Eligius Fromentin

Eligius Fromentin (1767? October 6 1822) was an American politician.

Fromentin was born in France and grew up there. He became a Roman Catholic priest, and fled the country during the French Revolution. He arrived in the United States at first settling in Pennsylvania but then moving to Maryland. In Maryland he was a schoolteacher and priest. By the early 1800s, he decided to leave the church and he moved to Louisiana which was being purchased by the United States. He settled in New Orleans, Louisiana and became a lawyer.

Fromentin was a member of the territorial house of representatives from 1807 to 1811, and was part of the constitutional convention that developed Louisiana's state constitution when it became a state in 1812. In 1813, he was elected to the United States Senate from Luisiana, and served for one term, retiring in 1819. He was probably the first former priest to serve in Congress.

Fromentin then returned to Louisiana and became juddge of the New Orleans criminal court in 1821. He soon left this position to become a federal judge in Florida but resigned from that position as well and returned to New Orleans, where he died the following year.