Bernardin Gantin

Bernardin Gantin (8 May 1922 – 13 May 2008) was a Beninese prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the Dean of the College of Cardinals for nine years. He was an auxiliary bishop and then as archbishop of Cotonou. In 1971 he began his thirty-year career in The Vatican. 
Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal in 1977, Pope John Paul II promoted him to the rank of cardinal bishop in 1986, and he was elected dean, the highest office in the College of Cardinals, in 1993. He retired to Benin when he turned 80.
Gantin died at a hospital in Paris, France after a long-illness on 13 May 2008, less than a week after being transferred there from Benin and five days after his 86th birthday.