Affre, Denis Auguste

AFFRE, DENIS AUGUSTE: Archbishop of Paris; b. at St. Rome de Tarn (55 m. n.w. of Montpellier), Aveyron, France, Sept. 27, 1793; d. at Paris June 27, 1848. He studied at the Seminary of St. Sulpice and taught theology there after having been ordained priest (1818); he became vicar-general of the diocese of Luçon 1821, of Amiens 1823, of Paris 1834, archbishop of Paris 1840. As archbishop he was zealous and faithful, and lost his life in the performance of duty. During the revolution of 1848, hoping to induce the insurgents to lay down their arms, he mounted a barricade at the Faubourg St. Antoine and attempted to address the mob, but had hardly begun to speak when he was struck by a musket ball and mortally wounded. He was one of the founders of La France chrétienne (1820), wrote much for it and other periodicals, and published several treatises of value on educational, historical, and religious subjects.

Bibliography: P. M. Cruice, Vie de D. A. Affre, Paris, 1849 (abridged, 1850); E. Castan, Histoire de la vie et de la mort de Mgr. D. A. Affre, ib. 1855.