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
Knight of Malta from childhood. During the
French Revolution, his family took refuge in
Bavaria, 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
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 (), 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
seminarians 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, and who was later to found the
missionary order of the
Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Forbin-Janson was
ordained a priest in
Chambéry,
Savoie, on 15 December 1811, by Irénée-Yves Desolle,
Bishop of Chambéry. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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
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
retreats to the clergy. All the large cities of the country, from
New York City to
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. 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
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
Bishop of Montreal would use to full advantage in both the religious and the political spheres. Further, some events regarded as supernatural kept his memory alive for many years among the French-Canadian people. 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 high and 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. 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
Diocese of St. Louis.
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. Forbin-Janson died unexpectedly at his family castle of Les Aygalades, now part of the city of
Marseille. He was buried in the
Picpus Cemetery in Paris, in a section reserved for aristocracy who had been killed during the French Revolution. ==References==