Bishop John Cheverus
ARMS: Episcopal arms: Argent a cross moline Sable
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS: These his episcopal arms are attributed to him by Brother Gerard Brassard, A.A. who stated de Cheverus used them as Bishop of Montauban and as Archbishop of Bordeaux and so selected them in memory of his episcopacy in Boston.) J. H. Gaylor brought to our attention that these episcopal arms of Cheverus are identical with those of Lord Colville of Culross, Chief of the name of Colville in Scotland. The personal family arms ( a noble French family ) are treated separately in another file ( see Cheverus2 ). Source for arms and blazon: “Armorial of the American Hierarchy”, Volume III, The New England States, the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston and Hartford, page 85, by Brother Gerard Brassard, A.A., The Stobbs Press, Worcester, Mass., 1956. The text was adapted by D.Q. Wedvick from the same source and from the Wikipedia internet article.
Jean-Louis Anne Magdalen Lefebvre de Cheverus ( also known as John Cheverus ) was born on 28 January 1768 in Mayenne, Diocese of Laval, France to parents of a noble French family. Educated at Louis-le-Grand, Paris and ordained on 18 December 1790 by Bishop de Gonssans of Laval. Escaped to England and acted as a tutor and ministered there to French refugees 1792-96. Then engaged in missionary work amongst the Penobscot Indians and other faithful in Maine and Massachusetts between 1796 and 1808. Appointed by Pope Pius VII to the newly erected See of Boston on 8 April 1808 and Consecrated by Archbishop Carroll on 1 November 1810 in Baltimore as the 1st Bishop of Boston. Bishop Cheverus served as bishop there until 15 January 1823 when he was transferred to the See of Montauban in France at the request of Louis XVIII, the King of France. ( See file Cheverus2 for continuation of his career in France.) He spent almost 15 years as Bishop of Boston.
The Diocese of Boston was erected with jurisdiction over what today we would describe as the Ecclesiastical or Metropolitan Province of Boston, MA, comprising the Archdiocese of Boston plus the Dioceses of Burlington, VT; Portland, ME; Springfield, MA; Manchester, NH; and Worcester, MA and the Ecclesiastical or Metropolitan Province of Hartford, CT: comprising the Archdiocese of Hartford plus the Dioceses of Providence, RI; Norwich, CT; and Bridgeport, CT. The area covers the states of CT, RI, MA, VT, NH and ME. dqw 20101117
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
Wedvick Armorial, 146d, Cheverus, 20100525
