Deciding to pursue a Church career instead, he received minor orders and was advanced to the subdiaconate in Paris the following year.

[1] With the rise to power by Napoleon after the upheavals of the French Terror, D'Astros' grandfather was appointed the Minister of Public Worship by him.

In this capacity, D'Astros received the papal bull issued by Pope Pius VII (10 June 1809) excommunicating Napoleon.

At the request of King Louis Napoleon, Pope Pius IX made him a cardinal on 30 September 1850.

[1] D'Astros, however, died a year later, on 29 September 1851, without having formally received the red hat of this office, or being assigned a titular church in Rome.