Louis-Joseph de Montmorency-Laval was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church and Bishop of Metz at the time of the French Revolution.
Background
He was born 11 December 1724 in the Castle of Baillet in the town of Bayers, then in the ancient Province of Angoumois, now part of the Department of Charente. He was the son of Guy André de Montmorency-Laval and of Marie-Anne de Turménies de Nointel, and younger brother of Guy André Pierre de Montmorency-Laval.
Education
As a young man, Montmorency-Laval studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he obtained a licentiate in canon law.
Career
The family name is sometimes rendered as Laval-Montmorency. The date of his reception of Holy Orders as a priest is lost, but he was made Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Sens. Montmorency-Laval was nominated as the new Bishop of Orléans by King Louis XV of France on 7 November 1753.
This was confirmed by the Holy See on 14 January 1754.
He was consecrated for this office on 10 February 1754, at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris, by Christophe de Beaumont du Repaire, Archbishop of Paris. After service in that post for four years, Montmorency-Laval was named as the Bishop of Condom, where he served for two years.
Montmorency-Laval was then appointed as the Bishop of Metz in 1760, in which position he served until 1801. He also appointed in 1786 to serve as the Grand Almoner of France.
He was created a cardinal on 30 March 1789 by Pope Pius VI.
During the French Revolution Montmorency-Laval left France and lived in exile in the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, settling in the town of Altona, now a part of Germany.
He was not able to participate at the 1799–1800 Papal conclave, the only one for which he would have been eligible to vote. Montmorency-Laval died in exile in Altona on 17 June 1808. In 1900 the remains were removed and reburied in the crypt of the Cathedral of Metz.