Nicolas Champenois

Bishop Nicolas Champenois M.E.P.
Superior of Karnatic Mission / Pondicherry Titular Bishop of Doliche
See	Karnatic Mission / Pondicherry
Appointed	14 June 1785 (As Coadjutor)
Installed	5 November 1786 (Succeeded)
Term ended	30 October 1811
Predecessor	Pierre Brigot
Successor	Louis-Charles-Auguste Hébert
Orders
Consecration	5 November 1786 by Pierre Brigot
Personal details
Birth name	Nicolas Champenois
Born	April 1734 Reims, France
Died	October 30, 1811(1811-10-30) (aged 77) Pondicheryy
Buried	Cathedral Cemetery, Pondicherry
Denomination	Catholic

Nicolas Champenois (April 1734 – 30 October 1811) was a missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the Superior of Karnatic Mission after Pierre Brigot from 8 November 1791 until his death. He was succeeded by Louis-Charles-Auguste Hébert.

Nicolas Champenois was born in the month of April 1734. He belonged to the diocese of Reims where he served the ministry, especially Chaourse parish. He was probably priest even before he entered the Paris Foreign Missions Society Seminary on July 13, 1776.

He was sent to the Malabar Mission (Pondicherry) and reached there on January 13, 1777. He had been first in-charge of an inland mission. Towards the end of the same year, became procurator of the Mission. Later he became the Superior of the Major Seminary. Papal brief dated June 14, 1785 made him the Coadjutor Superior of Karnatic Mission with Doliche as his titular see. He was consecrated by Pierre Brigot on November 5, 1786 in Pondicherry. Because of the ill health of his predecessor, he was in charge of the diocese immediately.

One of his first acts was to prevent Karaikal in Malabar mission to be entrusted to the Apostolic Prefecture run by the Capuchins.

He obtained from Rome by decree of 19 July 1788, the power over all the Catholics of the diocese of Mylapore inhabiting the lands where the bishop of Mylapore could not carry out his jurisdiction. He also received greater powers than before regarding marriage dispensations, various indulgences and permission to recite some offices. An agreement signed on 17 September 1793, the Capuchins Apostolic Prefect, Fr. Benjamin and Bishop Champagne agreed to iron out the then existing jurisdictional difficulties by mutually transmitting their powers.

Customs of India sometimes raising doubts that left no worry of some missionaries, the bishop gave them advice marked mindedness and based on experience.

He built in Pondicherry, close to the cathedral, a new seminar and a small college. This later became the Petit Seminaire Higher Secondary School. He also completed the construction work of the Cathedral which was begun by the Jesuits in 1770 on the same place in which it was destroyed in 1736. He consecrated it on 20 June 1791.