Jean Bricaud

Jean (or Joanny) Bricaud (11 February 1881, Neuville-sur-Ain, Ain – 24 February 1934), also known as Tau Jean II, was a French student of the occult and esoteric matters. Bricaud was heavily involved in the French neo-Gnostic movement. He was consecrated a Gnostic bishop on 21 July 1913 by bishop Louis-Marie-François Giraud. He was the Patriarch of the Église Gnostique Universelle (French for "Universal Gnostic Church") and a central figure in the various lines of the apostolic succession of subsequent Gnostic churches, as well as a spiritual heir of Jules Doinel (Valentinus II). From 1916 he was head of the Ordre Martiniste. He was a friend of the occultists Papus and August Vandekerkhove.