NAGOT, FRANCIS CHARLES

Religious superior; b. Tours, France, April 19, 1734;d. Emmitsburg, MD, April 9, 1816. He made his classical studies at the Jesuit college in his native city. In 1753 he entered the Little Community of Saint-Sulpice, Paris. He was accepted as a candidate for the Society of St. Sulpice, and ordained on May 31, 1760. In 1760 he was appointed to teach theology at the major seminary in Nantes, and he earned his doctorate in theology from the University of Nantes, with which the seminary was affiliated. In 1768 he was recalled to Paris and made superior of the Little Company. Two years later he became superior of the Little Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. In 1789 he was appointed vice rector of the Grand Seminary of Saint Sulpice and named one of the 12 assistants of the superior general. He was sent to London in 1790 to arrange with Bp. John carroll for the foundation of a seminary in the new Diocese of baltimore, MD. Nagot, having been designated superior of the group, arrived in Baltimore with three Sulpician priests and five students. On July 18, 1791, they occupied One-Mile Tavern at North Paca Street, on the site of the present St. Mary's Seminary, the first Catholic seminary in the U.S. In 1806 Nagot opened a minor seminary at Pigeon Hill, PA, but in 1809 this seminary closed and the students were transferred to Mt. St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, MD. Shortly after observing his sacerdotal golden jubilee, Nagot resigned as superior of Mt. St. Mary's. He continued to live at the seminary until his death. The best known of his five published works is the Vie de M. Olier (1818).

Bibliography: l. bertrand, Bibliothèque sulpicienne, 3 v. (Paris 1900) v.2.

[c. j. noonan]