Saint Etienne-Théodore
Cuenot
Évêque et martyr en
Annam (+ 1861)
Martyr au Vietnam.
Il était originaire du
Bélieu dans le département du Doubs. Père des Missions Étrangères de Paris,
évêque et apôtre zélé de Jésus-Christ, Saint Étienne Cuenot (1802-1861) fut
pendant quatre ans vicaire apostolique pour le Cambodge. C’est lui qui en 1844 fit
détacher de son trop vaste vicariat de Cochinchine, le royaume du Cambodge et
les six provinces de Basse-Cochinchine, pour former le vicariat apostolique de
Cochinchine occidentale et du Cambodge. (Le
Cambodge - site des Missions étrangères de Paris). Il est arrêté durant la
persécution déclenchée par l'empereur Tu-Duc. Enfermé dans une cage, il y
meurt, après de longues souffrances, à la veille d'être supplicié et
décapité.
Béatifié en
1909. Canonisé
le 19 juin 1988 avec les Martyrs du Vietnam (+1745-1862): Andrea
Dung-Lac, prêtre, Tommaso Thien et Emanuele Phung, laïcs, Girolamo
Hermosilla, Valentino Berrio Ochoa, O.P. et six autres evêques, Teofano
Venard,prêtre M.E.P. et 105 compagnons, martyrs.
"nous bénéficions,
dans l’histoire de l’évangélisation de Qui Nhon, d’un évêque de talent, Mgr.
Etienne Théodore Cuénot Thê, dont nous pouvons tirer les leçons pratiques pour
notre évangélisation." Mgr
Pierre Nguyên Soan, Evêque de Quy Nhon (Vietnam). Bulletin du Synode
des Évêques 2001: L’Évêque: Serviteur de l’Évangile de Jésus-Christ pour
l’Espérance du Monde.
Voir aussi saints martyrs
du Viet-Nam.
À Binh Dinh en Cochinchine,
l’an 1861, saint Étienne-Théodore Cuénot, évêque et martyr. Membre de la
Société des Missions étrangères de Paris, il passa plus de vingt-cinq ans dans
les travaux apostoliques et, quand se déchaîna la persécution de l’empereur Tu
Duc, il fut jeté dans une étable à éléphants et mourut, épuisé par les
épreuves.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/95/Saint-Etienne-Theodore-Cuenot.html
Saint Etienne-Théodore
Cuenot, évêque et martyr
Des Missions étrangères
de Paris
14 NOVEMBRE 2013
Anita Bourdin
Écriture
Sainte, théologie
Le martyrologe romain
fait aujourd’hui mémoire de saint Etienne-Théodore Cuenot, évêque et martyr
(1802-1861), des Missions étrangères de Paris.
Né au Bélieu, dans le
Doubs (France), Etienne-Théodore Cuenot fut élevé dans les séminaires d’Ornans,
Luxueil et Besançon, avant d’être ordonné prêtre en 1825 à Aix-en-Provence. Cet
aîné d’une famille nombreuse, se montra toute sa vie d’une audace réfléchie et
persévérante.
Deux ans plus tard, il
entrait dans la société des Missions Etrangères de Paris pour répondre à
l’appel missionnaire. Envoyé à Macao dès 1828, puis en Cochinchine, il se
réfugia au Siam durant la persécution de 1833.
Mais en 1835, il était
nommé évêque en et il rentra en Cochinchine où il exerça sa charge durant
vingt-cinq ans. Pour édifier des centres de formation pour le clergé
autochtone, il achetait des terres en friches. C’est alors que l’empereur
Tu-Duc, d’Annam – entre le Tonkin et la Cochinchine, au cœur de l’actuel
Viêt-nam -, déclencha une violente persécution .
L’évêque fut arrêté, jeté
dans une cage. La sentence de mort arriva trop tard: il était mort
d’épuisement le 14 novembre 1861. Le pape Pie X le béatifia en 1909 en
reconnaissant son martyre.
SOURCE : https://fr.zenit.org/articles/saint-etienne-theodore-cuenot-eveque-et-martyr/
Also
known as
Stephen-Theodore Cuenot
Profile
Priest, ordained in 1825.
Member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Missionary to Vietnam in 1828. Missionary bishop in 1835.
Vicar apostolic of Cochinchina in 1840. Martyred in
the persecutions of
emperor Tu
Duc.
Born
8
February 1802 in
Le Bélieu, Doubs, France
14
November 1861 in
an elephant stable in Bình Ðinh, Vietnam
2
August 1908 by Pope Pius
X (decree of martyrdom)
19 June 1988 by Pope John
Paul II
Additional
Information
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
“Saint Etienne-Théodore
Cuenot“. CatholicSaints.Info. 27 May 2022. Web. 14 November 2022. <http://catholicsaints.info/saint-etienne-theodore-cuenot/>
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-etienne-theodore-cuenot/
Stephen Cuénot BM (AC)
Born at Beaulieu, France,
1802; died November 4, 1861; beatified in 1909; canonized in 1988 as one of the
Martyrs of Vietnam. Stephen joined the Society of Foreign Missions in Paris and
was sent to Annam. In 1833, at a time when xenophobic persecutions were being
renewed, he was appointed vicar apostolic of eastern Cochin-China and received
episcopal consecration at Singapore. He returned to Annam where he enjoyed 25
fruitful years of service during which many souls were converted and he
established three vicariates. When another persecution broke out in 1861,
Bishop Cuénot was hidden by a pagan until he had to emerge for water. Cuénot
was arrested and died in prison of dysentery (perhaps of poison) shortly after
his arrest and just before the date fixed for his execution (Attwater2,
Benedictines, Farmer).
