Louis Veuillot was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and author who helped to popularize ultramontanism

Ultramontanism

Ultramontanism is a religious philosophy within the Roman Catholic community that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope...

 (a philosophy favoring Papal supremacy).

He was born of humble parents in Boynes

Boynes

Boynes is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France....

 (Loiret

Loiret

Loiret is a department in north-central FranceThe department is named after the river Loiret, a tributary of the Loire. The Loiret is located wholly within the department.- History :...

). When he was five years of age, his parents relocated to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. With little education, he gained employment in a lawyer's office, and was sent in 1830 to serve with a newspaper of Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

, and afterwards to Périgueux

Périgueux

Périgueux is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Périgueux is the prefecture of the department and the capital of the region...

.
He returned to Paris in 1837, and a year later visited Rome during Holy Week

Holy Week

Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter...

. There he embraced extravagant ultramontane sentiments, and became an ardent champion of Catholicism. The results of his conversion were published in Pélerinages en Suisse (1839), Rome et Lorette (1841) and other publications.

In 1843 he joined the staff of the newspaper Univers religieux, and soon helped make it the leading organ of ultramontane propaganda as L'Univers

L'Univers

L'Univers was a nineteenth-century French Roman Catholic daily newspaper that took a strongly ultramontane position. It was edited by Louis Veuillot. In 1833 it merged with La Tribune Catholique.-External links:...

. His methods of journalism, which made great use of irony

Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

 and ad hominem

Ad hominem

An ad hominem , short for argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it...

 criticism, had already provoked more than one duel, and he was imprisoned for a brief time for his polemics against the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

. In 1848 he became editor of the newspaper, which was suppressed in 1860, but revived in 1867, when Veuillot resumed his ultramontane propaganda, causing a second suppression of his journal in 1874. Veuillot then occupied himself by writing polemical pamphlets against moderate Catholics, the Second French Empire

Second French Empire

The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...

 and the Italian government. His services to the papal see were recognized by Pope Pius IX

Pope Pius IX

Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...

, on whom he wrote (1878) a monograph.

Some of his papers were collected in Mélanges religieux, historiques et littéraires (12 vols., 1857–1875), and his (6 vols., 1883–85) has great political interest. His younger brother, Eugène Veuillot, published (1901–1904) a comprehensive and valuable life, Louis Veuillot.

External links

• 1867 Caricature of Louis Veuillot by André Gill

See also

• Our Lady of La Salette
  Our Lady of La Salette
  La Salette is a small mountaintop village near Grenoble, France. It is most noted for an apparition of the Virgin Mary that was reported in 1846 by two shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, followed by numerous accounts of miraculous healings....