Désiré - Joseph Mercier Désiré - Félicien - François - Joseph Mercier ( 21 November 1851 – 23 January 1926 ) was a Belgian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church . He served as Archbishop of Mechelen from 1906 until his death , and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1907 . Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of 1914 – 1918 . Biography . Early life and ordination . Désiré Mercier was born at the château du Castegier in Braine - l ' Alleud , as the fifth of the seven children of Paul - Léon Mercier and his wife Anne - Marie Barbe Croquet . Entering the minor seminary at Mechelen in 1861 , he then attended Mechelen ' s Grand Seminary from 1870 to 1874 . Mercier received the clerical tonsure in 1871 , temporarily served as dean of the seminary , and was finally ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Giacomo Cattani , the nuncio to Belgium , on 4 April 1874 . He obtained his licentiate in theology ( 1877 ) and doctorate in philosophy from the University of Louvain , and also took courses in psychology in Paris . Family members and Native American connection . Mercier was the nephew of the Reverend Adrien Croquet . In the 1860s Fr . Croquet ( renamed Crockett ) became a missionary to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in Oregon . In the 1870s , a cousin to Mercier , Joseph Mercier , joined his uncle Fr . Croquet in Oregon and married into a Native American tribe . Today , there are several thousand descendants of Joseph as members of the tribe . Three of Mercier ' s sisters became nuns , and his brother Léon became a physician . Thomist scholarship . In 1877 Mercier began teaching philosophy at Mechelen ' s minor seminary , of which he also became spiritual director . His comprehensive knowledge of Saint Thomas Aquinas earned him the newly erected chair of Thomism at Louvain ' s Catholic university in 1882 . It was in this post , which he retained until 1905 , that he forged a lifelong friendship with Dom Columba Marmion , an Irish Thomist . Raised to the rank of Monsignor on 6 May 1887 , Mercier founded the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Louvain University in 1899 , which was to be a beacon of Neo - Thomist philosophy . He founded in 1894 and edited until 1906 the " Revue Néoscholastique " , and wrote in a scholastic manner on metaphysics , philosophy , and psychology , several of his works being translated into English , German , Italian , Polish , and Spanish . His most important book was " Les origines de la psychologie contemporaine " ( 1897 ) . His reputation within his field obtaining the recognition of Pope Pius X , Mercier was appointed Archbishop of Mechelen and thus Primate of Belgium on 7 February 1906 . Bishop and Cardinal . He received his episcopal consecration on the following 25 March from Archbishop Antonio Vico , and took as his episcopal motto : " Apostolus Jesu Christi " . Mercier was created Cardinal Priest of " S . Pietro in Vincoli " by Pope St . Pius X in the consistory of 15 April 1907 . Pope Benedict XV sent his portrait and a letter of whole - hearted support to Mercier in 1916 , and at one point told him " You saved the Church ! " He was also one of the cardinal electors in the 1922 papal conclave , which selected Pope Pius XI . Final Years and Death . Mercier suffered from persistent dyspepsia , and in early January 1926 he underwent surgery for a lesion of the stomach . During surgery , the anaesthetized Cardinal even held a conversation with his surgeon . In his final days , Mercier was visited by the likes of King Albert and Queen Elizabeth , Lord Halifax , and family members . He entered a deep coma around 2 : 00 p . m . on 23 January and died an hour later , at age 74 . The Cardinal was buried at St . Rumbolds Cathedral . The Cardinal harbored great devotion to the Sacred Heart . Views . Inter - Belgian relations . Mercier is also known for opposing the use of Dutch ( language spoken by about 60 % of the Belgian population ) . This was sparked by a conversation with a Flemish priest , whom he told the following : " " Moi je suis d ' une race destinée à dominer et vous d ' une race destinée a servir " " ( English : " I belong to a race destined to dominate and you belong to a race destined to serve " ) . Church and Science . Also worthy of note , is Mercier ' s role in recognizing the mathematical talent of a young Belgian seminarian , Georges Lemaître , and urging Lemaitre to study Einstein ' s theories of relativity . Lemaître became an early expert in general relativity as it applied to cosmological questions , and he went on to propose an expanding model of the universe , based on both Einstein ' s and de Sitter ' s models . His Primeval Atom hypothesis was developed by abbé Georges Lemaître himself , University of Louvain , and Gamow , Alpher and Herman into the better known Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe . World War I German Occupation . In 1914 the German army attempted a surprise invasion of France by invading neutral Belgium . Mercier had to leave his see on August 20 of that same year to attend the funeral of the late Pius X , and participate in the following conclave . Returning from the conclave he passed through the Port of Le Havre where he visited wounded Belgian , French and British troops . Once back in his archdiocese he found the Mechelen Cathedral to have been partially destroyed . In the Imperial German atrocities that ensued in the Rape of Belgium , thirteen of the priests in Mercier ' s diocese were killed , not to mention many civilians , by Christmas 1914 . At that time , when Mercier ' s pastoral , " Patriotism and Endurance " , was distributed to be read aloud in all Belgian churches in January 1915 . The pastoral letter had to be distributed by hand as the Germans had cut off the postal service . His passionate , unflinching words were taken to heart by the suffering Belgians . He embodied Belgian resistance to the occupying power . He sometimes became a focus of Allied propaganda during the War . He was kept under house arrest by the Germans , and many priests who had read the letter aloud in public were arrested as well . Ecumenism . Following World War I , Mercier undertook an excursion to raise funds to rebuild and stock a new library of the University of Leuven . The original library had been burned by the Germans in the war . In his travels to raise funds , Mercier visited New York for his first and only time . From 1921 to 1926 he held regular conversations with Anglican theologians , notably Edward , Lord Irwin ( later the ecumenical pioneer Lord Halifax ) , foreshadowing the Church ' s future dialogue with the Anglicans . Anglicanism , Mercier believed , must be " united , not absorbed " .