Jacques-Marie-Adrien-Césaire Mathieu

Jacques-Marie-Adrien-Césaire Mathieu was born January 20, 1796, in Paris, where his father was a commission agent in the silk trade. Jacques-Marie's brother became a distinguished captain in the Franch Navy. Jacques-Marie studied law[1] and worked for a solicitor, managing property for the Montmorency family.

In 1819, Mathieu entered Saint-Sulpice Seminary[2] and was ordained a priest on June 1, 1822. In 1823, he was appointed secretary to Charles-Louis Salmon de Chatellier, bishop of Evreux, who named him vicar-general and superior of the diocesan seminary. He was made a titular canon of Paris in 1828 and promoter of the Legal Office of the archdiocese of Paris in 1829.[3]

He was elected bishop of Langres on December 17, 1832. On February 10, 1833, he was consecrated in the Carmelite Church on the Rue de Vaugirard in Paris, by Archbishop Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen assisted by Bishops Pierre-Marie Cottret and Marie-Joseph de Prilly.[4]

On September 30, 1834, he assumed the metropolitan see of Besançon, where he remained until his death. On September 30, 1850, Pope Pius IX elevated him to cardinal; in 1852 he became Cardinal-Priest of San Silvestro in Capite.

As a member of the senate he was a zealous defender of the rights of the Church, and, in spite of the interdict of the government, he published the papal encyclical of December 8, 1864.[1] He participated in the deliberations of Vatican Council I.

He died July 9, 1875, in Besançon.[1]

Mathieu is the author of "Devoirs Du Sacerdoce ou Traité de la Dignité, de la Perfection, des Obligations... du Prêtre Catholique",[5] and an "Office of the Mass and Vespers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Latin and in French..." ( 1874 )[6]

• Profile, catholic-hierarchy.org; accessed 4 May 2020.