Stephen (Etienne) of
Grandmont (of Muret), OSB, Abbot (RM) Born in Thiers, Auvergne, France, 1046;
died 1124; canonized by Pope Clement III in 1189 at the request of King Henry
II of England. Saint Stephen was the son of the virtuous viscount of Thiers.
His life from infancy presaged uncommon sanctity. Father Milo, then the dean of
the church of Paris, was appointed his tutor. At age 12, Stephen accompanied
his father, lord of the district, to the tomb of Saint Nicholas of Bari. He
fell ill at Benevento and remained there to continue his education under Milo,
who had become Benevento's archbishop. At the appropriate time, he ordained
Stephen a deacon. Following Milo's death, Stephen pursued his studies in Rome
for four years. In the meantime his parents died.
In 1076, on his return to
France, Stephen renounced his inheritance to become a hermit in the mountains
of Ambazac at Muret (northeast of Limoges). He led an austere life, with little
food or sleep for 46 years. He wore a metal breastplate (which is one of his
attributes in art) instead of the usual hairshirt. When he was not employed in
manual labor, he lay prostrate on the ground in profound adoration of the
majesty of God. The sweetness which he felt in divine contemplation made him
often forget to take any refreshment for two or three days together. Stephen
remained a deacon throughout his life, never seeking presbyterial ordination.
As with many of the
holiest hermits, disciples gathered about him. There on the mountain-top he
founded a congregation of Benedictine hermit-monks using the model he observed
in Calabria; thus, its rules was based on his sayings. Although he was strict
with himself, he was mild to those under his direction, and proportioned their
mortifications to their strength. But he allowed no indulgence with regard to
the essential points of a solitary life, silence, poverty, and the denial of
self-will. He behaved himself among his disciples as the last of them, always
taking the lowest place, never suffering any one to rise up to him; and while
they were at table, he would seat himself on the ground in the midst of them,
and read to them the lives of the saints. He ruled but never seems to have
become a monk himself.
The order is conspicuous
for its intransigent insistence on total renunciation. Stephen compared
monastic life to life in a prison. "If you come here, you will be fixed to
the cross and you will lose your own power over your eyes, your mouth, and your
other members. . . . If you go to a large monastery with fine buildings, you
will find animals and vast estates; here, only poverty and the cross." To
those wishing to join his community, he would say: "This is a prison
without either door or hole whereby to return into the world, unless a person
makes for himself a breach. And should this misfortune befall you, I could not
send after you, none here having any commerce with the world any more than
myself."
God give Stephen the
ability to read hearts. The author of his now lost vita, the fourth prior
Stephen de Liciaco, gives a long history of miracles which he wrought. But the
conversions of many obstinate sinners were still more miraculous; it seemed as
if no heart could resist the grace which accompanied his words. Saint Stephen
died at Muret. In his last hours he was carried into the chapel, where he heard
mass, received extreme unction and the viaticum. His disciples buried him
privately, but news of his death drew many to his tomb, which was honored by innumerable
miracles.
Four months after his
death, the priory of Ambazac, dependent on the great Benedictine abbey of St.
Austin, in Limoges, put in a claim to the land of Muret. The disciples of the
holy man immediately gave up the ground without any contention, and retired to
Grandmont, taking Stephen's remains with them. It is from this site that the
congregation received the name Grandmontines.
With its austere rule it
never became widespread; however, the successors to Stephen's spirit gained the
admiration of many. Abbot Peter of Celles, calls them angels, and testifies
that he placed an extraordinary confidence in their prayers (Epistle 8). John
of Salisbury, a contemporary author, represents them as men who, being raised
above the necessities of life, had conquered not only sensuality and avarice,
but even nature itself (Poly. l. 7, c. 23).
The rule of the
Grandmontines consists of seventy-five chapters. The prologue reminds its
members that the rule of rules, and the origin of all monastic rules, is the
gospel: they are but streams derived from this source, and in it are all the
means of arriving at Christian perfection pointed out. It recommends strict
poverty and obedience, as the foundation of a religious life; forbids
compensation for their Masses or to open their oratory to outsiders on Sundays
or holy days, because on these days each should attend his parish church. Its
religious are forbidden to engage in any lawsuit or to eat meat even in time of
sickness. The rule prescribes rigorous fasts, with only one meal a day for a
great part of the year.
