Jean Marie du Lau (30 October 1738, Biras – 2 September 1792, Paris) was Archbishop of Arles, and was one of the Catholic Martyrs of September 1792 killed during the French Revolution. He was beatified on October 17, 1926 by Pope Pius XI.
He was born on October 30, 1738 at the Château de la Côte at Biras in the Dordogne, in the diocese of Périgueux, of an aristocratic family which had fed many members into the higher ranks of the clergy. His father was Armand du Lau, seigneur de La Coste and his mother Françoise de Salleton.
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After studies at the collège de Navarre he gained a licence in theology at the Sorbonne and then embarked on his ecclesiastical career, aided by his uncle Jean du Lau, parish priest of Saint-Sulpice in Paris since 1750. As was the system, he passed from one diocese to another in a rising curve of authority and prestige: canon and treasurer at Pamiers, vicar general of Bordeaux, prior of Gabillon and in 1770 attained the notable rank of agent general of the clergy of France. On October 1, 1775, still a young man, he was promoted by Louis XVI to be Archbishop of Arles.
Starting in 1777, the new archbishop embarked on a pastoral visitation of the diocese and in 1779 he had a report on the state of the diocese drawn up by the abbé Laurent Bonnemant, with a view to introducing reforms. Like that of many reforming bishops, the archbishop’s interest extended to the preparation of widwives and catechism of children. He also undertook building works, such as the imposing facade of the archbishop’s palace, which he rebuilt in 1786.
With the convocation of the States General in 1789, he was one of the representatives of the clergy. As the revolutionary situation developed, the archbishop began a bitter conflict with the newly elected mayor of Arles, Pierre-Antoine Antonelle, an aristocrat who had sided with radical wing of the Revolution.
The conflict was short-lived for on July 12, 1790, the National Assembly voted for measures that included the abolition of the then archdiocese of Arles. While this had in itself no validity in Church law, as it happened the diocese was never revived thereafter. Jean-Marie du Lau d'Allemans was in fact the last Archbishop of Arles.
He died a violent death on September 2, 1792 in an improvised prison inside the house of the Carmelite Friars in central Paris, where he was being held with two priests of the diocese of Arles, Armand de Foucauld de Pontbriand and Pierre François Pazery de Thorame, and a large number of other clerics. Those killed included two other bishops, Francois-Joseph de la Rochefoucauld and Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld, priests, clerics and lay religious for a total of 94 men.[1]