Jacques-Marie-Adrien-Césaire Mathieu was born on 20 January 1796 in Paris, where his father was a commission agent in the silk trade.

In 1823, he was appointed secretary to Charles-Louis Salmon de Chatellier, bishop of Evreux, who named him vicar-general and superior of the diocesan seminary.

On 30 September 1850 Pope Pius IX elevated him to cardinal; in 1852 he became Cardinal-Priest of San Silvestro in Capite.

As a member of the senate he was a zealous defender of the rights of the Church, and, in spite of the interdict of the government, he published the papal encyclical of 8 December 1864.

[1] Mathieu is the author of "Devoirs Du Sacerdoce ou Traité de la Dignité, de la Perfection, des Obligations... du Prêtre Catholique",[5] and an "Office of the Mass and Vespers of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Latin and in French..." ( 1874 )[6]