Venerable Jean-Baptiste Fouque

Jean-Baptiste Fouque (19 September 1851 – 5 December 1926) was a French Roman Catholic priest. He tended to the poor during his time as a parish priest in Marseille and was noted for his desire to create a large and free hospital for them. He achieved this in 1921 and tended to the old and infirm in the hospital. Fouque also was known for his ministering to displaced peoples during World War I and for his commitment to evangelization. His beatification cause opened in 2002 and he became titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis named him as Venerable on 21 December 2016 and later confirmed his beatification; it was celebrated in Marseille on 30 September 2018. Jean-Baptiste Fouque was born on 19 September 1851 in Marseille to Louis Fouque and Adèle Anne Remuzat. His parents married on 29 October 1850 and were devout in their faith. He studied in the school that the Joseph-Marie Timon-David had opened; both David and Jean-Joseph Allemand proved to be Fouque's spiritual masters during his education and were also influences on his desire to enter the priesthood. Timon-David helped Fouque discern his call to the priesthood which Fouque had felt since the beginning of his adolescence. This event – his ordination – took place in Marseille on 10 June 1876. His first assignment following his ordination was to serve as a pastor in Auriol (December 1877 – July 1885) at the Sainte-Marguerite parish and then in La Major (1885–88). His final assignment was to serve at the Sainte Trinité parish from 15 April 1888 until his death over three decades later. Fouque inaugurated "Le Sainte Famille" home for girls that he later entrusted to the nuns from the Presentation order from Tours. In December 1891 the archdiocesan vicar general asked Fouque to tend to the abandoned and to orphans. He threw himself into this work and created one such place that was transferred to a new location in 1894 and entrusted to nuns.