Augustin Vérot

Biography

Early life

Augustin Vérot was born on May 23, 1805, in Le Puy-en-Velay in France. He studied at St-Sulpice seminary in Paris.

Priesthood

Vérot was ordained into the priesthood in Paris, France, for the Sulpicians by Archbishop Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen on September 20, 1828. The Supicians then sent him to Baltimore, Maryland to serve in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Vérot taught science, philosophy, and theology at St. Mary's College, the Sulpician college in Baltimore, for 23 years.

The Sulpicians assigned Vérot as pastor of Saint Paul Parish in Ellicott's Mills, Maryland in 1853. During his tenure in Ellicott City, he brought teachers and staff, plus support from the Christian Brothers, for Rock Hill College in that community.

Vicar Apostolic of Florida

On December 11, 1857, Pope Pius IX appointed Vérot as vicar apostolic of Florida. He was consecrated as titular bishop of Danabe on April 25, 1858, by Archbishop Francis Kenrick in the Baltimore Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.At that time, the vicariate covered all of Florida except the Panhandle Region.

Since the new vicarate had only three priests, Vérot travelled to France in 1859 to recruit more. He succeeded in bringing back an additional seven priests. While in Europe, Vérot also secured additional funding to repair churches in South Florida, around St. Augustine and Jacksonville, and in Key West. He erected new churches in Tampa, Palatka, Mandarin, and Tallahassee. Vérot also built Catholic schools in the vicariate and introduced religious communities to staff them. Five sisters of the Order of Mercy traveled from the Diocese of Hartfordto open a girls' academy in Florida. Three Christian Brothers from Quebec opened a boys' school in St. Augustine.

Bishop of Savannah

On July 13, 1861, Pius IX appointed Vérot as bishop of Savannah. However, he also remained as vicar apostolic of Florida.

During the American Civil War of the early 1860s, Vérot condemned the looting of the Catholic church at Amelia Island, Florida, by Union Army troops. He personally evacuated several Sisters of Mercy from Jacksonville to Savannah through the battle zone in Georgia. After the war, Vérot published a pastoral letter urging Catholics in the diocese to "put away all prejudice ...against their former servants". He also advocated a national coordinator for evangelization among African-Americans, and brought in French sisters from LePuy to work with them.

Bishop of St. Augustine

On March 11, 1870, Pius IX elevated the Florida vicarate into the Diocese of St. Augustine and named Vérot as its first bishop.

Vérot was among the first public figures to promote St. Augustine, Florida, as a health and cultural resort. He made an annual visitation of the whole diocese, establishing churches and schools. He worked revive the memory of Florida's early martyrs, both Spanish and French.

Vérot's best-known writings are his Pastoral on Slavery and his Catechism. He took a prominent part in the Plenary Council of Baltimore and the First Vatican Council in Rome between 1869 and 1870. At the Council, Vérot called for the condemnation of the heresy that African-Americans had no souls and were not human beings.

Views on slavery

In January 1861, just before the start of the Civil War, Vérot delivered a sermon defending the rights of the slave states and the legal basis of slavery in the United States. He also condemned what he termed the "false and unjust principles of Abolitionism" and the Know-Nothing movement that persecuted Catholics throughout the nation. His sermon was published and distributed throughout the Southern United States as a Confederate tract.

In the same sermon Vérot condemned the international slave trade (consistent with Pope Gregory XVI's decree of 1839). He also called for legal protections for free African-Americans. Vérot also wanted enslaved people to be allowed to choose their own marriage partners; to be treated with justice, fairness and morality; to receive adequate food, clothing and shelter; and to be given the means to practice their own religion and to receive instruction in it.

For this sermon, Vérot earned the nickname "Rebel Bishop".

Legacy

Bishop Vérot High School, a private Catholic institution in Fort Myers, Florida, was named for Vérot in 1964.

References

Episcopal succession

References

1. Zanca, Kenneth J.. (1994). "American Catholics and Slavery, 1789–1866: An Anthology of Primary Documents". University Press of America.
2. (1914). "The Catholic Church in the United States of America Volume III The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Part I". The Catholic Editing Company.
3. "Bishop Jean Marcel Pierre Auguste Vérot [Catholic-Hierarchy]".
4. Michael V. Gannon, The Cross in the Sand (University of Florida, 1983) pp. 167–168.
5. Gannon at pp. 168–169
6. Gannon at p. 174
7. [[Cyprian Davis]], History of Black Catholics in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company 1990) p. 119
8. [[John W. O'Malley]], ''Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2018) p. 159
9. Gannon, p. 170.
10. Gannon at p. 171