Joseph-Marie Martin

Joseph-Marie-Eugène Martin (August 9, 1891&mdash;January 21, 1976) was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Rouen from 1948 to 1971, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Biography
Joseph-Marie Martin was born in Orléans, and was given the additional name of Eugène at his baptism. He studied at the seminary in Bordeaux before serving in the French Army during World War I, during which he was seriously wounded. Martin was ordained to the priesthood on December 18, 1920, and then did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Bordeaux until 1940. He was vicar general of Bordeaux from 1937 to 1940 as well.

On February 9, 1940, Martin was appointed Bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay by Pope Pius XII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following April 2 from Archbishop Maurice Feltin, with Bishops Clément Mathieu and Louis Liagre serving as co-consecrators, in the Cathedral of Bordeaux. Martin was later promoted to Archbishop of Rouen on October 11, 1948, and attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.

Pope Paul VI created him Cardinal Priest of S. Teresa al Corso d'Italia in the consistory of February 22, 1965. Cardinal Martin believed that the reaction of conservative Catholics to the introduction of the vernacular to the Mass could possibly result in a schism. He resigned as Archbishop on May 29, 1968, after nineteen years of service, and later lost the right to participate in a papal conclave upon reaching the age of eighty on August 9, 1971.

The Cardinal died in Rouen, at age 84. He is buried in the metropolitan cathedral of Rouen.