CHEVERUS, JEAN-LOUIS-MADELEINE LEFEBVRE de. - Cardinal, b. 28 Jan. 1768 at Mayenne, d. 19 July 1856 at Bordeaux. A priest in Dec. 1790, he refused to take the oath to the civil constitution of the clergy and left his parish and France.

Invited by the abbé Matignon in Oct. 1796, he went to America, to Boston. There he carried on a fervent and active work of apostolate, not only among the white population, but also among the Indians. On 8 Apr. 1808 he was appointed bishop of Boston, a diocese then erected by Pius VII; Cheverus administered it until 1823, when he yielded to the entreaties of Louis XVIII, who wanted him as bishop of Montauban, and returned to his homeland amid the keenest sorrow of the population of Boston. On 30 July 1826 he was appointed by the same sovereign archbishop of Bordeaux and peer of France. On 1 Feb. 1836 Gregory XVI created him cardinal. He was reputed one of the most willing and zealous French bishops of his age.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: [Hamon], Vita del card. di C., trans. from the 3rd French edition, Udine 1846; cf. also G. Moroni, s. v. in Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, XXXVII, p. 259 ff.; J. Grisar, s. v. in LThK, II, col. 855.

Silvio Furlani

@incollection{ec3_cheverus_jean_louis_madeleine, author = {Furlani, Silvio}, title = {Cheverus, jean-louis-madeleine lefebvre de}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1416}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cheverus-jean-louis-madeleine-lefebvre-de} }

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Cheverus, Jean-Louis-Madeleine Lefebvre de

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