Auguste-Léopold Huys (9 July 1871 – 8 October 1938) was a Catholic

White Fathers The White Fathers (), officially known as the Missionaries of Africa (), and abbreviated MAfr, are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right (for men). They were founded in 1868 by Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, who w ...

missionary who was Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Upper Congo in the east of today's

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

from 1909 until his death in 1938. Auguste-Léopold Huys was born on 9 July 1871 in

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

, Belgium. On 21 September 1895 he was ordained a priest of the White Fathers (Society of Missionaries of Africa). On 26 August 1897, Huys arrived at the mission station of

Mpala Mpala is the location of an early Catholic mission in the Belgian Congo. A military station was established at Mpala on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in May 1883. It was transferred to the White Fathers missionaries in 1885. At one time it was hop ...

, on the west shore of

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

. After a few months he was made director of the catechist school. He founded the first junior seminary in the Congo. After the summer holidays of 1898, with the authority of the Vicar-General Mgr. Victor Roelens, he brought all the most pious and best behaved pupils to Mpala and began to teach them the elements of Latin grammar. On 16 March 1909, Huys was appointed Titular Bishop of Rusicade and Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Upper Congo, assisting Bishop Roelens. He was ordained Titular Bishop of Rusicade by Cardinal

Désiré-Joseph Mercier Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier (21 November 1851 – 23 January 1926) was a Belgian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Mechelen from 1906 until his death in 1926. A Thomist scholar, he had several of his works translated i ...

on 12 April 1909. He died on 8 October 1938.

References

Citations Sources * * 1871 births 1938 deaths Clergy from Bruges Belgian Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo White Fathers priests Belgian Roman Catholic titular bishops Apostolic vicars 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Belgian expatriates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Roman Catholic bishops of Kalemie–Kirungu {{Belgium-RC-bishop-stub