Charles Théodore Colet

Who was Charles Théodore Colet?

Charles Théodore Colet was a French Roman Catholic Archbishop.

He was born in Gérardmer in France and was ordained a priest in 1831. He was appointed Bishop of Luçon in 1861 and the Archbishop of Tours in 1874.

He is noted for permitting and encouraging the Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus which had been started by sister Marie of St Peter in Tours from 1844 to 1847. Prior to his appointment as the Bishop of Tours, the documents about the life of sister Marie of St Peter and the Holy Face Devotion were not released to the public. The Venerable Leo Dupont had prayed and campaigned for the release of the documents for about 30 years. Archbishop Colet examined the documents and in 1876 gave permission for them to be published shortly before Dupont died. The Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus was eventually approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885.

Archbishop Colet also founded the Oratory of the Holy Face by purchasing the house of Leo Dupont in Tours, upon Dupont's death, and approved of an order of priests called the Priests of the Holy Face to administer to the chapel. The order was canonically erected in 1876 and Father Peter Javier, a friend of Dupont, was appointed as its director.