Roman Catholic Cardinal. A native of Ajaccio, Corsica, Joseph Fesch was the son of a Swiss officer of the Genoese navy and half brother of Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoléon Bonaparte, born from his mother's previous marriage. Entering seminary in Ajaccio, he later moved to Aix in France, where he was ordained priest in 1785. Canon and archdeacon of the local cathedral chapter, he took an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and shortly thereafter abandoned the religious habit, joining his nephews Joseph, Napoléon and Lucien in Provence as a simple store guard. Becoming a commissary of war under the protection of his nephew Napoléon, who contributed towards his enrichment and allowed him to carry out a rather worldly life, he returned officially to the ecclesiastical state in April 1802, after a retreat in Saint-Sulpice. Nominated by Emperor Napoléon to the metropolitan see of Lyon on July 31, 1802, his name was accepted by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara four days later, and confirmed by an apostolic brief on the following September 27, 1802, having already received his episcopal consecration on August 15 in Paris from the named Cardinal Caprara. Created cardinal priest in the consistory of January 17, 1803 by Pope Pius VII, he received the title of title of Santa Maria della Vittoria the following July. Persuading the Pope to go to Paris in order to crown his nephew, he accompanied the Pontiff to France, blessing the marriage of Napoléon I and Joséphine before on the eve of their coronation in December 1804. Participating in the negotiation of the concordat with the Italian Republic and in the negotiations for a concordat with Germany, Fesch was named senator on February 5, 1804 and shortly afterwards, grand chaplain, exerting thus a great influence on episcopal nominations. Decorated with the grand aigle of the Légion d'honneur and with the collar of the Spanish order of Toisón de Oro, he held the title of Imperial Highness. Director of the missionary institutions of Saint-Lazare and Saint-Sulpice, he was recalled to France in April 1806, for not having succeeded in inserting the Holy See in the anti-European coalition, being named the following October 21, coadjutor of Ratisbon, a title which did not oblige him to reside in the bishopric but brought him a considerable income. Following the failure of some official discussions, the Emperor, judging his uncle too close to the Roman positions, deprived him of the income of Ratisbon and the grand chaplaincy. Nominated to the archdiocese of Paris, he received from the cathedral chapter the powers of capitular administrator, but declined knowing that the Holy See would never allow the accumulation of two sees and thus a canonical institution would not be granted. Blessing Napoléon's marriage with Marie-Louise of Austria and baptising their son as king of Rome, as president of the Council of 1811 he remained loyal to the Pope, then exiled at Fontainebleau, and thus fell in disfavour with his nephew. Leaving the archdiocese in January 1814, he took refuge in Rome. Prevented from returning to his see by King Louis XVIII, he went back to Rome in August 1815 after being definitively banished from France, like the fellow members of the imperial family. Refusing, in spite of the papal requests, to resign the archbishopric of Lyon, which he continued to govern through his vicars general, Pope Pius VII ultimately suspended his jurisdiction. Living in Rome, extremely withdrawn, in a palace surrounded by some 17,626 works of art, remaining far away from the political intrigues, he opted for the title of San Lorenzo in Lucina, retaining 'in commendam' the title of Santa Maria della Vittoria in December 1822. Supporting the reconstitution of religious communities, he attached a particular importance to the revival of clerical studies and to the development of seminaries. Passing away of stomach cancer, his body was transferred to Corneto and buried in the church of the monastery of the Passion of which he was a benefactor, next to his half-sister. In July 1851, according to their wills, their remains were transported to Ajaccio and in 1860, re-buried in the crypt of the chapel of his palace, constructed by his grand nephew, Napoleon III.