FESCH, Joseph. – Cardinal, born 3 January 1763 at Ajaccio, died 13 May 1839 at Rome. Son of Angela Maria Pietra Santa, who, after being widowed by Giuseppe Ramolino, married François F. in a second marriage; the future cardinal was thus a half-brother of Letizia Ramolino and therefore uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte. He studied at the Seminary of Aix in Provence from 1781 onwards, and was ordained priest there in 1785. Returning to Corsica, in 1791 he took the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Having laid aside the priestly habit, which he resumed only after the conclusion of the Concordat of 1801, he followed his nephew during the Italian campaign. Archbishop of Lyon in 1802, he was created a cardinal of S. Lorenzo in Lucina by Pius VII the following year, and was appointed French ambassador to the Holy See.
He felt deeply the bond of blood with his nephew, but to this natural affection he joined a profound veneration for the Pope and the Holy See. Though Gallican in outlook, he did not energetically oppose, as his status as a prince of the Church required, the decrees of Melzi and the Organic Articles. Yet he had no intention of renouncing in any way the primacy of the bishop of Rome, and in 1810 he refused the nomination to the archbishopric of Paris by the emperor, because it lacked