Porcaro, Pierre de
Item
Name
Porcaro, Pierre de
Given name
Pierre
Family name
de Porcaro
Relation
French JOC chaplain
One-line bio
Pierre de Porcaro was a French YCW chaplain who went to work in Germany under the forced labour scheme and was martyred for his work, dying in the Dachau concentration camp.
Biography
Pierre de Porcaro, born on 10 August, 1904 in Dinan ( Côtes-du-Nord ) and died on 12 March, 1945 at the Dachau concentration camp, was a French Catholic priest of the Diocese of Versailles.
He was one of the fifty victims of the Third Reich's persecution decree of 3 December, 1943. This decree was enacted by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Gestapo, against the activity of French Catholic action among French civil workers in the Reich. On 20 June, 2025, Pope Leo XIV signed a decree in Rome recognising the martyrdom of these fifty victims, presented as martyrs of the apostolate, thus opening the way to their beatification .
Biography
Father Pierre de Porcaro was born on 10 August, 1904 in Dinan. He was the son of Edmond-Marie de Porcaro, born on 24 May, 1854, in Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets, cavalry squadron leader, knight of the Legion of Honour, and his wife born Marthe du Hamel de Canchy, born on 16 January, 1869, daughter of General Arthur du Hamel de Canchy, Commander of the Legion of Honor and Louise-Gabrielle Mallet de Chauny. Pierre de Porcaro has three brothers, Jean, Yves (who will in turn be ordained priest) and André and a sister, Louise, born in Vesoul on 19 March, 1897.
Having entered the major seminary of Versailles in 1923, Pierre de Porcaro was ordained a priest in 1929. He then served as a professor at the minor seminary of Versailles, before becoming vicar at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1935. He was mobilized inSeptember 1939 and taken prisoner in the Vosges with his unit on 23 June, 1940. In captivity in Colmar with 8,000 French soldiers, he celebrated mass every day, then he was transferred to Stalag VA northeast of Stuttgart. Among Breton soldiers, he was finally transferred to Stalag IX B, near Bard-Orb. Released on 3 August, 1941, as a military chaplain, he joined the parish of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
On 2 February, 1943, Fr Jean Rodhain, addressed the bishops on behalf of Cardinal Suhard to invite French priests to join the French workers of the STO in Germany, because, he wrote, "it is not possible to leave hundreds of thousands of workers without priests." He added that "the clergy will not hesitate to take its share of the burden that weighs on the working class ." A chaplaincy service was thus created and entrusted to French priests.
In April 1943, the bishops of France allowed twenty-five priests to leave clandestinely as worker priests in Germany. Bishop Roland-Gosselin, his bishop, had expressly asked him if he would be willing to leave for Germany as a clandestine STO chaplain. Abbé Pierre de Porcaro left a month later, on 15 May, 1943, for Dresden where he exercised his apostolate among French workers, in a corrugated cardboard factory and organised a YCW section. But, after becoming victim of an accident at work, he was repatriated to France on 16 November, 1943.
In December 1943, in Germany, measures against Catholic action were launched. Then in April 1944, the arrests of YCW leaders and the clandestine chaplaincy in Germany begen, under Kaltenbrunner's decree of 3 December, 1943, against "Catholic action with forced laborers in the territory of Nazi Germany." Pierre de Porcaro nevertheless left knowing the risks he was taking.
Fr de Porcaro returned to Dresden, to the corrugated cardboard factory, on 25 January, 1944 to continue his apostolate among French workers. He was denounced by a French worker to the Gestapo and was arrested on 11 September, 1944 with the seminarian Évode Beaucamp. Held in prison in Dresden, he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in the second half ofJanuary 1945. There he met Father Michel Riquet, who, like him, occupied barrack 21. He received the registration number 138 374. He carried out his ministry to his deported comrades. But ill and exhausted, he died of typhus on 12 March, 1945.
The tribute paid by Father Edmond Cleton of the diocese of Lille, to Abbot de Porcaro, who died in the arms of Fr Beauvais, witnessed to his holiness and his conviction of remaining accompanied by God in the heart of suffering: "Fr de Porcaro, one of the most capable; the most cheerful, the most serene among us. He joined Father Dillard, the first to be freed from Dachau. Both volunteers from the galleys, witnesses of Christ among the exiles, loved by all. They leave us in human sadness, but in the hope of heaven".
Beatification procedure
Convinced of the power of Fr Pierre de Porcaro's example, Bishop Éric Aumonier placed the Versailles seminary under his patronage. He supports his cause for beatification with the Holy See.
On 20 June, 2025, 80 years after his death, this cause for beatification came to fruition when Pope Leo XIV signed the decree at the Vatican recognising the martyrdom of 50 French people, including Pierre de Porcaro.
The "priests' barracks" at Dachau
"Between 1938 and 1945, 2,720 priests, religious and seminarians were deported to the Dachau concentration camp, near Munich. Grouped into specific blocks - now known to history as the "priests' barracks" - 1,034 of them lost their lives there. Nearly 70 years after its liberation, the Dachau camp remains the largest cemetery of Catholic priests in the world".
