Dominique-Marie Varlet
Bishop of Baghdad
(1678–1742)

Biographical

Bishop of Baghdad 1719 rem.
Titular Bishop of Ascalon 1719
Coadjutor Bishop of Baghdad 1718
Vicar General for the Bishop of Quebec 1715
Priest 1706

Varlet began his theological education at the seminary of Saint-Magloire in Paris and then at the Collège de Navarre. In 1701 he completed his bachelor's degree, and his licentiate and doctorate in theology in 1706. He became deeply influenced by Jansenism through his close friendship with two prominent Jansenists, Jacques Jubé and Jean-Baptiste-Paulin d'Aguesseau, and through the Congregation of the Priests of Calvary near the pilgrimage site of Mont Valérien, where his father owned a country house. After working as a parish priest, Varlet resigned in 1712. He had wanted to become a missionary and was soon sent to Cahokia, Illinois, to revive the Tamarois mission. After reaching Mobile in 1713, then part of the French colony of Louisiana, now Alabama, he suffered a serious haemorrhage and was forced to remain there until he recovered. During his time there, Varlet was unimpressed with the colony and missionary work, seeing it as uncultivated, inadequate, and generally unappealing. He eventually reached Cahokia after accompanying Lamothe Cadillac's expedition in 1715 and devoted his time to missionary work connected with the Tamarois people. The work proved difficult, and in 1717 he left for Quebec to try to recruit additional helpers for his mission and to strengthen his position against the Jesuits, who continued to object to the presence of priests of the Seminary of Quebec in the region. Varlet's trip was successful, but he did not return to his mission because he was recalled to Paris in 1718 after being appointed coadjutor bishop of Baghdad and received the bishopric the following year after the bishop's death. He headed to his diocese later that year, but before his departure he failed to swear allegiance to the bull Unigenitus Dei Filius, which condemned certain Jansenist propositions. As a result, he was forbidden by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to exercise episcopal authority when he arrived in Persia. He instead went to the Netherlands in the hope of resolving the issue, but once there he sided with the Dutch Jansenists and, after the break between the Dutch Jansenists and the Holy See, was eventually made the spiritual father of what became known as the Church of Utrecht. He continued to maintain his stance against the bull Unigenitus until his death.

Place of birth: Paris
Place of death: Rijmwijk, Zeist, Netherlands

Son of Achille Varlet and Marie Vallée.