François de Pâris

He became deacon of the Oratory of St. Magloire and was noted for his critique of the papal bull Unigenitus, which condemned Pasquier Quesnel's annotated translation of the Bible.

[4] During his time there he gave to the poor his annual family pension, and there is evidence to suggest that he turned down a position as canon of Reims Cathedral in 1718 or 1719 because of his humble stance.

[5] François de Pâris retired to a modest house Faubourg Saint-Marceau [fr], Paris, where he led a very austere life.

Indeed, his living condition was so lowly that he "lodged in a hutch of planks set up in a courtyard, wore a hair shirt, and ate one meal a day, all while knitting stockings for the poor and giving advice to those who asked for it.

Large numbers of people from across the social spectrum, including the Cardinal Archbishop Noailles, came to attend his funeral in the small chapel at Saint-Médard.

During the funeral and after, people began to collect snippets of hair and fingernails, splinters of wood from his casket or furniture, soil from his gravesite, and other souvenirs which might serve as holy relics.

In June 1728, Cardinal Noailles started an official enquiry to investigate five of the reported miracles and in the end his findings led to him posthumously bestowing upon François the title of "bienheureux".

[11] Due to the rising hysteria which amounted in 1731, with increasingly bizarre and extraordinary events frequently reported which ultimately led to conversions to Jansenism in the thousands, Louis XV was forced to close the churchyard on 27 January 1732.

[9] Demoiselle Fourcroy, for instance, alleged she had been cured of her medically diagnosed condition of anchylosis on 14 April 1732 and said of it, "They caused me to take wine in which was some earth from the tomb of M. de Paris, and I immediately engaged in prayer, as the commencement of a neuvaine (nine-days of devotion).

Almost at the same moment I was seized with a great shuddering, and soon after with a violent agitation of the members, which caused my whole body to jerk into the air, and gave me a force I had never before possessed, so that the united strength of several persons present could scarcely restrain me.