William Joseph Chaminade
Religious Leader
French Catholic priest who survived persecution during the French Revolution and founded the Society of Mary in 1817.
He entered a minor seminary in Mussidan when he was ten years old.
He became an enemy of the French Revolution when he refused to take an oath affirming the Revolution's secular values and disclaiming the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
Three of his brothers were also priests.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000.