View source for Charles Auguste Marie Joseph, Count of Forbin-Janson

{{Short description|French aristocrat and prelate}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
[[File:Bischof Charles Forbin Janson.jpg|thumb|right|Bishop Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph de Forbin-Janson]]
'''Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph, Count of Forbin-Janson, [[Fathers of Mercy|C.P.M.]]''' (3 November 1785 &ndash; 12 July 1844),<ref>[https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/F/forbin-janson-charles-auguste-marie-joseph-comte-de.html "Forbin-janson, Charles Auguste Marie Joseph, Comte De", ''The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature''. (James Strong and John McClintock, eds.); Harper and Brothers; NY; 1880]{{PD-notice}}</ref> was a [[French people|French]] aristocrat and [[prelate]] who was a founder of the [[Fathers of Mercy]], established in an effort to re-evangelize the French people. He preached throughout North America, taking an active role in reviving the Catholic populations of the United States and Canada. He was influential in establishing an [[ultramontane]] stand in the Catholic Church in French-speaking Canada, an influence which would last for generations.
Forbin-Janson also served as the [[Bishop of Nancy and Toul]], and later was the founder of the [[Association of the Holy Childhood]], which worked to support the Catholic Church in its work on the expanding frontiers of North America.
==Life==
===Early life===
Born in [[Paris]], he was the second son of Count Michel-[[Palamède de Forbin]]-Janson and of his wife, Cornélie-Henriette-Sophie-Louise-Hortense-Gabrielle, Princess of Galéan. He was a [[Knights Hospitaller|Knight of Malta]] from childhood. During the [[French Revolution]], his family took refuge in [[Bavaria]],<ref>{{cite journal | last=Royer | first=Fanchón | title=Charles de Forbin-Janson, Missionary Bishop | journal=The Americas | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=10 | issue=2 | year=1953 | issn=0003-1615 | doi=10.2307/978760 | jstor=978760 | pages=179–196| s2cid=143321060 }}</ref> which was his home until he returned to France in 1800, having been trained for a military career. Though he was to remain an ardent monarchist throughout his life, he accepted the appointment which [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] gave him as an Auditor of the [[Conseil d'Etat (France)|Council of State]] in 1805. His family and the aristocracy looked forward to a most brilliant career as a statesman for him, but at the same time he joined the Congregation of the Holy Virgin ({{langx|fr|Congrégation de la Sainte-Vierge}}), a religious association of the [[laity]] organized in Paris in 1801, which had grown out of the [[Jesuit]]-affiliated [[Sodality of Our Lady]] after the [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus]].
In the spring of 1808 Forbin-Janson surprised all by entering the [[Seminary of Saint-Sulpice]]. Because of the hostilities instigated by Napoleon against [[Pope Pius VII]] he had given up his career in government and decided to become a priest. There he met a group of young [[seminarian]]s at Saint-Sulpice who were caught up in the idea of missionary work, and the impetuous Forbin-Janson became imbued with this vision. He became close friends with [[Eugène de Mazenod]], who entertained similar dreams,<ref name=DCB>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=3387|work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online|title=Forbin-Janson, Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph de|first=Philliipe|last=Sylvain}}</ref> and who was later to found the [[missionary order]] of the [[Oblates of Mary Immaculate]].
Forbin-Janson was [[Holy orders|ordained]] a priest in [[Chambéry]], [[Savoie]], on 15 December 1811, by Irénée-Yves Desolle, [[Bishop of Chambéry]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bsolle.html|work=Catholic Hierarchy|title=Archbishop Irénée-Yves Desolle}}</ref> and was made Superior of the seminary of the diocese. Nevertheless, he still determined to become a missionary. Later, in 1814, while serving as the acting [[Vicar General]] of the diocese, he traveled to [[Rome]] where [[Pope Pius VII]] advised him to remain in France where missionary work was needed.<ref name=DCB /> He immediately heeded the advice, and, with his friend, the [[Abbé]] Jean-Baptiste Rauzan, re-established the Missionaries of France, later called the Society of the [[Fathers of Mercy]], based at [[Mont-Valérien]], in the Parisian suburb of [[Suresnes]].
