Gaspard Mermillod

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Gaspard Mermillod as Bishop (ca.1865)
Cardinal coat of arms (from 1880)

Gaspard Mermillod (born September 22, 1824 in Carouge , † February 23, 1892 in Rome ) was Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva and Cardinal of the Roman Church .

Life

Gaspard Mermillod was the son of Jacques Mermillod (baker and innkeeper) and Pernette geb. Mégard. He studied in Chambéry and Freiburg . After his ordination in 1847, he was first vicar in Geneva, later parish rector of the largest Roman Catholic church in Geneva, Notre-Dame .

On September 25, 1864 Gaspard Mermillod was by Pope Pius IX. appointed titular bishop of Hebron and received on September 25, 1864 in the Sistine Chapel by Pope Pius IX. and the bishops Giuseppe Berardi and Francesco Marinelli were ordained bishop as auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Lausanne-Geneva with jurisdiction for the canton of Geneva . This was the first time since the Reformation that a bishop resided in Geneva, and in the tense climate of the Kulturkampf it was seen as the first step towards the establishment of a diocese of Geneva. According to the Federal Constitution , however, the establishment of new dioceses required the approval of the state. When Mermillod was appointed Vicar Apostolic on January 16, 1873 , the radical government of the Canton of Geneva saw it as a violation of the constitutional provision and Mermillod was expelled from Switzerland on February 17, 1873. Mermillod settled in Fernex , from where he headed the Geneva Roman Catholic Church. Due to an intervention by Joseph Déruaz with Federal Councilor Louis Ruchonnet , he was able to return in 1883.

Gaspard Mermillod became diocesan bishop of Lausanne-Geneva in 1883. Pope Leo XIII. took him on June 23, 1890 as a cardinal priest with the titular church Santi Nereo ed Achilleo in the college of cardinals . On the occasion of this first award of the cardinal dignity to a bishop of Freiburg, the local brewery Blancpain brought a festival beer called Cardinal ( French for cardinal ) on the market. This product was so successful that Paul-Alcide Blancpain decided to name his brewery Cardinal in the future .

Mermillod had a strong rhetorical talent. He also had a good grasp of social and societal issues. From 1884 to 1889 he led the study group Union catholique d'études sociales et économiques (Catholic Union for Social and Economic Studies), which was involved in the preparation of the social encyclical Rerum Novarum .

See also

literature

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Christophore Cosandey Bishop of Lausanne-Geneva
1883-1891
Joseph Déruaz