Venerable Leo Dupont

Leo Dupont (24 January 1797 – 18 March 1876), also known as "the holy man of Tours" or "the apostle of the Holy Face", was a Roman Catholic layman who helped spread various devotions such as that of the Holy Face of Jesus and the nightly Eucharistic adoration. He was declared venerable by Pope Pius XII. Leon Papin Dupont was born 24 January 1797 on the family sugar plantation in Martinique. His father was Nicholas Dupont, a wealthy and slave-owning French planter, his mother was a creole from Martinique, Marie-Louise Gaigneron de Marolles. His father died when Leo was six years old. Leon was schooled in Martinique and then for two years at a boarding school in the United States while the French Revolution went on. He was then sent to France to further his education at the College of Pontlevoy, near the Chateau of Chissay, which belonged to his maternal uncle, the Comte Gaigneron de Marolles. He was religious from an early age, but along with his one brother Theobald he studied law in Paris. He had inherited a considerable fortune from his father. During this period, Dupont met a number of religious figures including Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart. Upon finishing his law degree, not having seen his mother for six years, he returned to Martinique, where he received an appointment as a councilor of the court. His younger brother Theobald died of a fever in 1823 when Leo was about twenty-four years old. In 1827, Leo Dupont married Caroline d'Andiffredi and, in 1832, they had a daughter, Henrietta. Caroline died about a year after Henrietta was born. After the death of his wife, Dupont and his mother moved to France and, in 1834, settled in Tours, where the physician Pierre Bretonneau was a neighbor. He also made the acquaintance of William Palmer. Dupont established a law practice and became administrator of the Cathedral property.