Holy Man of Tours
| Venerable Leo Dupont | |
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Leo Dupont, Holy Man of Tours
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| Apostle of the Holy Face | |
| Born | 24 January 1797 Martinique |
| Died | 18 March 1876 Tours, France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | 1 December |
Venerable 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 Catholic who helped spread various Catholic devotions such as that of the Holy Face of Jesus and nightly Eucharistic Adoration. He was declared Venerable by the Holy See during Pope Pius XII's Pontificate and currently awaits Beatification.
He was born Leon Papin Dupont was born 24 January 1797 on the family sugar plantation in Martinique. His father was Nicholas Dupont, a wealthy 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 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 by nature and upbringing religious from an early age. But along with his one brother Theobald he studied law in Paris.
He developed his religious viewpoint and was starting to perform numbers of good deeds. He confessed that he had begun merely on a feeling of culpability for having once missed Mass on Ascension day due to taking part on an excursion, but his spirituality quickly matured. In this period, Dupont associated with various 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. His brother Theobald died when Leo was about twenty-four years old in 1823.
In 1827, Leo Dupont married Caroline d'Andiffredi and in 1832 had a daughter Henrietta. However, Caroline died about a year after Henrietta was born. After the death of his wife, Dupont and his mother returned to France and in 1834 settled in Tours, where Dupont established a law practice.
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