Olympe-Philippe Gerbet

In April 1854, under the Second French Empire, he was elected Bishop of Perpignan and was consecrated on June 29 in Amiens Cathedral, where he was previously vicar-General.

His episcopate was marked by the holding of a synod (1865), the reorganization of clerical studies, various religious foundations, and by the pastoral instruction of 1860 sur diverses erreurs du temps présent, which served as a model for the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX.

Besides many articles in Le Mémorial catholique, L'Avenir, L'Université catholique [fr], and some philosophical writings such as Des doctrines philosophiques sur la certitude [Philosophical doctrines on truth] [4] Gerbet helped to develop Lamennais' thinking in 1831 in a work entitled A Look at the Christian Controversy from the First Centuries to the Present Day, where he theorizes Catholic science taking into account future and past.

In the two former books, Gerbet views the dogmas of the Eucharist and Penance as admirably fitted to develop the affections — nourrir le coeur de sentiments — just as he uses the réalités visibles of Rome as symbols of her essence spirituelle.

Sainte-Beuve (Causeries de lundi, VI, 316) says that certain passages of Gerbet's writings "are among the most beautiful and suave pages that ever honoured religious literature".