Gaspard Mermillod

Gaspard Mermillod (22 September 1824 – 23 February 1892) was a Swiss Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Despite a lengthy investiture conflict with the Calvinist Canton of Geneva, he served as Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva from 1883 to 1891, having previously served as Titular Bishop of Hebron. He was made a cardinal in 1890.

He made major contributions to Catholic social teaching which helped lay the groundwork for Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum.

Priesthood In June 1847, Mermillod was ordained to the priesthood and was appointed curate in Geneva, where he established two periodicals: and . He was vicar of the Church of St-Germain in Geneva. In 1857, he became a parish priest and at the same time, Vicar-General of the Bishop of Lausanne for the canton of Geneva. The Church of Notre-Dame in Geneva was built by him from 1851 to 1859.

In 1873, Bishop Etienne Marilley of Lausanne and Geneva, renounced the title of the See of Geneva, in the Calvinist Canton of Geneva. With that action, the Holy See, Pius IX, appointed Mermillod as Vicar-Apostolic of Geneva, thus officially detaching the Canton of Geneva from the Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva and making it territory directly under the Papal Authority. As this was not recognized by either the State Council of Geneva or the Swiss Federal Council, Mermillod was forbidden to exercise any episcopal functions and was banished from Switzerland by a decree of 17 February 1873. He then attempted to perform his functions from exile in the nearby French town of Ferney. Normal relations resumed only when Leo XIII elevated Mermillod to Cardinal-Priest of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo on 23 June 1890.

Mermillod made major contributions to the Social Doctrine of the Church. Encouraged by his friend René de La Tour du Pin, he founded the Union of Fribourg,

Retirement and death In March 1891, Mermillod resigned the pastoral government of the Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva, and Joseph Déruaz was named his successor. Upon this resignation, he relocated to Rome, where he eventually died on 23 February 1892. His collected works were edited by Grospellier (Paris, 1893) in three volumes.