Gustave Maxmilien Juste Cardinal Prince de Croy-Soire Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

GUSTAVE MAXIMILIEN JUSTE, CARDINAL PRINCE of CROY-SOIRE (1773-1844), born into a family of Holy Roman Imperial princes (until the Empire's dissolution in 1806), was Bishop of Strasbourg (1820-1823) and Archbishop of Rouen (1823-1844). He attended at the bedside of King Louis XVIII, and presided at the King's funeral (1824). He was made a bishop in 1820 and a cardinal in 1829. Cardinal Prince Croy-Soire was well acquainted with the letter's recipient, Bishop Charles-Auguste-Marie Joseph Forbin-Janson (1785-1844), having presided at the latter's elevation to bishop in 1823. Cardinal Prince Croy-Soire's claim to know American clerics was well founded; he was assisted at Forbin-Janson's consecration by Bishop Fenwick of Cincinnati and by Bishop Cheverus, former Bishop of Boston. Bishop Forbin-Janson was the Bishop of Nancy and Toul, an office which also made him Primate of Lorraine. He was sent to America by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839, participating in several events there, and presiding at a Baltimore conference of US Catholic prelates in 1840. The House of Croy-Soire, centered today in Belgium, is the only surviving lineage of the Croy family.