Jouvenet, Father Jean Antoine Clair

1899, January 10

Date of Birth:  1863, June 15

Jean Antoine Clair Jouvenet was born at Lyon on June 15, 1863. He belonged, however, to the Diocese of Autun, where he made all his clerical studies, first at the clergy school of Rimont and then at Autun’s major seminary. After his ordination, his likable and serious qualities made him a popular assistant at parishes in Louhans and Autun, where he served from 1889 to 1894. In 1894 he entered the Solitude; he left the next year for America to be a seminary teacher in Baltimore.

Soon after, his health required him to return to France. He was appointed treasurer of the new house on the Rue St. Jacques. There again, his eye-trouble and his heart-trouble kept him from doing as much Sulpician work as he would have liked to do.

He thus returned to his own diocese where he was given the little parish of Dampierre en Bresse in August 1898. He was in this assignment only briefly, although long enough to win the hearts of his parishioners. 

On January 10, 1899, he was found dead in his easy chair. 

Translated and adapted from Bulletin des Anciens Elèves de St. Sulpice.