Father Francis Anthony Matignon was one of the pioneer Catholic priests of New England, he was born in Paris in 1753; educated at the Sorbonne; ordained a priest and served in pre-Revolutionary France; fled to America in 1792 during the height of the Revolutionary anti-clericalism; and co-worker with his friend John Cheverus among Boston’s fledgling Catholic community before his death in 1818. …..Instead of a calm career lecturing students about theology, he was forced to flee his native country for America. There he would encounter not a long-established church with a detailed system of parish and tithes. Instead he would take the responsibility for serving Boston’s very small Catholic population and would oversee the building of the first Holy Cross Church in 1803. He would leave behind a record as one of the “founding fathers” of Catholicism in New England.”
From Generation to Generation: Stories in Catholic History From the Archives of the Archdiocese of Boston, by James M. O'Toole, Preface by Humberto Cardinal Medeiros pages 18-26 Used with permission. © Daughters of Saint Paul, Boston, MA
"Good Conduct, Capacities, and Fidelity"
Two hundred years after they were written, two valuable manuscripts relating to the career of Francis Anthony Matignon, one of the pioneer Catholic priests of New England, were acquired by the Archives of the Archdiocese. The route by which these two documents, dated in the 1780's found their way to Boston is a long one and parts of it remain more than a little mysterious. Because relatively few Matignon-related manuscripts have survived to the present day, however, these two items take on an added importance and occupy a special place among the Boston archdiocese's historical records.
Like the documents themselves (about which more later) the story of their "recovery" begins far from Boston. While attending the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists in Berkeley, California, the writer was approached by the archivist of the Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas. She informed me that, in the course of arranging the records and paper of that southern see, she had discovered two very old documents that seemed to pertain to Matignon. Because she herself was originally from New England, she was familiar with the broad outlines of Matignon's career: born in Paris in 1753; educated at the Sorbonne; ordained a priest and served in pre-Revolutionary France; fled to America in 1792 during the height of Revolutionary anti-clericalism; and co-worker with his friend John Cheverus among Boston's fledgling Catholic community before his death in 1818.
At the time we spoke, my archivist-colleague from Little Rock was not quite sure what the documents were. They were written entirely in French in a not entirely legible hand, and only a very fragmentary translation was provided. She had no idea how they had migrated to Arkansas. Matignon had had no connection with the Church in that part of the country. In fact the state was still uncharted Indian territory until well after the Boston priest's death. Because there was no connection with the Little Rock diocese, my colleague had mentioned the items to her bishop, Andrew J. McDonald, and it was agreed that they should be sent here to Boston. My interest in them was immediate, and I told her we would gratefully receive them.
When the package arrived a few weeks later, I received a very pleasant surprise. Amid the careful wrappings were two obviously old but very well preserved documents, written by hand on a stiff, parchment-like paper. One was a single piece of paper, about 10 inches by 13 inches, and the other was a larger sheet, folded once to make a set of four pages, only two of which bore writing. Despite whatever reservations I might originally have had in the back of my mind, all doubts as to their authenticity were resolved as soon as I looked at them.
A closer look told more of the story of these two treasures. The first document begins with its date, the 10th of April, 1785, and is a letter of appointment for Matignon to a parish in the town of Morteaux. At that time, all parochial appointments in the French Church were controlled by the King. The parish priest received not only his spiritual appointment in this way, but he also received the right to the tithes and other revenues associated with the parish. Thus, this letter of appointment, issued to Matignon by one of the King's ministers of state, had not only a pastoral significance, but a practical, legal importance should Matignon's right to control the parish funds ever be challenged. The text of the document also makes clear that the appointment came from the royal authority, in this case Louis XVI: the appointmentwas made by "the King, Louis, at Versailles, wishing to be kind." This point is further reinforced with the King's own signature at the end of the text.
The second document is longer and more interesting for Matignon's career. A priest as well educated as he was plainly destined for greater things than work in an obscure country parish. Accordingly, this document, dated August 5, 1787, appointed him a lecturer and professor of theology at the College of Navarre. This too was a royal appointment, issued in the name of "Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre." An older professor had retired and Matignon was chosen to replace him, based on "his good conduct, capacities, fidelity, and affection for our service." As with the parish appointment, this one is also a legal document, one that entitled Matignon to all the "wages, fruits, profits, and revenues" of the position which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. This manuscript is likewise signed by a minister of state and also bears a large, bold, and extremely legible royal signature: "Louis."
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of these two items for the career of Father Matignon, and the delight of the Archives at having them. As artifacts they are especially interesting: it is not every day one encounters two original autographs of an eighteenth-century French King, especially in a church archives in the "New World." As bits of historical evidence, the manuscripts are also welcome additions. They highlight and help bring to life aspects of the early career of New England's first full-time resident priests. Matignon's name is one many people know, if only for the high school in Cambridge which bears his name. These two additions to the Archives help fill in the details of the story behind the name.
