Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché (1805-1883) was the third Archbishop of New Orleans (1870-1883). The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans is the second-oldest diocese in the present-day United States.
A native of Angers, France; ordained a priest at Beaupreau, France, in 1829; served in the Dioceses of Angers (1829-1837) and Bardstown [Louisville], Kentucky (1837-1842); transferred to Diocese of New Orleans in 1842 where he served as chaplain to the Ursuline nuns of New Orleans Ursuline Convent and founded the first diocesan newspaper, Le Propagateur Catholique, in 1842; consecrated titular Bishop of Abdera and Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans at New Orleans in 1870; succeeded to the Archbishopric of New Orleans twenty-four days later; died in New Orleans in 1883.[1]