CHEVERUS, JEAN LOUIS ANNE MAGDELEINE LEFEBVRE DE (1768-1836)

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 114 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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CHEVERUS, JEAN LOUIS ANNE MAGDELEINE LEFEBVRE DE (1768-1836) , French ecclesiastic, was born on the 28th of. January 1768, in Mayenne, France, where his father was general, civil judge and lieutenant of police. He studied at the college of Mayenne, received the tonsure when twelve, became prior of Torbechet while still little more than a child, thence derived. sufficient income for his education, entered the College of Louis le" Grand in 1781, and after completing his theological studies at the, Seminary of St Magloire, was ordained deacon in October 1790, and priest by

special

SPECIAL

dispensation on the 18th of December.' He was immediately made canon of the cathedral of Le Mans and began to act as vicar to his uncle in Mayenne, who died in 1792. Owing to the progress of the Revolution he emigrated in 1792 to England, and thence in 1796 to America, settling in Boston, Mass. His

interest

INTEREST

had been aroused by Francois Antoine Matignon, a former professor at Orleans, now in charge under Bishop John

Carroll

CARROLL, CHARLES (1737-1832)
CARROLL, JOHN (1735-1815)

of all the Catholic churches and missions in New England. Cheverus, although at first appointed to an Indian mission in Maine, remained in Boston for nearly a year, and returned thither after several months in the

Penobscot

PENOBSCOT

and Passamaquoddy missions and visits to scattered Catholic families along the way. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 1798 he won

great

GREAT

praise and respect for his courage and charity; and his preaching was listened to by many Protestantsindeed the subscriptions for the Church of the Holy Cross which he founded in 1803 were largely from non-Catholics. In 18o8 the papal brief was issued making Boston a bishopric, suffragan to

Baltimore

BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE, GEORGE CALVERT, 1ST BARON (C. 1580—1632)

, and Cheverus its bishop. He was consecrated on All Saints' day in 181o, at St Peter's,

Baltimore

BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE, GEORGE CALVERT, 1ST BARON (C. 1580—1632)

, by Archbishop

Carroll

CARROLL, CHARLES (1737-1832)
CARROLL, JOHN (1735-1815)

. On the death of the

Letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

his assistant bishop, Neale, urged the appointment of Cheverus as assistant to himself; Cheverus refused and warmly. asst rted his desire to remain in Boston; but, much broken by thedeath. of Matignon in 1818 and with impaired health, he soon found it necessary to leave the seat of his bishopric. In 1823, Louis XVIII. having insisted on his return to France, Cheverus became bishop of

Montauban

MONTAUBAN
MONTAUBAN, ARTHUR DE (d. 1479)

, where his tolerance captivated the

Protestant

PROTESTANT

clergy and laymen of the city. He was made arch-bishop of Bordeaux in 1826; and on the 1st of February 1836, in accordance with the wish of Louis Philippe, he was made a cardinal. He died in Bordeaux on the 19th of July 1836. To Cheverus, more than to any other, is due the position that Boston now holds in the Roman Catholic Church of America, as well as the general growth of that church in New England. His character was essentially lovable: the Jews of Bordeaux and Protestants everywhere delighted to honour him.
See the rather extravagant biography by J. Huen-Dubourg, Vie du cardinal de Cheverus (Bordeaux, 1838; English version by E. Stewart, Boston, 1839).

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