Armand Blanquet du Chayla

Armand Etienne Marie Blanquet du Chayla, OCD (10 April 1887 – 27 November 1970) was a French prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in Iraq as a missionary, an archbishop from 1939 to 1964, and as apostolic delegate from 1948 to 1964. Biography Armand Blanquet du Chayla was born on 10 April 1887 in Brest, France. He was ordained a priest of the Discalced Carmelites on 23 December 1892. His Carmelite name was Father Stephen of the Sacred Heart. On 18 April 1939 Pope Pius XII appointed him Archbishop of Baghdad. He received his episcopal consecration on 29 June 1939 from Cardinal Achille Liénart, Bishop of Lille. His appointment came at a delicate juncture, when the Iraqi government was suspicious of the French, but he was at least familiar as head of the Carmelite mission and did not add yet another competing personality to the Catholic leadership. His success in distancing himself from French interests made possible his assumption of diplomatic duties on behalf of the Holy See a decade later. On 20 November 1948, Pope Pius named him Apostolic Delegate to Iraq.