CHEVERUS, JEAN-LOUIS-MADELEINE LEFEBVRE de. - Cardinal, b. 28 Jan. 1768 at Mayenne, d. 19 July 1856 at Bordeaux. Ordained 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 Abbé Matignon in Oct. 1796, he went to America, to Boston. There he carried out fervent and active apostolic work, 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; C. governed it until 1823, when he yielded to the entreaties of Luigi XVIII, who wished him to be bishop of Montauban, and returned to his native country amid the deepest regret 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 regarded as one of the most devoted and zealous French bishops of his age.