Joseph Fesch

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Cardinal Joseph Fesch painting by Jérôme Maglioli (mid 19th century). Fesch's signature:
Signature Joseph Fesch.PNG
Cardinal Fesch's coat of arms
Joseph Cardinal Fesch, contemporary engraving, around 1830

Joseph Fesch (born January 3, 1763 in Ajaccio on Corsica, † May 13, 1839 in Rome ) was a French clergyman, half-uncle of Napoléon Bonapartes , Archbishop of Lyon and cardinal .

Life

Joseph Fesch's parents were Franz Faesch (1723–1775), captain of a Swiss regiment in the service of the Republic of Genoa, and Angela Maria Pietrasanta (1725–1790), whom he had married in 1757. Angela Maria was the widow of the Corsican Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino and brought her seven-year-old daughter Laetitia Ramolino into the marriage, who would later become the mother of Napoléon Bonaparte . This made Joseph Fesch a half-uncle of the future French emperor.

Fesch embarked on a spiritual career and was ordained priest in 1785 . Like the majority of Corsicans, he rejected the measures of the French Revolution and protested in July 1790 in particular against the introduction of the French civil constitution for the clergy in Corsica. In 1791, after the death of Luciano Buonaparte , he succeeded him both as archdeacon of Ajaccio and as patron of the Bonaparte family, but had to withdraw into private life after the dissolution of religious orders.

Fesch found himself in contrast to Pascal Paoli's pro-British politics and had to leave Corsica with his half-sister. In the south of France they joined Napoléon Bonaparte and came with him to Toulon in the autumn of 1793 . Since Fesch could not find a clerical position - it was the time of the Great Terror  - he took on various positions in the administration, including with Montesquiou's army in Savoy . In 1796, during the first Italian campaign of his nephew Bonaparte, he got a job as a war commissioner , but had to resign from this office soon as a result of many complaints against him that he had looted, namely stolen paintings.

When Napoleon came to power in November 1799, his prospects rose again. After the Concordat with Pope Pius VII. In 1801, Fesch returned to spiritual activities - Jacques-André Émery arranged his return to full communion with Rome -, became canon of the cathedral in Bastia and on August 4, 1802 due to the appointment of his nephew Emperor Napoléon and with confirmation from the Pope Archbishop of Lyon. The episcopal ordination took place on August 15, 1802 in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara , co-consecrators were Étienne Bernier , Bishop of Orléans, and Louis Sebastiani , Bishop of Ajaccio. On January 2, 1803, Fesch took possession of the Archdiocese of Lyon.

Pope Pius VII appointed him cardinal priest in the consistory of January 17, 1803 . Appointed French envoy to the papal court on April 4, 1803, he reached Rome on July 2 of the same year and received the cardinal's hat from the Pope on July 7 and the titular church of Santa Maria della Vittoria on July 11 . In 1804 he accompanied the Pope to the coronation of Napoleon I in Paris, assisted the ecclesiastical wedding of Napoleon and Joséphine on the evening before the coronation , became Grand Almosier of the Empire, Count and Senator and in 1806 was elected coadjutor and successor by the Prince-Primate Dalberg . In 1810 he presided over a council of the French clergy in Paris and spoke out so resolutely for the Pope and against his treatment by Napoleon that from then on he had to live in a kind of exile at Lyons. On January 31, 1809, he was nominated for the Archbishopric of Paris, and in February of the same year the cathedral chapter granted him the powers of a capitular vicar , but he refused because the Holy See would certainly not have agreed to the merging of two metropolitan seats in personal union , and he would have would not have received an investiture valid under canon law .

When the Austrians approached (1814) he fled to Rome with his sister Laetitia, the mother of the emperor, became peer of France after Napoleon I returned, but returned to Rome after the battle of Waterloo and lived here in complete seclusion for the arts and sciences. He firmly refused the French government's request to renounce his Archdiocese of Lyon , even if in fact he did not exercise his office; the official business was conducted by the vicars general , although Cardinal Fesch would have accepted a coadjutor . From 1819 he ensured that a Roman Catholic pastoral care was maintained on St. Helena , where his nephew had been banished.

In 1822 he opted for the titular church of San Lorenzo in Lucina . Cardinal Fesch took part in the conclave in 1823 , 1829 and 1830-1831 . In 1837 he became cardinal proto-priest as the longest serving cardinal priest .

He died of stomach cancer on May 13, 1839 and was first buried in Corneto next to his half-sister Laetitia, the mother of Napoléon Bonaparte. In 1851, both of her corpses were transferred to Ajaccio according to the wills and buried there in 1860 in the crypt of the chapel of the Palais Fesch . The Fesch monument was erected for him in front of the palace .

His world-famous collection of paintings, which is said to have numbered around 20,000 pictures, was gradually auctioned off after his death and the proceeds were used for family grants. More than a thousand of these paintings are in the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio.

literature

Web links

Commons : Joseph Fesch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Fesch, Joseph. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website , English); according to the entry for Joseph Fesch on catholic-hierarchy.org not until 1787
  2. ↑ a b c d Cf. Fesch, Joseph. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website , English)
  3. ↑ According to Miranda it was “ 17,626 works of art ”, although a source for this exact number is not given
predecessor Office successor
Claude-François-Marie primacy Archbishop of Lyon
1802–1839 		Louis-Jacques-Maurice de Bonald
Cesare Brancadoro Cardinal Protopriest
1837-1839 		Carlo Oppizzoni
personal data
SURNAME Fesch, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Ajaccio
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1839
Place of death Rome