François-Marie-Benjamin Richard
François-Marie-Benjamin Richard | |
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Cardinal Archbishop of Paris | |
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Church | Roman Catholic Church |
Archdiocese | Paris |
Metropolis | Paris |
See | Paris |
Term ended | 28 January 1908 |
Predecessor | Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert |
Successor | Léon-Adolphe Amette |
Other post(s) | Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Via (1889–1908) |
Orders | |
Ordination | 21 December 1844 by Denis Auguste Affre |
Consecration | 11 February 1872 by Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert |
Created cardinal | 24 May 1889 by Pope Leo XIII |
Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
Personal details | |
Born | François-Marie-Benjamin Richard 1 March 1819 |
Died | 28 January 1908 Paris, France | (aged 88)
Buried | Notre Dame de Paris |
Previous post(s) |
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Motto | Faites sur toutes choses que Dieu soyt le mieux aymé |
Coat of arms | ![]() |
Sainthood | |
Venerated in | Catholic Church |
Title as Saint | Servant of God |
François-Marie-Benjamin Richard de la Vergne (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swamaʁibɛ̃ʒamɛ̃ ʁiʃaʁ dəla vɛʁɲ]; 1 March 1819 – 27 January[1] 1908) was a French cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and served as the Archbishop of Paris.
His cause of canonization has commenced and he has the title of Servant of God.
Biography
Early life and priesthood
François-Marie-Benjamin Richard was born in 1819 in Nantes and was one of eleven children.
Richard was educated at the seminary of St Sulpice where he studied theology from October 1841. He was ordained to the priesthood on 21 December 1844 by the Archbishop of Paris Denis Auguste Affre. He served as a parish priest from 1845 to 1846 before he was sent to Rome for further studies that spanned from 1846 to 1849. He was later made the Vicar-General of Nantes on 1 August 1850 and occupied that post until 1869.[2]
Episcopate
Pope Pius IX appointed Richard as the Bishop of Belley on 22 December 1871. He received episcopal consecration on 11 February 1872 in Paris. Later, in 1875, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Larissa and Coadjutor of Paris. In 1886 the death of Cardinal Guibert was followed by Richard's succession to the see of Paris.
Cardinalate and death
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Le_Cardinal_Richard_mis_en_bi%C3%A8re_%C3%A0_Notre-Dame.jpg/180px-Le_Cardinal_Richard_mis_en_bi%C3%A8re_%C3%A0_Notre-Dame.jpg)
Pope Leo XIII elevated him into the cardinalate on 24 May 1889 as the Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Via.
In January 1900 the trial of the Assumptionist Fathers resulted in the dissolution of their society as an illegal association. The next day an official visit of the archbishop to the fathers was noted by the government as an act of a political character and Richard was officially censured. His attitude was in general exceedingly moderate, he had no share in the extremist policy of the Ultramontanes, and throughout the struggle over the law of Associations and the law of Separations he maintained his reasonable temper.[3]
Richard participated in the papal conclave of 1903 that saw the election of Pope Pius X.
He presided in September 1906 over an assembly of bishops and archbishops at his palace in the rue de Grenelle, a few days after the papal encyclical forbidding French Catholics to form associations for public worship, but it was then too late for conciliation. In December he gave up the archiepiscopal palace to the government authorities. He was then an old man of nearly ninety, and his eviction evoked great sympathy.[3]
Richard died in 1908 of congestion of the lungs and was buried in the cathedral of Notre Dame.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Richard, François Marie Benjamin". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 297. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "François-Marie-Benjamin Richard de la Vergne". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Justapedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia without Wikisource reference
- Pages using S-rel template with ca parameter
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- 1819 births
- 1908 deaths
- Clergy from Nantes
- Bishops of Belley
- Archbishops of Paris
- 20th-century French cardinals
- Cardinals created by Pope Leo XIII
- 19th-century French cardinals
- 20th-century venerated Christians
- French Servants of God
- Bishops appointed by Pope Pius IX