Encouraged by his bishop and Jean-Gabriel-Honoré Greppo, who promoted a revival of religious archaeology in France, he devoted his leisure hours to the pursuit of that science.
He was appointed curé of Bâgé-le-Châtel and made an honorary canon in 1849.
B. de Rossi, to whom he became closely attached by reason of his work in the domain of Christian archaeology.
Though living in a retired locality he collected the matter for his Dictionnaire des antiquités chrétiennes, which appeared in 1865; the first work of its kind, giving evidence of the vast erudition, too vast perhaps, for the articles so varied in matter and character, are all from the pen of this learned country priest.
The publisher, Hachette, had intended the work to be part of the Dictionnaire des antiquitiés grecques and romaines of Charles Victor Daremberg and Edmond Saglio, but its importance made it an independent work.