Pichon, Jean

Pichon, Jean a French Jesuit, noted as a revivalist, was born at Lyons in 1683. He early became a preacher, but after entering the Society of Jesus in 1697, and obtaining orders, preached in missions at Rheims, Langres, and Metz. Stanislas, duke of Lorraine and Bar, gave him the direction of the missions which he founded in this country with truly royal liberality. To refute some Jansenists, who dissuaded the people from frequeint communion by asserting that man must be perfect before approaching the holy table, he published Esprit de Jesus Christ et de l'Eglise sur la Communion frequente (1745, 12mo). His book caused a great stir. It was attacked by the authors of the Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques, condemned by an ordinance of M. de Caylus, bishop of Auxerre (September 27, 1747), and soon afterwards by other prelates, zealous partisans of the "Unigenitus bull." Jesuits and Jansenists being united against his book, Pichon retracted his obnoxious opinions in a letter to M. de Beaumont, archbishop of Paris, January 24, 1748. He then went to preach at Colmar; but as it soon appeared that he was endeavoring secretly to instigate a number of German prelates against the proscription of his work in France, he was banished to Maariac (1748), and soon after compelled to leave France. Having found an asylum in the house of the bishop of Lyons (Valais), he became grand- vicar and general visitor of his bishopric. He died at Lyons May 3, 1751. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 40:78.