===Missionary life===
The Fathers of Mercy established the practice of visiting the homes of a town in which they had established themselves in order to draw the people to services of preaching on the Catholic faith. This practice met with great success in all parts of France. The climax of one such mission was the raising of a [[Calvary (sculpture)|Calvary]] on Mont Valérien. Forbin-Janson had a great attachment to the huge cross, which was visible from Paris, and became a favorite place of pilgrimage for the people of the city. He paid for both its construction and its later maintenance out of his own considerable wealth.<ref name=DCB />
In 1817 Forbin-Janson was sent to Syria on a mission, returned to France in 1819, and again took up the work of a missionary in his homeland until 1823 when he was appointed [[Bishop of Nancy and Toul]] and [[Primate (bishop)|Primate]] of [[Lorraine (region)|Lorraine]], for which he was [[consecrated]] at the chapel of the Society on Mont-Valérien on 6 June 1824 by [[Gustave Maximilien Juste de Croÿ-Solre]], the [[Archbishop of Rouen]]. A co-consecrator was [[Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus]], for many years the [[Archdiocese of Boston|Bishop of Boston]], then the [[Bishop of Montauban]]. Also present at the consecration was the American [[Archdiocese of Cincinnati|Bishop of Cincinnati]], [[John Baptist Purcell]].<ref name = CE>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06133c.htm|encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia|title=Comte de Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph Forbin-Janson}}</ref>
As a steadfast monarchist, Forbin-Janson became associated with the policies of King [[Charles X of France]]. That stand and his authoritarian manner of ruling caused him to be unpopular with both the people and clergy of his diocese. In the course of the [[Revolution of July 1830]], when King Charles was overthrown, rioters attacked and ransacked both the bishop's palace and the local seminary. His beloved cross on Mont-Valérian was also destroyed during this upheaval.<ref name=DCB /> Seen as a problem by the new government of King [[Louis Philippe]] for his views and his refusal to sign the [[Declaration of the Clergy of France]] of 1682 which was rejected by the [[Holy See]], he was not allowed to return to his diocese. He succeeded, however, in getting his own choice of a [[coadjutor bishop]] by threatening to return to Nancy.<ref name = CE />
Once Forbin-Janson was freed of his duties as a bishop, he began to travel around the country, accepting invitations to preach from various bishops and religious houses. He became known as a generous benefactor of missionary activity. He aided [[Pauline Jaricot]] in the establishment of the [[Society for the Propagation of the Faith]], which had been founded to aid missionaries in the United States, as a result of which, his thoughts turned to North America. He was, in fact, receiving a steady stream of invitations from compatriots holding episcopal office there. He went to Rome, where [[Pope Gregory XVI]] supported his vision and gave him an official mandate for a missionary tour through the United States of America.<ref name = CE />
====America====
Forbin-Janson arrived in New York on 18 October 1839. Though he did not stay in that city long, while there, he realized that there was no place of worship specifically for French speakers. To answer this need, he commissioned the construction of the [[St. Vincent de Paul Church (Manhattan)|Church of St. Vincent de Paul]] there. He made periodic visits to the city to check on its progress. During the next two years there, he traveled around the country, giving missions to the people and [[retreat (spiritual)|retreats]] to the clergy. All the large cities of the country, from [[New York City]] to [[Dubuque, Iowa|Dubuque]]; from [[New Orleans]] to [[Quebec City]], were to become witnesses of his zeal. New Orleans was the first conspicuous field of his success, as he preached the traditional sermons for [[Lent]] in the cathedral there. As would become the pattern of his mission, the preaching ended with the founding of a [[temperance society]] as a collective social commitment. In a letter to a friend he later noted that their success "exceeded all expectations," despite his apprehensions.<ref name=DCB /> While on his way there, from his own personal funds he contributed one-third of the money with which the Fathers of Mercy bought [[Spring Hill College]] (later a [[Jesuit]] institution) near [[Mobile, Alabama]], thereby establishing their presence in the country. Forbin-Janson then attended the [[Provincial Councils of Baltimore#Fourth Provincial Council|Fourth Provincial Council of Baltimore]], held May 1840, where the Council Fathers granted him a right to vote.
