American Career
Cheverus, although at first appointed to an Indian mission in Maine, remained in Boston for nearly a year, and returned there after several months in the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy missions and visits to scattered Catholic families along the way. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 1798 he won great praise and respect for his courage and charity; and his preaching was listened to by many Protestants; indeed, the subscriptions for the Church of the Holy Cross which he founded in 1803 were largely from non-Catholics.
In 1808 the papal brief was issued making Boston a bishopric, suffragan to Baltimore, and Cheverus its bishop. He was ecclesiastically ordained bishop of Boston on November 1, 1810 and was consecrated on All Saints Day in 1810, at St. Peters, Baltimore, by Archbishop Carroll. On the death of the latter his assistant bishop, Neale, urged the appointment of Cheverus as assistant to himself; Cheverus refused and warmly asserted his desire to remain in Boston; but, much broken by the death of Matignon in 1818 and with impaired health, he soon found it necessary to leave the seat of his bishopric.
Cheverus supported the establishment in 1816 of the Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston, the first chartered savings bank in the U.S. He believed the bank would inspire virtuous thrifty behavior amongst his parishioners.
Some of the books in Cheverus' personal library now reside in the collection of the Boston Athenaeum.
Read more about this topic: Jean-Louis Lefebvre De Cheverus
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