Background
Cheverus was born on January 28, 1768 in the city of Mayenne. His father was general civil judge and lieutenant of police
Cheverus was born on January 28, 1768 in the city of Mayenne. His father was general civil judge and lieutenant of police
Cheverus studied at the college of Mayenne.
Cheverus was ordained deacon in October 1790, and priest by special dispensation on the 18th of December. He was immediately made canon of the cathedral of Le Mans and began to act as vicar to his uncle in Mayenne, who died in 1792. Owing to the progress of the Revolution he emigrated in 1792 to: England, and thence in 1796 to America, settling in Boston, Massachussets His interest had been aroused by Francois Antoine Matignon, a former professor at Orleans, now in charge under Bishop John Carroll of all the Catholic churches and missions in New England. Cheverus, although at first appointed to an Indian mission in Maine, remained in Boston for nearly a year, and returned thither after several months in the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy missions and visits to scattered Catholic families along the way. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 1798 he won great praise and respect for his courage and charity; and his preaching was listened to by many Protestants-indeed the subscriptions for the Church of the Holy Cross which he founded in 1803 were largely from non-Catholics. In 1808 the papal brief was issued making Boston a bishopric, suffragan to Baltimore, and Cheverus its bishop. He was consecrated on All Saints' day in 1810, at St Peter's, Baltimore, by Archbishop Carroll. On the death of the- ittter his assistant bishop, Neale, urged the appointment of Cheverus as assistant to himself ; Cheverus refused and warmly ass* rted his desire to remain in Boston; but, much broken by the1 death of Matignon in 1818 and with impaired health, he soon found it necessary to leave the seat of his bishopric. In 1823, Louis XVIII having insisted on his return to France, Cheverus became bishop of Montauban, where his tolerance captivated the Protestant clergy and laymen of the city. He was made archbishop of Bordeaux in 1826; and on the 16t of February 1836, in accordance with the wish of Louis Philippe, he was made a cardinal.