Forbin-Janson then traveled to Quebec, where he was more at home due to his mother tongue being spoken there. He gave his first sermon on Sunday, 6 September 1840, in the cathedral. There followed a two-week retreat with 5,000–6,000 participants regularly attending the daily sermons, each about an hour and a half long. His stirring eloquence brought about a religious revival which in a traditionally Catholic society which was facing apathy and competition from French-speaking Swiss [[Huguenots]], who had begun to preach in the colony. As a victim of both the French Revolution and the July Revolution, which had had an influence on the [[Rebellions of 1837]] in [[Lower Canada]], the French bishop, just by his very presence, reinforced in people's minds an apprehension of the misfortunes such upheavals produced. Some of his biographers have judged that, as an intransigent reactionary, he would prepare the way for the [[ultramontane]] clericalism that [[Ignace Bourget]], the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal|Bishop of Montreal]] would use to full advantage in both the religious and the political spheres.<ref name=DCB /> Further, some events regarded as supernatural kept his memory alive for many years among the French-Canadian people.<ref name = CE />
The high point of Forbin-Janson's apostolate in Lower Canada was the raising of an immense cross on [[Mont Saint-Hilaire]] that was a counterpart to the one on Mont-Valérien which had been destroyed. Standing nearly {{convert|100|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} high and {{convert|30|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} wide, it was lit through openings, and people could climb rungs to the top. The cross was inaugurated and blessed with an elaborate ceremony on 6 October 1841.<ref name=DCB /> It served as a landmark and place of pilgrimage until it was destroyed by a storm in 1846, after which it was replaced by a chapel, which stood another 30 years on the site.
Forbin-Janson's last visit in the United States was to [[Philadelphia]], in November 1841, where he assisted at the consecration of [[Peter Richard Kenrick]] as coadjutor bishop of the [[Archdiocese of St. Louis|Diocese of St. Louis]].<ref name = CE />
===Final years===
Forbin-Janson left New York for France in December 1841, and the next year traveled to Rome to give an account of his mission in America. Pope Gregory named him a [[Roman Count]] and [[Assistant at the Pontifical Throne]] "because of his wonderful zeal for the propagation and defense of the Catholic Faith in the United States of America". The pope, however, declined to intervene on his behalf with the French government, and, despite a request, the bishop refused to resign.
In August 1842 Forbin-Janson went to [[London]] to intervene with [[Lord Stanley]], the [[Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]], on behalf of the Canadian rebels. On his return to France he wanted to start a project intended to interest Christian children in Europe in the fate of children in China. He presented the idea to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, but there was no interest in expanding its mission in that direction. Consequently, in 1843 he founded the [[Society of the Holy Childhood]], and spent that, and a part of the following year, in spreading this good work through France, Belgium and England.<ref name=DCB />
Forbin-Janson died unexpectedly at his family castle of Les Aygalades, now part of the City of [[Marseilles]]. He was buried in the [[Picpus Cemetery]] in Paris, in a section reserved for aristocracy who had been killed during the French Revolution.<ref name=DCB />
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Catholic|title=Comte de Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph Forbin-Janson}}
==Sources==
*De Rivière, ''Vie de Mgr de Forbin-Janson, Missionnaire, évêque de Nancy et de Toul, primat de Lorraine, fondateur de la Ste Enfance'' (Paris, 1892)
*Maes, ''Life of Bishop de Forbin-Janson in America'', Manuscripts
*''Shea'', ''Hist. of Cath. Ch. in U.S.'' (New York, 1904).
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbin-Janson, Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph}}
[[Category:1785 births]]
[[Category:1844 deaths]]
[[Category:Clergy from Paris]]
[[Category:House of Forbin|Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph Forbin]]
[[Category:Conseil d'État (France)]]
[[Category:Bishops of Nancy]]
[[Category:19th-century French Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:Papal counts]]
[[Category:Burials at Picpus Cemetery]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Canada]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States]]
[[Category:French expatriates in Canada]]
[[Category:French expatriates in the United States]]