L\u00e9on Papin Dupont, nicknamed the Saint of Tours during his lifetime, was born on January 24, 1797 in Martinique, into a family of Breton origin.<\/p>\n
He went to France for his schooling in a tense political context. He obtained a law degree in Paris and became a magistrate. His good situation allows him an easy life.<\/p>\n
In 1820, through contact with the Congregation of the Blessed Virgin, he discovered that faith implies a higher standard of living. It was a first conversion that made him faithful to daily Mass, his religious duties and works of charity.<\/p>\n
He returned to Martinique, where in 1827 he married Caroline d’Audiffredy, who died six years later, leaving him a ten-month-old daughter. Because of her poor health, he returned to France and settled in Tours.<\/p>\n
His deep faith has left its mark on more than one person. A fine connoisseur of the Scriptures, Mr. Dupont is so familiar with the Eucharist that he launched the Adoration nocturne des hommes.<\/p>\n
He is also full of devotion to Saint Martin, bishop of Tours. Shocked as soon as he returned to France by the violently anticlerical and even anti-religious climate of his time, he reacted and understood that his faith had to manifest itself in ardent charity. He devoted himself to charitable works, creating the Vestiaire de Saint Martin to distribute clothing to the poor, following the example of the Saint of Tours…<\/p>\n
In 1847, he took advantage of a trip to La Salette to meet the long-awaited Cur\u00e9 d’Ars. “But how will I be able to make my way through the crowd that always gathers around him as soon as he leaves the church?<\/p>\n
To his great surprise, the holy priest advanced towards him and, with a very gentle look, said:<\/p>\n
My dear friend, how good it will be to meet again one day in heaven and sing the praises of our God!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It was obviously the first time they had met! Four years later, he placed an image of the Holy Face in his salon in Tours (the same one J-M Vianney had hung in his rectory).<\/p>\n
The miracles that occurred over the following days made her famous. Until his death, Mr. Dupont worked to spread the cult of the Holy Face of Jesus in the spirit of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, a Carmelite nun from Tours who had received revelations on the subject.<\/p>\n
The relics of Saint Martin de Tours<\/h3>\n
He also asked the Pope’s permission to rebuild a basilica in honor of Saint Martin on the site of the church that had been destroyed. With the agreement of Mgr<\/sup> Guibert, he carried out archaeological research, which led to the discovery of Saint Martin’s relics in a walled cellar in 1860.<\/p>\n
The last years of his life were painful, marked as they were by a paralyzing illness. But he manages to offer it without complaining, asserting: “The main and essential thing is to come to a loving knowledge of God”. He died in Tours on March 18, 1876, aged 79. He was declared venerable by Pope Leo XIII in 1883.<\/p>\n
Article taken from Annales d’Ars n\u00b0 341 [novembre-d\u00e9cembre 2012].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3223,"template":"","class_list":["post-6617","grands-temoins-dars","type-grands-temoins-dars","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/grands-temoins-dars\/6617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/grands-temoins-dars"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/grands-temoins-dars"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsnet.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}