The rule abounds with
great sentiments of virtue, especially concerning temptations, the sweetness of
God's service and his holy commandments, the boundless obligation each has to
love God and the incomprehensible advantages of praising Him, and the necessity
of continually advancing in fervor. It speaks of good works as the flowers of
the garland of which our lives should be composed. King Saint Henry II was one
of the admirers of the order. He founded several monasteries for the
Grandmontines in France and England, and petitioned the Vatican for Stephen's
canonization. The austerity of Saint Stephen inspired both Armand de Rancé and
Charles de Foucauld (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0208.shtml
Santo Stefano
Teodoro Cuénot Vescovo e martire
>>> Visualizza la Scheda
del Gruppo cui appartiene
Le Bélieu, Francia, 8
febbraio 1802 - Binh Dịnh, Vietnam, 14 novembre 1861
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio
Romano: Nella fortezza di Binh Dinh in Cocincina, ora Viet Nam, santo
Stefano Teodoro Cuénot, vescovo della Società per le Missioni Estere di Parigi
e martire, che, dopo venticinque anni di impegno nell’apostolato, durante la
persecuzione contro i cristiani scatenata dall’imperatore T? D?c, fu gettato
nella gabbia di un elefante e morì sfinito dalle sofferenze.
" Questo secolo aveva due anni ... Già Napoleone spuntava sotto Buonaparte ... ". Così tracciava il suo poetico atto di nascita Victor Hugo, patriarca della letteratura romantica francese, nato a Besancon nel 1802, sotto Napoleone Primo Console.
Nello stesso anno dell'autore dei Miserabili nasceva a Réaumont, nel Bélieu, il figlio di un agricoltore de-stinato a diventar Vescovo come il vittorughiano Monsignor Myriel, e a convertire, chiamandolo fratello, non soltanto un galeotto di buon cuore, come Jean Valjean, ma migliaia di pagani dell'Indocina, tutti considerati e amati come fratelli.
Nel Vescovo Myriel, Victor Hugo tracciava il profilo ideale di un prelato
naturalmente " aristocratico ", ma vicino al popolo e alle sue
miserie, con spirito metà evangelico e metà rivoluzionario. Nel Vescovo Stefano
Teodoro Cuénot - se l'avesse conosciuto - avrebbe potuto ravvisare l'immagine
non letteraria di un vero figlio del popolo per il quale il " prossimo
" non era né un'espressione generica, né una certa classe sociale, in un
certo paese, in un certo periodo storico, ma abbracciava uomini di ogni classe,
razza e nazionalità, in quella perenne rivoluzione che è il vero Cristianesimo.
Battezzato in un fienile, educato da curati di campagna, il giovane Stefano Teodoro
fu mantenuto agli studi, dai genitori contadini, con doni in natura. Quando
anche questi non bastarono, dovette lasciare la scuola. Allora l'intero
villaggio si tassò volontariamente affinché il promettente ragazzo potesse
continuare i suoi studi.
Entrando in Teologia, perché fosse presentabile, se non proprio ben vestito, la
madre sacrificò il proprio abito da sposa per fargli una veste. Il primo gesto
del neo-sacerdote fu quello di regalare alla mamma un vestito nuovo. Ondeggiò e
indugiò, prima di trovare la vera vocazione. Ebbe tra l'altro la passione per
la orologeria, e volle brevettare un proprio meccanismo per il moto perpetuo.
Fu catechista e insegnante nel gruppo detto " li ritiro cristiano ".
Finalmente infilò la giusta strada entrando, nel 1827, nel portone di Rue du
Bac, a Parigi, dove avevano sede i Padri Missionari di San Vincenzo de Paul.
L'anno dopo il nuovo missionario giungeva in Indocina. Nel 1835 veniva consacrato Vescovo di Metellopolis, coadiutore di quella che allora si chiamava la Cocincina. Fu un Vescovo sempre sul campo di battaglia, perché i cristiani dell'Indocina, praticamente abbandonati a se stessi, erano sottoposti a continue vessazioni e persecuzioni da parte delle autorità buddiste.
Nonostante ciò, i convertiti del Vescovo Cuénot si contavano ogni anno a migliaia. Per uno che abiurava sotto le torture, cento chiedevano di essere battezzati. Il clero indigeno triplicò, mentre il Vescovo moltiplicava le traduzioni dei libri sacri, le chiese, gli orfanotrofi, e anche le lontane regioni montagnose del Laos venivano raggiunte dalla predicazione e dall'esempio del Vescovo francese.
Nel 1861, al rincrudirsi della persecuzione da parte del re Tu-Duc, anche il Vescovo Cuénot venne catturato e rinchiuso in una stretta gabbia. Non fu ucciso materialmente, ma fu fatto avvelenare lentamente, propinandogli disgustosi " medicamenti " indigeni. Per questo viene considerato come martire, e onorato con il titolo di Beato.
Il miglior elogio gli venne dai suoi carcerieri, che dissero di lui: " Era diventato perfetto. E il cielo si è affrettato a riceverlo, senza permettere ch'egli subisse un simile supplizio ". Infatti era già cadavere quando il suo corpo venne fustigato e decapitato. E un anno dopo, un trattato tra Francia e Indocina, sanciva almeno in teoria la libertà di culto.
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Fonte: |
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Archivio Parrocchia |
SOURCE : http://santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90434
Voir aussi : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/etienne_theodore_cuenot.htm
