Jean Cardinal Lefebvre de Cheverus
ARMS: Personal (family ): Gules three goats’ heads erased Argent
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS: These his personal family arms are treated here, for his episcopal arms ( see file Cheverus ). He never appeared to use these arms from his noble French family but they are of course “armes parlantes”. 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. His entry as a cardinal in McCarthy’s “Heraldica Collegii Cardinalium”, 1800-2000 is on page 90 under the name: Febvre de Cheverus, Jean Le…??
Jean-Louis Anne Magdalen Lefebvre de 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. He served as bishop there until 15 January 1823
On that date he was transferred to the See of Montauban in France and then was promoted to the Metropolitan See of Bordeaux on 2 October 1826 as an Archbishop. He was created a cardinal on 1 February 1836 by Pope Gregory XVI at the request of King of France ,Louis Philippe. Cardinal de Cheverus was a Count and Peer of France and died in Bordeaux on 19 July 1836 at the age of 68. He was a bishop, archbishop and cardinal for 28 years. dqw 20100525
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
Wedvick Armorial, 147a Cheverus2, 20100525