"Voluntary underground priest"
In February 2025, on the 80th anniversary of Fr de Porcaro’s death, Plein Vent publisher and the Diocese of Versailles, published a comic strip entitled "Pierre de Porcaro, voluntary clandestine priest”. The script was written by Father Pierre Amar, the illustrations are by Venzac.
He was one of the fifty victims of the Third Reich's persecution decree of 3 December, 1943. This decree was enacted by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Gestapo, against the activity of French Catholic action among French civil workers in the Reich. On 20 June, 2025, Pope Leo XIV signed a decree in Rome recognising the martyrdom of these fifty victims, presented as martyrs of the apostolate, thus opening the way to their beatification .
Biography
Father Pierre de Porcaro was born on 10 August, 1904 in Dinan. He was the son of Edmond-Marie de Porcaro, born on 24 May, 1854, in Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets, cavalry squadron leader, knight of the Legion of Honour, and his wife born Marthe du Hamel de Canchy, born on 16 January, 1869, daughter of General Arthur du Hamel de Canchy, Commander of the Legion of Honor and Louise-Gabrielle Mallet de Chauny. Pierre de Porcaro has three brothers, Jean, Yves (who will in turn be ordained priest) and André and a sister, Louise, born in Vesoul on 19 March, 1897.
Having entered the major seminary of Versailles in 1923, Pierre de Porcaro was ordained a priest in 1929. He then served as a professor at the minor seminary of Versailles, before becoming vicar at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1935. He was mobilized inSeptember 1939 and taken prisoner in the Vosges with his unit on 23 June, 1940. In captivity in Colmar with 8,000 French soldiers, he celebrated mass every day, then he was transferred to Stalag VA northeast of Stuttgart. Among Breton soldiers, he was finally transferred to Stalag IX B, near Bard-Orb. Released on 3 August, 1941, as a military chaplain, he joined the parish of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
On 2 February, 1943, Fr Jean Rodhain, addressed the bishops on behalf of Cardinal Suhard to invite French priests to join the French workers of the STO in Germany, because, he wrote, "it is not possible to leave hundreds of thousands of workers without priests." He added that "the clergy will not hesitate to take its share of the burden that weighs on the working class ." A chaplaincy service was thus created and entrusted to French priests.
In April 1943, the bishops of France allowed twenty-five priests to leave clandestinely as worker priests in Germany. Bishop Roland-Gosselin, his bishop, had expressly asked him if he would be willing to leave for Germany as a clandestine STO chaplain. Abbé Pierre de Porcaro left a month later, on 15 May, 1943, for Dresden where he exercised his apostolate among French workers, in a corrugated cardboard factory and organised a YCW section. But, after becoming victim of an accident at work, he was repatriated to France on 16 November, 1943.
In December 1943, in Germany, measures against Catholic action were launched. Then in April 1944, the arrests of YCW leaders and the clandestine chaplaincy in Germany begen, under Kaltenbrunner's decree of 3 December, 1943, against "Catholic action with forced laborers in the territory of Nazi Germany." Pierre de Porcaro nevertheless left knowing the risks he was taking.
Fr de Porcaro returned to Dresden, to the corrugated cardboard factory, on 25 January, 1944 to continue his apostolate among French workers. He was denounced by a French worker to the Gestapo and was arrested on 11 September, 1944 with the seminarian Évode Beaucamp. Held in prison in Dresden, he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp in the second half ofJanuary 1945. There he met Father Michel Riquet, who, like him, occupied barrack 21. He received the registration number 138 374. He carried out his ministry to his deported comrades. But ill and exhausted, he died of typhus on 12 March, 1945.
The tribute paid by Father Edmond Cleton of the diocese of Lille, to Abbot de Porcaro, who died in the arms of Fr Beauvais, witnessed to his holiness and his conviction of remaining accompanied by God in the heart of suffering: "Fr de Porcaro, one of the most capable; the most cheerful, the most serene among us. He joined Father Dillard, the first to be freed from Dachau. Both volunteers from the galleys, witnesses of Christ among the exiles, loved by all. They leave us in human sadness, but in the hope of heaven".
Beatification procedure
Convinced of the power of Fr Pierre de Porcaro's example, Bishop Éric Aumonier placed the Versailles seminary under his patronage. He supports his cause for beatification with the Holy See.
On 20 June, 2025, 80 years after his death, this cause for beatification came to fruition when Pope Leo XIV signed the decree at the Vatican recognising the martyrdom of 50 French people, including Pierre de Porcaro.
The "priests' barracks" at Dachau
"Between 1938 and 1945, 2,720 priests, religious and seminarians were deported to the Dachau concentration camp, near Munich. Grouped into specific blocks - now known to history as the "priests' barracks" - 1,034 of them lost their lives there. Nearly 70 years after its liberation, the Dachau camp remains the largest cemetery of Catholic priests in the world".
"Voluntary underground priest"
In February 2025, on the 80th anniversary of Fr de Porcaro’s death, Plein Vent publisher and the Diocese of Versailles, published a comic strip entitled "Pierre de Porcaro, voluntary clandestine priest”. The script was written by Father Pierre Amar, the illustrations are by Venzac.
Country of origin
Birth date
August 10, 1944
Birth place
Dinan, France
Death date
March 12, 1945
Death place
Dachau Concentration Camp
Movement
JOC
