Xavier de Mérode

The military career

Il is the son of the count Felix de Mérode (1791 - 1857) and of Rosalie de Grammont (1793 - 1823), of a family of old Belgian and French nobility. By its alliances, he is the brother-in-law of Montalembert and the great nephew of Fayette. Educated into the college Jesuit of Namur then at the Oratoriens of Juilly, it integrates in 1839 the Military academy of Brussels. In 1844, eager to fight, it obtains to become attached foreign to the particular staff of the general Thomas-Robert Bugeaud in Algérie and is sufficiently pointed out into small Kabylie and in Aurès to obtain the Légion of honor. It becomes acquainted then with Louis Christophe Leon Juchault of Moricière.

With the service of the Pope

En 1847, it resigns abruptly, for some following a duel, to enter the orders and it is ordered priest in 1849. He becomes military chaplain of the French garrison of Viterbe. In 1850, Pie IX names it secret chamberlain and director of the pontifical prisons. In 1860, he persuades the pope to reorganize the pontifical army by calling upon Moricière. To reinforce Mérode vis-a-vis the Secretary of State, the Antonelli cardinal, the pope appoints it Minister for the Weapons of the the Holy See.

Après the defeat of Castelfidardo vis-a-vis the Piedmontese troops, Mérode continuous concluding the reorganization of the pontifical army but also returns to civil occupations, making build for example the campo pretoriano with its expenses, bore new streets or release the neighborhoods of Holy-Marie-of-Angels. Its work of town planning was admired by Haussmann. In October 1865, it is discharged from its wallet by Pie IX, yielding to the pressures coming from the interior and outside.

Redevenu simple chamberlain, it however quickly is promoted, named Archevêque of Mytilène ( in partibus ) on June 22nd, 1866. General chaplain, his role is to distribute pontifical alms and to confirm the children in danger of death. He devotes himself to the agricultural institute of the Vigna Pia intended for the professional training of the orphans, with the asylum of the Zoccolette for the poor girls entrusted to the sisters of Vincent Saint of Paul. At the time of the Vatican I, it shows initially hostile with the dogma pontifical Infaillibilité. In 1870, after the catch of Rome by the Piedmontese troops, it follows the pope in his retirement to the the Vatican. He dies, of an acute pneumonia, in the arms of the pope of which he had been a trusty servant.

Sources

EPNB , 1994, 1st part.

See too

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