Maurice Rigobert Marie-Sainte, (4 January 1928 – 27 August 2017), born in Fort-de-France, was a

Martinican Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

prelate, who was the Archbishop of Fort-de-France and Saint-Pierre from 1972 to 2004. Metropolitan Archdiocese of Fort-de-France Martinique
at GCatholic.org.

Early life

Monsignor Marie-sainte, was born Maurice Rigobert Marie-sainte, a native of Fort-de-France, Martinique on 4 January 1928. Maurice was the second child of a family of 7 including 5 brothers and two sisters.

Life Path

On 21 December 1955 Maurice was ordained a priest. On 12 October 1969 he was ordained bishop by Monsignor Henri Varin de la Brunelière. He succeeded Monsignor Henri Varin de la Brunelière as Archbishop Emeritus of Fort-de-France and Saint-Pierre. Being the youngest in Martinique to become archbishop in his diocese of origin at 41, he was also the first black person in France and all of French dependencies around the world in this position. His successor was Monsignor Michel Méranville who replaced him upon his retirement in 2004.

Death

Monsignor Marie-Sainte died peacefully at the age of 89 on the morning of Sunday 27 August 2017 in Sainte-Anne, Martinique (France).

References

1928 births 2017 deaths Martiniquais Roman Catholic archbishops 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in France 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in France Roman Catholic archbishops of Fort-de-France–Saint-Pierre {{NorthAm-RC-archbishop-stub