Michel Le Nobletz

Dom Michel Le Nobletz (Breton: Mikel an Nobletz) (1577–1652) was a vigorous Counter-Reformation missionary active in the west of Brittany, who was responsible for a revival of popular Catholic culture. He developed new methods of teaching, and invented distinctive painted placards — known as taolennoù – which became widely used in the area.

His, his extremely severe views and denunciations of alleged vice among local business leaders and even other priests led to accusations that he was a fanatic; he was nicknamed "the mad priest". He was forced to leave Douarnenez because of the animosity he engendered.

The Church declared Nobletz "venerable" in 1897. The Bishop of Leon initiated his beatification in 1701, but it is still pending.

Nobletz was born in the manor of Kerodern in Plouguerneau (Leon) on 29 September 1577 into a noble family. His father was a royal notary.

His father sent him to join his four brothers at the University of Bordeaux in 1596. He then studied at the College of Jesuits at Agen, learning theology, ancient languages (Latin, Greek) and mathematics. It was during a pilgrimage to Toulouse he had decided his vocation, before coming to deepen his theology at the Jesuit college of Madelaine de Bordeaux. He returned to his native parish in 1606, where he devised a systematic method of meditation which includes a description of the ten pitfalls threatening the priestly life, placed on a chart.

Desiring to improve his knowledge, he went to study Hebrew at the Sorbonne. He was received into the priesthood in Paris. Back in Leon, motivated by his religious ideals, he refused a scholarly career that offered him a comfortable job, for a life of poverty devoted to the Gospel. To the dismay of his parents, he retired to Plouguerneau in a kind of cell erected in the rocks of the beach of Treménac'h. He spent one year there in poverty and asceticism.

In 1608 he began his first mission, to the island of Ouessant, returning to the work that St. Vincent Ferrer had initiated early in the 15th century in Brittany. After a period with the Dominicans in Morlaix, he was forced to leave following a major scandal caused by his vandalizing a portrait-sculpture of a young woman placed over her grave. He believed that the image would encourage worship like the statue of a saint. He went on a preaching tour with Fr. Quintin. Together they travelled around Trégor and Léon from 1608 to 1611.

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