1. Leo Dupont, 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.
27 Facts About Leo Dupont
1. 2.
Leo Dupont's father was Nicholas Dupont, a wealthy and slave-owning French planter, his mother was a creole from Martinique, Marie-Louise Gaigneron de Marolles.
3.
Leo Dupont's father died when Leo was six years old.
4.
Leo Dupont 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.
5.
Leo Dupont was religious from an early age, but along with his one brother Theobald he studied law in Paris.
6.
Leo Dupont had inherited a considerable fortune from his father.
7.
In 1827, Leo Dupont married Caroline d'Andiffredi and, in 1832, they had a daughter, Henrietta.
8.
Leo Dupont established a law practice and became administrator of the Cathedral property.
9.
Leo Dupont joined the recently formed Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, contributing large sums of money to it.
10.
Every year Leo Dupont would send his mother and daughter to the salt-baths at Saint-Servan, and later join them.
11.
Leo Dupont took Henrietta, at her request, to see Mont-Saint-Michel.
12.
Leo Dupont donated a large part of what would have been his daughter's dowry to Jeanne Jugan, whom he had met in Saint-Servan.
13.
Leo Dupont invited her to establish a house for the Little Sisters of the Poor in Tours.
14.
Leo Dupont's reputation as a Catholic activist and a helper of the poor spread within France and he was in contact with other French Catholics such as Saint Peter Julian Eymard, who was an active proponent of spreading devotion to the Holy Eucharist.
15.
When Leo Dupont came to Tours, the cult of Martin of Tours had almost completely fallen into disuse.
16.
Leo Dupont helped rebuild the Basilica of Saint Martin, Tours.
17.
Leo Dupont was never without several on his person, which he would give to those he might meet.
18.
Leo Dupont purchased them by the thousands and distributed them widely.
19.
Leo Dupont's mother lived with him most of his life in Tours and she died in 1860.
20.
Apart from his charitable activities, Leo Dupont is perhaps best known for spreading devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
21.
Leo Dupont made frequent donations to the Carmelites in Tours and managed their business affairs.
22.
Leo Dupont thus heard of the reported visions of Jesus and Mary by the Carmelite nun Mary of Saint Peter from 1844 to 1847.
23.
Leo Dupont used that image because the existence of a clear image on the Shroud of Turin was not known to anyone at that time for the somewhat faded image of the face on the Shroud can not easily be seen with the naked eye and was only observed in May 1898 via the negative plate of Secondo Pia's first photograph.
24.
In 1851, Leo Dupont formed the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face in Tours.
25.
Leo Dupont prayed for and promoted the case for a devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus for around 30 years.
26.
The congregation was canonically erected in 1876 and Father Peter Javier, a friend of Leo Dupont, was appointed as its director.
27.
The devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus that Leo Dupont promoted continued to flourish after his death.