PINOT, NOËL, BL.

Martyr; b. Angers, France, Dec. 19, 1747; d. there, Feb. 21, 1794. After ordination (1771) he became a curate in Bousse (1771) and Corzé (1776), hospital chaplain in Angers (1781), and pastor of St. Aubin's Church in Louroux-Béconnais (1788). During the french revolution he refused to take the oath supporting the civil constitution of the Clergy and publicized from the pulpit his opposition to this legislation. As a result he was dismissed as pastor and ordered not to approach within eight leagues of his parish for two years. Disguised as a farmer he continued to perform priestly functions. When he persuaded the pastor and curates at Corzé to retract their oaths, he became an object of government search. When the army of the Vendée occupied Louroux-Béconnais, he celebrated Mass in his parish there (June 24, 1793), but he had to resume his disguise when the revolutionary army regained strategic territory. After being captured in the village of La Milanderie (Feb. 9, 1794), he was condemned to death as a "conspirator against the people," and guillotined, attired in priestly vestments. He was beatified Oct. 31, 1926.

Feast: Feb. 21.

Bibliography: f. trochu, Le Bienheureux Noël Pinot (Angers 1955). j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56); v. 13, suppl. and table générale (1959) 2:445–448.

[m. lawlor]