Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus

Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus was a French Roman Catholic bishop and later cardinal. He was the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States, and later became a bishop and then archbishop in his native France. He was born on January 28, 1768, in the city of Mayenne, where his father was a judge and a police officer. He studied at the college of Mayenne and then at the College of Louis le Grand in Paris. He was ordained a priest in 1790 and became a canon of the cathedral of Le Mans. He refused to take the oath imposed by the French Revolution and had to flee to England in 1792. There he founded a chapel for French refugees and taught French and mathematics. In 1796, he moved to Boston at the invitation of Bishop John Carroll, who appointed him as his vicar general for New England. He served as a missionary to the Native Americans in Maine and as a pastor to the Catholics in Boston. He was well respected by people of all faiths for his charity, piety, and eloquence. He built the first cathedral in Boston, the Church of the Holy Cross, which was completed in 1803. In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston and named Cheverus as its first bishop. He was consecrated in 1810 by Bishop Carroll in Baltimore. As a bishop, he faced many challenges, such as a shortage of priests, financial difficulties, anti-Catholic prejudice, and political turmoil. He also had to deal with the aftermath of the War of 1812 and the Hartford Convention. He was beloved by his flock and admired by many civic leaders, such as John Adams and John Quincy Adams. In 1823, he received an offer from King Louis XVIII of France to become the Bishop of Montauban. He accepted reluctantly, after obtaining permission from Pope Leo XII and President James Monroe. He left Boston with much sorrow and gratitude from his people. He arrived in France in 1824 and was installed as the Bishop of Montauban. In 1826, he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Bordeaux and became an archbishop. He was also appointed as a peer of France by the king and a member of the French Academy by his fellow academicians. He was a loyal supporter of the Bourbon monarchy and opposed the July Revolution of 1830 that brought Louis-Philippe to power. He was created a cardinal by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836, but died before receiving his red hat. He passed away on July 19, 1836, in Bordeaux, after a long illness. He was buried in the Bordeaux Cathedral, where his tomb can still be seen today.