Francis Xavier Leray

The Most Reverend Francis Xavier Leray
Archbishop of New Orleans
See	New Orleans
Installed	December 28, 1883
Term ended	September 23, 1887
Predecessor	Napoléon-Joseph Perché
Successor	Francis Janssens
Other posts	Bishop of Natchitoches (1877-1879) Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans (1879-1883)
Orders
Ordination	March 19, 1852
Consecration	April 22, 1877
Personal details
Born	(1825-04-20)April 20, 1825 Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, France
Died	September 23, 1887(1887-09-23) (aged 62) Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, France

Francis Xavier Leray (April 20, 1825 – September 23, 1887) was a French-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Natchitoches (1877–1879) and Archbishop of New Orleans (1883–1887).

Leray was born in Châteaugiron, Ille-et-Vilaine, to René and Marie (née Roncin) Leray.^[1] He studied at the College of Rennes from 1833 until 1844,^[2] when he accepted an appeal for missionaries in Louisiana, United States.^[3] 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.^[3] In 1852 he accompanied Bishop John J. Chanche to Natchez, Mississippi, where Leray was ordained to priesthood on March 19 of that year.^[4]

He then served as pastor of Jackson, and ministered to the sick and dying during the yellow fever epidemics of 1853 and 1855.^[5] Leray himself was stricken by the fever and only by great care did he recover.^[2] 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.^[3] During the Civil War (1861-1865), he served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army of Tennessee.^[1] On several occasions he was taken prisoner by Union forces but was released as soon as he was identified as a priest.^[3] After the war he returned to Vicksburg, which was visited by cholera in 1867.^[5] He was also vicar general of Diocese of Natchez from 1871 to 1877.^[1]

On November 27, 1876, Leray was appointed the second Bishop of Natchitoches, Louisiana, by Pope Pius IX.^[4] 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.^[4] Leray remained in Natchitoches for only two years, being named Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans and Titular Archbishop of Ionopolis on October 23, 1879.^[4] 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;^[6] he managed to reduce this debt by at least half.^[3]

Upon the death of Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché, Leray succeeded him as the third Archbishop of New Orleans on December 28, 1883.^[4] He received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Cardinal James Gibbons in January 1884.^[2] 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.^[2] An advocate of Catholic education, he increased the number of parochial schools from 36 to 70 during his administration as well.^[2] In the hope of strengthening his failing health, he returned in 1887 to his native Châteaugiron, where he died shortly afterwards at age 62.^[3]

References