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Miss Emily Harper, of Baltimore, presented to Bishop Chanche the high altar of the beautiful Cathe- dral. Among the sacred vessels are some valuable heir-looms. Five exquisite chalices; " one in 1845, by Gregory XVI, to Bishop Chanche, of the Cathedral Church of Natchez, by him recently erected; " another by Pius IX .; a third by Henry F.Weld, brother of Cardinal Weld; a fourth to Bishop Vandevelt, by the clergy of the diocese of Chicago, and a fifth to the same, by Archbishop P. R. Kendrick. In 1867, a magnificent monstrance was presented by Very Rev. A. Boone, of Bruges, Belgium, to the Cathedral of Natchez.
The French in all parts of Louisiana were singularly barren of vocations to the priest-hood. The only one in the 18th century was Etienne Bernard Alexander Viel, born in New Orleans, 1736, and died in France, in his 86th year. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, he lived in the Attakapas many years and was much beloved. The chief part of his life was spent in teaching. Wherever he settled, he taught a
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school. He was considered the greatest living Latinist. Gayarre, who knew him well, said he was a fanatic in his love of Latin. He thought nothing fit to be pub- lished unless written in that tongue.
Father Viel translated "Telemachus " into Latin verse, and the book was splendidly brought out by several distinguished men who had been his pupils. Gayarre saw that Edition de Luxe and other works from the same elegant pen.
The first Protestant congregation in New Orleans was organized in 1805, by immigrants, mostly from the Northern and Western States. It was long a land- mark on Canal St., but, a few years ago, Christ church was demolished and an episcopal Cathedral built on St. Charles' Avenue.
Lafayette visited New Orleans, in 1824, and as guest of the city was lodged in the old Cabildo. The streets were then in a very bad condition, and the coach and four in which the honored guest went to visit his friends, was stalled at the corner of Magazine and Gravier Sts. Among the guests who called on the distinguished Frenchman, was the famous Pere An- toine. The aged men met with mutual regard. The day was April 13, 1825.
The Courier of that date gives an account of the interview between these renowned veterans. The General stated that he was proud to be of the same age as Father Antonio, who was as old as three genera- tions. " For there is not much difference between us," said Lafayette, " I am a man of 76."
Rev. Constantine Maenhaut and Rev. Father Ganilh returned to New Orleans from Mobile, 1827. Their diocese was formed out of the old diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas. Right Rev. Joseph
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Rosati, Adm. of New Orleans, sede vacante and Right Rev. