John Cheverus was born on January 28, 1768, in Mayenne, then in the ancient Province of Maine in France. His father, John Vincent Marie Lefebvre de Cheverus, was the general civil judge and lieutenant of police in Mayenne. His mother, Ann Lemarchand des Noyers, provided John Cheverus with his early education and inspired his devotion to the Catholic Church.[2] By age 11, he had decided to become a priest.[2]
John Cheverus attended primary and secondary schools in Mayenne. He received his tonsure, a special haircut, at age 12, signifying his entrance into a religious order. Cheverus was named the commendatory prior of Torbechet while still a youth.
Cheverus entered the College of Louis le Grand in Parish in 1781. He completed his theological studies at the Seminary of Saint-Magloire in Paris. Cheverus was ordained a deacon in October 1790.[3]
Priesthood
France
At age 22, Cheverus was ordained a priest in Parish for the Diocese of LeMans on December 18, 1790. After his ordination, the diocese named him canon of the cathedral of Le Mans. He was also assigned as vicar to assist his uncle, the pastor of Mayenne. When his uncle died in 1792, Cheverus succeeded him as pastor. However, his time as pastor in Mayenne was short-lived.[1]
As a result of the French Revolution, the revolutionary authorities in Mayenne demanded in 1792 that Cheverus pledge allegiance to the new regime. After he refused to take the oath, they placed him under house arrest at the Cordeliers Convent in Mayenne. Wearing a disguise, he escaped the convent, fleeing to the United Kingdom. Offered financial aid on his arrival, Cheverus asked that it be given to clergy in greater need, saying:[2]
"The little I have will suffice until I learn something of the language. Once acquainted with that, I can earn my living by manual labor, if necessary".[4]
After three months in London, Cheverus was teaching French and mathematics. Within a year, he was ministering to a new congregation.[4] In 1795, Cheverus received a letter from Reverend François Matignon, a former professor at a seminary in Orléans. Now residing in the new United States, Matignon was the administrator for the Archdiocese of Baltimore of all the Catholic parishes and missions in New England. He urged Cheverus to come to Massachusetts; he arrived in Boston on October 3, 1796.[2]
United States
Church of the Holy Cross, Boston (1850s photo)
After arriving in Boston, Cheverus encountered strong anti-Catholic sentiments in all levels of society. He began working to change public attitudes toward Catholics and started preaching in public. His sermons were soon attracting many Protestant listeners. Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore asked Cheverus to become pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Philadelphia, but his congregants in Boston demanded that he remain there.
In 1797, Cheverus made his first trip to visit missions for the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy peoples in what is today the State of Maine, spending several months there. He would return to visit the Native American missions several times over the upcoming years. He returned to Boston from Maine in 1798 during a yellow fever epidemic. Cheverus spent long hours tending to the sick, both wealthy and poor.[4][2] After the epidemic was over, Cheverus was an honored guest at a dinner held in Boston for US President John Adams.
When Cheverus started fundraising for the Church of the Holy Cross in Boston, Adams was the first contributor. Most of the funding for the church, which opened in 1803, was provided by Protestants in the city.[5][2]
On June 5, 1806, Cheverus traveled to Northampton, Massachusetts, to minister to James Halligan and Dominic Daley. They were two Irish Catholic men being executed for murdering a local man. As was the custom, Cheverus preached a final sermon for the men, with them in attendance, at a local church before their hanging.[6] His sermon included the following excerpt:
"I am ashamed of the (audience) before me ... Are there men to whom, the death of their fellow beings is a spectacle of pleasure, an object of curiosity? ... But you, especially, O women! What has induced you to come to this place? Is it to wipe away the cold damps of death that trickle down the face of these unfortunate men? ... No, it is not for this. Is it then to behold their anguish, and to look upon it with tearless, eager and longing eyes? Oh! I blush for you, your eyes are full of murder!"[7]
Many of the local residents, impressed by Cheverus's speaking skills, asked him to stay in Northampton after the execution.[6]
Bishop of Boston
On April 8, 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston, taking its territory from what became the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The pope named Cheverus as the first bishop of Boston. He was consecrated on November 1, 1810, in Baltimore, Maryland, at St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral by Archbishop John Carroll, with Bishops Leonard Neale and Michael Francis Egan serving as co-consecrators. Holy Cross Church then became the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.[1][3] When Carroll died on December 3, 1815, Neale succeeded him as archbishop of Baltimore.[8] He requested that the Vatican appoint Cheverus as his auxiliary bishop. However, when Cheverus expressed his strong desire to remain in Boston, the Vatican relented.[2]
Cheverus supported the establishment in 1816 of the Provident Institution for Savings in Boston, the first chartered savings bank in the U.S. He believed the bank would help his parishioners establish good financial practices.[9] In 1818, Cheverus's friend and colleague Matignon died.[1]
In 1820, Cheverus oversaw the opening of an Ursuline convent in the rectory of Holy Cross Cathedral with a girls school for poor children.[10] By the early 1820s, Cheverus's doctors were recommending he move to a warmer climate due to his asthma.[2] However, he resisted their advice because he wanted to stay in Boston. In 1823, a request from King Louis XVIII of France persuaded Cheverus to return to his native country.[1]
Bishop of Montauban
On January 13, 1823, Pope Leo XII appointed Cheverus as bishop of Montauban in France.[3] The parishioners of Boston sent a petition to the pope asking him to rescind the appointment, but it was no use. Before leaving Boston, Cheverus gave away all of his personal possessions.[2] He left Boston for New York City in September 1823; over 300 carriages escorted him out of Boston.[5]
During the voyage to France, his ship hit a reef in the English Channel and was temporarily grounded. After arriving in France, he traveled to Paris to have a private audience with the king before going to Montauban. His reputation as the former bishop of Boston resulted in great attention from crowds in France.[2]
Parts of Montauban were flooded in 1826, displacing hundreds of poor residents. Cheverus opened his episcopal palace to over 300 people.[2] In 1834, Cheverus suffered a stroke, limiting his physical activity.[2]
Archbishop of Bordeaux and Cardinal
King Louis Philippe I imposes the biretta on Cheverus on March 10, 1836
Leo XII appointed Cheverus as archbishop of Bordeaux on July 30, 1826. He was elevated to cardinal by Pope Gregory XVI on February 1, 1836, in accordance with the wish of French King Louis Philippe I.[1]
According to author John Murray, Cheverus and a companion were approached by a panhandler one day in 1836 while walking on a street in Bordeaux. Cheverus, who could never refuse a request for money, gave the man one franc. "Monseigneur", said his companion "I think you have made a mistake. The man you have just given money to is a Jew." "Thank you", replied Cheverus, "It is true, I did not know it." Asking the man to come back, Cheverus handed him a five franc piece. He told his companion, "There are so few who would give him anything."[11]
Death and legacy
Plaque at site of Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston
Cheverus died after suffering a second stroke in Bordeaux on July 19, 1836, at age 68.[1] Part of Cheverus's personal library now resides in the collection of the Boston Athenaeum.[12] In 1950, a plaque was mounted at the site of Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston. It reads:
Near this site stood THE CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY CROSS, established 1803 by Jean Lefebvre de Cheverus, First Catholic Bishop of Boston; Missionary to the Penobscot Indians; Friend of President John Adams; Advisor to our State Legislature; One of America’s noblest priests. He stood by the bedside of Catholic and Protestant alike. This tablet placed by a group of Protestant Businessmen, 1950.[13]
Collège Cheverus, a French secondary international school in Bordeaux, France[17]
Popular culture
Cheverus is a principal character in the 2004 novel The Garden of Martyrs by Michael C. White, a fictional account of the Halligan and Daley executions. He is also a character in a 2013 opera adaptation, The Garden of Martyrs, by Harley Erdman.
