Gustave was the fifth of six sons born to Anne Emmanuel Ferdinand François, 8th Duke of Croy, and Auguste Friederike Wilhelmine zu Salm-Kyrburg.

He was consecrated a bishop on 9 January 1820 at the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris by Jean-Charles de Coucy, Archbishop of Reims.

[5] In 1824 he assisted King Louis XVIII of France on his death bed and presided over his funeral in the Abbey of Saint-Denis.

[4] Victor Godefroy was ordained in 1829 and assigned to Saint-Léger-du-Bourg-Denis where he supervised extensive restoration of the sixteenth-century parish church.

The archbishop admired the work so much that he had Godefroy oversee construction of a retirement home for priests in Bonsecours.

As the church was in disrepair, with the archbishop's support, Godefroy replaced it with the Basilique Notre-Dame de Bonsecours.