| Type: | Cardinal |
| Honorific Prefix: | His Eminence |
| Benoît-Marie Langénieux | |
| Archbishop of Reims | |
| Church: | Roman Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese: | Reims |
| See: | Reims |
| Appointed: | 21 December 1874 |
| Enthroned: | 22 February 1875 |
| Term End: | 1 January 1905 |
| Predecessor: | Jean-Baptiste-François-Anne-Thomas Landriot |
| Successor: | Louis-Henri-Joseph Luçon |
| Other Post: | Cardinal-Priest of San Giovanni a Porta Latina (1887-1905) |
| Ordination: | 21 December 1850 |
| Ordained By: | Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour |
| Consecration: | 28 October 1873 |
| Consecrated By: | Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert |
| Cardinal: | 7 June 1886 |
| Created Cardinal By: | Pope Leo XIII |
| Rank: | Cardinal-Priest |
| Birth Name: | Benoît-Marie Langénieux |
| Birth Date: | 15 October 1824 |
| Birth Place: | Villefranche-sur-Saone, Lyon, French Kingdom |
| Death Place: | Reims, French Third Republic |
| Buried: | Reims Cathedral |
| Parents: | Claude Antoine Langénieux Aimée Charles |
| Previous Post: | Bishop of Tarbes (1873-74) |
| Alma Mater: | Sorbonne University |
| Motto: | Christus vivit in me |
| Coat Of Arms: | Ecu Benoit Langenieux.svg |
Benoît-Marie Langénieux (born 15 October 1824 at Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône - 1 January 1905 at Reims) was a French Archbishop of Reims and Cardinal.[1]
thumb|Benoît-Marie Langénieux by William Ewart Lockhart.Langénieux studied humanities in Paris at St-Nicolas du Chardonnet, under Félix Dupanloup; and theology at St-Sulpice, where he was ordained, 1850. After nine years as curate at St-Roch, he became successively diocesan promoter 1859; curé of St-Ambroise, 1863; then of St-Augustin, 1868; Vicar-General of Paris, and archdeacon of Notre-Dame in 1871.
Made Bishop of Tarbes in 1873, Langénieux was in the following year translated to the archiepiscopal See of Reims. The thirty-one years of his episcopate were fruitful ones. Beside obtaining from the French legislature an appropriation of two millions of francs for the restoration of Reims cathedral, he secured for the Trappists the ancient Abbey of Igny, and for the Oratorians the priory of Binson, and erected at Châtillon the colossal statue of Pope Urban II, whose cultus he had promoted in Rome. He built in the suburbs of his metropolis the churches of Ste-Geneviève, St-Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, St-Benoit, and Ste-Clothilde, this latter being afterwards made the seat of an archconfraternity of prayer for France, and the place of celebration of the fourteenth centenary of Clovis's baptism. When the law of school secularization came into effect, he filled his see with Catholic schools and founded four asylums for orphans.
Created cardinal in 1886, Langénieux presided as papal legate over the Eucharistic Congresses of Jerusalem, Reims, and Lourdes. He took an active part in the beatification of Joan of Arc.[2] He fought the anti-religious legislation that was being prepared against Christian education, the religious institutes, and the concordat. He was a close friend of Pope Leo XIII, who frequently consulted him regarding the Church in France; after the death of Leo XIII, he participated in the conclave of 1903, which elected Pope Pius X.
He was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honour.[3]
Langénieux was sometimes called French: Cardinal des ouvriers for his advocacy on behalf of the working class. Many European rulers decorated him, and his two jubilees and his funeral were attended by large numbers of bishops, priests, and lay people. His eulogy was pronounced by Gaspard-Marie-Michel-André Latty, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, and Bishop Touchet, of Orléans. He was buried in the metropolitan cathedral of Reims.
Langénieux's writings include:
In addition, he wrote a number of occasional discourses.[4]