorbonne (closed on order of Jules Ferry in 1885). It also opened many working parishes, like those of Ménilmontant, Plaisance, Small-Montrouge, White House, Small-Gentilly, Notre-Dame of the Station, Billancourt, Large-Stone or Holy-Clotilde.

During the insurrections of June 1848, he believed that its presence close them barricades could be a means of bringing back peace. He made of it share with the general Louis Eugene Cavaignac, who warned it against the dangers that he would run. “My life, answered it, has little value, I will risk it readily. ” On June 25th, the shootings having ceased with its request, it appeared on the barricade at the entry of the Faubourg Saint-Anthony, accompanied by Mr. Albert, about the National guard, equipped like a workman and carrying a green branch as a sign of peace, and Pierre Sellier, a servant who was devoted for him (sources also speak about his two general vicars). It was badly accommodated and had hardly pronounced some words that a shot left by accident the lines the National guard started again the hostilities. The archbishop was touched by a stray bullet. One brought it to the presbytery of Saint-Anthony. It was brought back the following day to the episcopal palate, where it died on June 27th towards 4:30 of the morning. The following day the National Assembly voted the following homage:

the National Assembly looks like a duty to proclaim its nun recognition and its deep pain for the devotion and the death holily heroic of Monseigneur the archbishop of Paris.

Official funerals, on July 7th, were a moving spectacle. Certain biographies speak about 200.000 people who followed the procession. The heart of the archbishop was placed in a ballot box to be kept in the vault of the Carmelite friars.

Denys Affre wrote, in addition to its pastoral instructions and various articles in Christian France , a Traité temporal administration of the parishes (Paris, 1827), a Traité property of the ecclesiastical goods (Paris, 1837), a philosophical Introduction to the study of Christianity (Paris, 5th edition 1846).

Random links: