Polycarpe Tuffier

Who they were

Jules Tuffier was born on 14 March 1807 at Le Malzieu in Occitania, the son of Jean-Paul Tuffier and Suzanne Martin. As a child he was placed in the college of the Adoration at Mende, run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration (the Picpus Fathers), where he discerned a vocation to join the same congregation, making profession in 1823 and becoming a priest in 1830. He served as a parish priest, chaplain to the deaf, and director of the Petits-Carmes college at Cahors.

In 1871, when the Paris Commune broke out, he was serving as bursar at the Picpus motherhouse in Paris and was one of the few religious to remain after the building was evacuated. Arrested on 12 April, he was held in several prisons and, remaining serene under the ordeal, was shot on 26 May 1871 near a villa on rue Haxo together with several Jesuit fathers, a diocesan priest and seminarian, and Father Henri Planchat. He was beatified with his companions on 22 April 2023 in Paris.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

Priest of the Picpus Fathers shot during the Paris Commune for remaining faithful to his community; beatified 22 April 2023.

The cause

Connected on this site

• Henri Planchat Blessed
  “He is honoured with four priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, among them Ladislas Radigue, Polycarpe Tuffier and Marcellin Rouchouze.” — this site's research