19th-century French Roman Catholic priests

Jean-Louis_Verger

Jean-Louis Verger (20 August 1826 – 30 January 1857) was a French Catholic priest who assassinated Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, the Archbishop of Paris, in January 1857, after the archbishop ordered him to desist from publishing pamphlets against clerical celibacy and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Verger was an opponent of this newly defined doctrine as well as celibacy for the clergy. Verger was also a continuous troublemaker, frequently complaining about his assignments, most of which he was unable to accomplish due to his temper. The trial became, in his mind, a sounding board for his notions. He was found guilty on the day of the trial (17 January 1857) and sentenced to death. To the end, Verger had convinced himself that Emperor Napoleon III would pardon him. When he was executed by guillotine at La Roquette Prisons on 30 January 1857, he was in a state of panic and fear due to the failure of the pardon to come.

Bérenger_Saunière

François-Bérenger Saunière (11 April 1852 – 22 January 1917) was a French Catholic priest in the village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region. He was a central figure in the conspiracy theories surrounding the village, which form the basis of several documentaries and books such as the 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. Elements of these theories were later used by Dan Brown in his best-selling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, in which the fictional character Jacques Saunière is named after the priest.Saunière served in Rennes-le-Château from 1885 until he was transferred to another village in 1909 by his bishop. He declined this nomination and subsequently resigned. From 1909 until his death in 1917, he was a non-stipendiary Free Priest (an independent priest without a parish, who did not receive any salary from the church because of suspension), and who from 1910 celebrated Mass at an altar constructed in a special conservatory by his Villa Bethania. Saunière's refusal to leave Rennes-le-Château to continue his priesthood in another parish incurred permanent suspension. The epitaph on Saunière's original 1917 gravestone read "priest of Rennes-le-Château 1885-1917".

Peter_Julian_Eymard

Peter Julian Eymard (French: Pierre-Julien Eymard [pjɛʁ ʒyljɛ̃ ɛjmɑʁ]; 4 February 1811 – 1 August 1868) was a French Catholic priest and founder of two religious institutes: the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament for men and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament for women.

Pierre-Henri_Dorie

Pierre Henri Dorie (1839–1866) was a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, who was martyred in Korea in 1866. His feast day is 7 March, and he is also venerated along with the rest of the 103 Korean Martyrs on 20 September.