See New Orleans Successor Francis Janssens Installed December 28, 1883 | Term ended September 23, 1887 Consecration April 22, 1877 Name Francis Leray Ordination March 19, 1852 | |
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Born April 20, 1825
Chateaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, France ( 1825-04-20 ) Died September 23, 1887, Chateaugiron, France Other posts Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans | ||
Predecessor Napoleon-Joseph Perche | ||
Francis Xavier Leray (April 20, 1825 – September 23, 1887) was a French-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Bishop of Natchitoches (1877–1879) and Archbishop of New Orleans (1883–1887).
Biography
Leray was born in Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, to René and Marie (née Roncin) Leray. He studied at the College of Rennes from 1833 until 1844, when he accepted an appeal for missionaries in Louisiana, United States. Following his arrival, he taught for several months at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, before entering St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed his theological studies. In 1852 he accompanied Bishop John J. Chanche to Natchez, Mississippi, where Leray was ordained to priesthood on March 19 of that year.
He then served as pastor of Jackson, and ministered to the sick and dying during the yellow fever epidemics of 1853 and 1855. Leray himself was stricken by the fever and only by great care did he recover. In 1857 he was named pastor of Vicksburg, where he built the first Catholic church and in 1860 introduced the Sisters of Mercy to establish a school. During the Civil War (1861-1865), he served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army of Tennessee. On several occasions he was taken prisoner by Union forces but was released as soon as he was identified as a priest. After the war he returned to Vicksburg, which was visited by cholera in 1867. He was also vicar general of Diocese of Natchez from 1871 to 1877.
On November 27, 1876, Leray was appointed the second Bishop of Natchitoches, Louisiana, by Pope Pius IX. He received his episcopal consecration on April 22, 1877 from Cardinal Geoffroy Brossais Saint-Marc, with Bishop Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière and Charles Nouvel de La Flèche serving as co-consecrators, at Rennes Cathedral. Leray remained in Natchitoches for only two years, being named Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans and Titular Archbishop of Ionopolis on October 23, 1879. He was also charged with the administration of the financial affairs of the Archdiocese, which was left nearly $600,000 in debt from the war; he managed to reduce this debt by at least half.
Upon the death of Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché, Leray succeeded him as the third Archbishop of New Orleans on December 28, 1883. He received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Cardinal James Gibbons in January 1884. Leray attended the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in November 1884, and continued his efforts to relieve New Orleans of its immense debt for the rest of his tenure. An advocate of Catholic education, he increased the number of parochial schools from 36 to 70 during his administration as well. In the hope of strengthening his failing health, he returned in 1887 to his native Châteaugiron, where he died shortly afterwards at age 62.