Julien Florian Félix Desprez, who used the name Florian Desprez
(14 April 1807 – 21 January 1895) was a French prelate of the Catholic Church, who became a bishop in 1850, first in Réunion from 1850 to 1857 and then in Limoges until 1859. He spent 36 years of his ecclesiastical career as archbishop of Toulouse from 1859 to 1895. He was made a cardinal in 1879.
Early years
Florian Desprez was born in Ostricourt, Nord, on 14 April 1807. He was the eldest of three children born to a family of modest means; an uncle was a priest and an aunt a religious sister. He studied at the Royal College of Douai from 1819 to 1824. He then entered the Major Seminary of Cambrai. Immediately upon his ordination as a priest on 19 December 1829 he was appointed vicar of the cathedral church in Cambrai. His sister Justine, then seventeen years old, joined him there and lived with him throughout his career, including during his overseas assignment, until her death 63 years later on 23 November 1892.
In February 1834 he was assigned as a parish priest to Pont-à-Marcq, a poor village south of Lille, and then in September 1843 as pastor () in Templeuve and in February 1847 as pastor of the newly established parish of Notre Dame in Roubaix, an industrial center.
Bishop
After negotiations between the Holy See and the French government resulted in the erection of several dioceses in French island colonies in 1850, Desprez was appointed the first bishop of Saint-Denis-de-La Réunion on 3 October 1850. As a mission territory, his see was overseen directly from Rome. He received his episcopal consecration on 5 January 1851 in his parish church in Roubaix from René-François Régnier, archbishop of Cambrai. The Belgian bishops of Bruges and Ghent were the co-consecrators. He chose as his motto , "Our hope is steadfast" (2 Corinthians 1:7).
Desprez sailed from France on 6 March; he disembarked on 21 May and took possession of his see on 25 May 1851. He concentrated initially on diocesan organization, establishing the independence of the Church from government authorities who had heretofore been allowed to interfere, and creating societies for the men and women in each parish. After two and a half years, he interrupted his work in Réunion for a sixteen-month journey to Europe, leaving on 20 December 1853 and returning on 27 April 1855. He made his ad limina visit to Rome en route to Paris and was honored with the title Assistant at the Papal Throne on 28 March 1854. He spent most of his time in France, but also visited Rome to participate in the proclamation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1854 and the consecration of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls two days later. After returning to Réunion, on 9 October 1856 he laid the cornerstone of the diocesan cathedral, a festive event in which the new governor of the colony participated to demonstrate that he did not share his predecessor's antagonistic attitude toward the Church. During his tenure in Réunion he made five pastoral visits to the parishes of his diocese. He also founded an orphanage, two colleges staffed by the Jesuits, and a shelter sufficient to accommodate 400 patients with leprosy.
He was transferred to the see of Limoges on 19 March 1857.
Archbishop
After just eighteen months he was promoted to archbishop of Toulouse on 26 September 1859 and installed on 29 November.
In 1861, he completed the plans of his predecessor to use the Roman liturgical rite in Toulouse, part of the long process of suppressing Gallicanism and promoting uniformity of practice. He moved more slowly with respect to doctrine, aligning the diocesan catechism with Roman ideas, including papal infallibility, in 1868. He participated in the First Vatican Council and joined the majority in support of that dogma.