Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode

Xavier de Mérode (Frédéric François Xavier Ghislain; Brussels, 1820 – Rome, 1874) was a Belgian prelate, archbishop and statesman of the Papal states.

Xavier de Mérode was the son of Count Félix de Mérode-Westerloo, who held in turn the portfolios of foreign affairs, war, and finances under Leopold I of Belgium, and of Rosalie de Grammont. He was allied through the House of Mérode to the aristocracy of France. He lost his mother at the age of three and was raised at Villersexel, in Franche-Comté, by his aunt Philippine de Grammont, his father's second wife.

After attending the Jesuit High School of Namur for a time, he entered the Collège de Juilly presided over by de Salinis and then beginning in 1839 the Military Academy of Brussels. He graduated with the rank of second lieutenant, In 1844, after a short period serving at the armoury of Liège, he joined the staff of Maréchal Bugeaud in Algeria as foreign attaché and in his service won the cross of the Légion d'honneur.

In 1847, he abruptly abandoned his military career and went to study for the priesthood at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained in 1849. There he became friends with Count de Woelmont. He was assigned after his ordination as chaplain to the French garrison of Viterbo. In 1850, while his family was urging him to return to Belgium, Pope Pius IX, with a view to attach him permanently to his court, made him cameriere segreto, an office which entailed the direction of the Roman prisons. Historians have documented Mérode's efforts for the penitentiary system in Rome. The French envoy at Rome, de Rayneval, praised his work in an official report to his government;Gioacchino Pecci, Archbishop of Perugia, wanted de Mérode to undertake similar work in his jurisdiction.

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