Ferdinand-François-Auguste Donnet
Ferdinand-François-Auguste Donnet was a French cardinal and Archbishop of Bordeaux.Life
His ecclesiastical province corresponded broadly with the Roman Aquitania Secunda but also included the French Antilles. Donnet argued forcefully for the canonisation of Christopher Columbus. Earlier he had been titular bishop of Rhosus appointed to the diocese of Nancy and Toul. A major figure in Napoleon III's Liberal Empire period he was renowned for his energy, e.g. in publishing and in the restoration of churches in his diocese of Bordeaux. Donnet was named cardinal by pope Pius IX in 1852 and participated in the conclave of 1878. Eleven volumes of his pastoral instructions, sermons and writings were posthumously published.
