Napoleon tries to create a new Saint’s Day, basically named after himself. It doesn’t go over well.

>His [**Napoleon’s**] continuing lack of sympathy with the essence of the religion of most of his subjects, together with the failure for once of his normally well-tuned ear for propaganda, led on August 15 – his birthday and the Festival of the Assumption – to the introduction into the French religious calendar of a new saint’s day: St. Napoleon’s. >This was a step too far, even for the normally quiescent Gallican Church. The idea flopped among Catholics, who understandably found it blasphemous. [Napoleon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Jacques-Louis_David_-_The_Emperor_Napoleon_in_His_Study_at_the_Tuileries_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) had asked [Cardinal Caprara](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/GB_Caprara.jpg) to canonize a new saint for his birthday, and the cardinal had found a Roman martyr called Neopolis who was alleged to have been martyred for refusing to pledge allegiance to the Emperor Maximilian, but who was in fact a complete invention by the Vatican. _________________________ **Source:** Roberts, Andrew. "Jena." *Napoleon: A Life*. New York: Penguin, 2014. 406. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Hazareesingh, *The Saint-Napoleon* pp. 3-4. _________________________ **Further Reading:** [Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoléon Bonaparte / Napoleon I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon) [Giovanni Battista Caprara Montecuccoli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Caprara)