Mathieu, François-Désiré

MATHIEU, FRANÇOIS-DÉSIRÉ. - Cardinal, b. at Einville (diocese of Nancy) on 28 May 1839, d. in London on 26 Oct. 1908. A priest in 1859, curate at Pont-à-Mousson, he was elected bishop of Angers in 1893 and, in 1896, archbishop of Toulouse. Of simple manners, but of lively apostolic zeal, he maintained a popular bearing that won him the esteem and affection of the diocesans and of the citizens.

On relations between Church and State, M., in a Lenten pastoral of Feb. 1897, claimed for Catholics and for the clergy ample freedom of political and legal action to be exercised through the organization of a party, the election of their own candidates to Parliament and the defense of their own religious faith within the sphere of the political rights recognized for every citizen. In the Consistory of 19 June 1899 Leo XIII created him cardinal of the title of St. Sabina. Desirous of contributing to more cordial relations between France and the Holy See, he was greatly disappointed in his aim by the separation of 1905. A conscientious and accurate historian, he published a volume on the Napoleonic Concordat (Le Concordat de 1801, Paris 1903). In 1906 he was elected a member of the Académie française. He died in London, where he had gone to take part in that eucharistic congress.

Silvio Furlani