Francis Xavier Leray
The Most Reverend Francis Xavier Leray | |
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Archbishop of New Orleans | |
See | New Orleans |
Installed | December 28, 1883 |
Term ended | September 23, 1887 |
Predecessor | Napoléon-Joseph Perché |
Successor | Francis Janssens |
Other post(s) | Bishop of Natchitoches (1877–1879) Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans (1879–1883) |
Orders | |
Ordination | March 19, 1852 |
Consecration | April 22, 1877 |
Personal details | |
Born | Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, France | April 20, 1825
Died | September 23, 1887 Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, France | (aged 62)
Buried | Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, France |
Styles of Francis Xavier Leray | |
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Reference style | |
Spoken style | Your Excellency |
Religious style | Archbishop |
Francis Xavier Leray (April 20, 1825 – September 23, 1887) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Natchitoches (1877–1879) and Archbishop of New Orleans (1883–1887).
Biography[]
Leray was born in Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, to René and Marie (née Roncin) Leray.[1] He studied at the College of Rennes from 1833 until 1844,[2] when he accepted an appeal for missionaries in Louisiana, United States.[3] Following his arrival, he taught for several months at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, before entering St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed his theological studies.[3] In 1852 he accompanied Bishop John J. Chanche to Natchez, Mississippi, where Leray was ordained to priesthood on March 19 of that year.[4]
He then served as pastor of Jackson, and ministered to the sick and dying during the yellow fever epidemics of 1853 and 1855.[5] Leray himself was stricken by the fever and only by great care did he recover.[2] In 1857 he was named pastor of Vicksburg, where he built the first Catholic church and in 1860 introduced the Sisters of Mercy to establish a school.[3] During the Civil War (1861-1865), he served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army of Tennessee.[1] On several occasions he was taken prisoner by Union forces but was released as soon as he was identified as a priest.[3] After the war he returned to Vicksburg, which was visited by cholera in 1867.[5] He was also vicar general of Diocese of Natchez from 1871 to 1877.[1]
On November 27, 1876, Leray was appointed the second Bishop of Natchitoches, Louisiana, by Pope Pius IX.[4] He received his episcopal consecration on April 22, 1877 from Cardinal , with Bishop Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière and serving as co-consecrators, at Rennes Cathedral.[4] Leray remained in Natchitoches for only two years, being named Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans and Titular Archbishop of Ionopolis on October 23, 1879.[4] He was also charged with the administration of the financial affairs of the Archdiocese, which was left nearly $600,000 in debt from the war;[6] he managed to reduce this debt by at least half.[3]
Upon the death of Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché, Leray succeeded him as the third Archbishop of New Orleans on December 28, 1883.[4] He received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Cardinal James Gibbons in January 1884.[2] Leray attended the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in November 1884, and continued his efforts to relieve New Orleans of its immense debt for the rest of his tenure.[2] An advocate of Catholic education, he increased the number of parochial schools from 36 to 70 during his administration as well.[2] In the hope of strengthening his failing health, he returned in 1887 to his native Châteaugiron, where he died shortly afterwards at age 62.[3]
References[]
- ^ a b c "LERAY, Francis Xavier". Louisiana Historical Association. Archived from the original on 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ a b c d e Clarke, Richard Henry. "Most Rev. Francis Xavier Leray, D.D.". Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States.
- ^ a b c d e f "New Orleans". Catholic Encyclopedia.
- ^ a b c d e "Archbishop Francis Xavier Leray". Catholic-Hierarchy.org.
- ^ a b Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske. "LERAY, Francis Xavier". Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.
- ^ "A History of the Archdiocese of New Orleans: Reconstruction and its Aftermath (1865-1888)". Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. Archived from the original on 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
Episcopal succession[]
- 1825 births
- 1887 deaths
- Roman Catholic archbishops of New Orleans
- Breton bishops
- Confederate States Army chaplains
- French emigrants to the United States
- French Roman Catholic priests
- People from Ille-et-Vilaine
- Catholic Church in Mississippi
- Foreign Confederate military personnel
- Roman Catholic bishops of Alexandria
- 19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United States