Finally, these two documents offer the opportunity to reflect on the way things change in history. Here are two pieces of evidence from a world that was just about to collapse. From its pinnacle of power earlier in the eighteenth century, the French monarchy had by the mid-1780's fallen on very hard times indeed. Shortly after these two documents were issued, the Bastille was stormed and the French Revolution began. King Louis and his famous queen, Marie Antoinette, would see their authority slip away and, in January of 1793, both would face execution on the guillotine. The days of royal authority, exercised "by the grace of God," had come to a sudden and complete end.
For Matignon, too, change was swift and unexpected. Instead of a calm career lecturing students about theology, he was forced to flee his native country for America. There he would encounter not a long-established church with a detailed system of parish and tithes. Instead, he would take the responsibility for serving Boston's very small Catholic population and would oversee the building of the first Holy Cross Church in 1803. He would also leave behind a record as one of the "founding fathers" of Catholicism in New England.
"A Very Elegant Plan"
Christmas Eve is always a time of great expectations. Whether it comes in the form of the watchfulness of young people for the visit of Santa Claus or the anticipation of older people for family reunions, the day before the feast is a time for looking forward to better things to come. A record book in the Archives of the Archdiocese shows that Christmas Eve 1799 was a day of special expectations and hopes for the small Catholic congregation of Boston and for its two pastors, John Cheverus and Francis Anthony Matignon.
The day was so special because it was then that the two priests and a committee of laymen received the deed to a plot of land in the heart of downtown Boston on which they proposed to construct a new church for the city's Catholics. The receipt of this deed made a fine Christmas present, and represented both the culminiation of one long desired project and the beginning of another.
The desire for a new and adequate church building had occupied the attention of Father Cheverus and Matignon for some time. For a decade they had been saying Mass and offering other services in a former French Huguenot church on School Street, on the present site of the old City Hall. This building was inadequate in many ways, so in late March 1799 a meeting was called to consider what to do. Father Matignon, in the precise handwriting characteristic of the age, became the meeting's unofficial scribe, and recording in the volume now in the Archives the "Short Minutes of the chief Proceedings of the Society of Roman Catholics on the Town of Boston with respect to the erection of a Church for their use, and that of other Catholics of whatsoever place and country who may wish to frequent it".
That first meeting appointed a committee to oversee the raising of money by subscription to purchase a lot of land and construct an appropriate building. The committee consisted of some of the most prominent Catholic citizens, including the flambouyant Don Juan Stoughton, the Spanish consul at Boston, as well as Cheverus and Matignon, "our Rev. Pastors, to whom the right of sitting, voting, and presiding if they wish belongs from their office." After Sunday Mass a week later on April 7, the committee's plans for fundraising were approved by "an universal show of hands" and the subscription was opened. That day they collected $778 in cash and received pledges for almost $2100 more. Over the course of the summer they extended their efforts both in the New England area and beyond it, including solicitations in Canada and in the more populous Catholic area around Baltimore.
In October 1799, Father Matignon was able to report to the committee that a site had been chosen for purchase. He expressed some disappointment that so few locations had been offered and some dismay at the asking prices of many of them. The site selected was a small lot on Franklin Street and had a number of advantages. "It appeared," he wrote, "to unite Cleanliness, decent Neighbourhood together with a central and airy Situation, remote form noise, especially on Sundays." Best of all, the owner, one Elisha Sigourney, was willing to let the Catholics have it for as little as $2500, though it was clear he could get more for it because of its central location. The committee decided to proceed with the purchase after requesting "the advice of some of the most reputable lawyers in the town." Such advice, including that of Massachusetts Attorney General James Sullivan, was obtained and Sigourney signed the deed, made out in the name of Baltimore Bishop John Carroll and Father Matignon, on Christmas Eve. (Cheverus' name did not appear on the deed because, unlike Matignon, he had not yet become an American citizen.) The happy announcement was made to the congregation following High Mass on Christmas Day.
Although this significant hurdle had been overcome, there was a great deal still to be done before the new Church of the Holy Cross was completed and occupied. The services of the noted Boston architect Charles Bulfinch were secured, and by the middle of 1800 he had "supplied a very elegant plan for our new Church, such as united decency and ornament with economy. "More than once construction work had to be halted because the money ran out, despite a substantial contribution of $100 from "the *most respected and beloved President of the United States John Adams" and other local non-Catholics. It was not until the summer of 1803 that the church was finished and on Thursday, September 29 of that year, Michaelmas Day, it was dedicated and blessed by John Carroll, "Bishop of Baltimore and of the fifteen United States."
That Holy Cross Church became the keystone for the Catholic community of the city and, when the Boston diocese was created in 1808, it was raised to the rank of Cathedral, with John Cheverus presiding in it as bishop. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the city's Catholics had outgrown it and it was taken down to make way for the growing business interests of the area. But on that Christmas Eve 1799, it represented the hopes of Fathers Cheverus and Matignon and their committee, hopes for the development of their ancient faith in the New World.