Xavier de Mérode

[1] His father was Count Félix de Mérode-Westerloo, who later held in turn the portfolios of foreign affairs, war, and finances under King Leopold I in the new Kingdom of Belgium.

In 1844, de Mérode joined the staff of Maréchal Thomas Robert Bugeaud, governor-general of the French Colony of Algeria.

Sent by the Belgian Government to Algeria as a foreign attaché, de Mérode fought with the French forces in their campaign against the Kabyle people.

He immediately resigned his army commission and travelled to Rome to study for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in what was then the Papal States.

In recognition of de Mérode's service during the rebellion the pope named him as a cameriere segreto (secret waiter), a member of the papal household.

Archbishop Gioacchino Pecci wanted de Mérode to undertake similar reforms in the Archdiocese of Perugia.

The nucleus of this new corps was the Franco-Belgian Tirailleurs, a volunteer unit that had been organized by the French General Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière.

He paid for the construction of the Campo pretoriano outside the Porta Pia Gate of the Aurelian Walls, the fortifications of ancient Rome.

[2] De Mérode's temperament and progressive views gained him enemies among the more traditional quarters of Roman society.

Pius IX was forced to remove him from his papal offices after Napoleon III threatened to withdraw the French Army from Rome.

He supported the work of archeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi for the discovery of the ruins of the Church of Santa Petronilla in the Tor Marancino district in Rome.

He expressed his happiness at the growth of Catholicism in that nation and his appreciation of the role played there by his grand uncle, the Marquis of Lafayette.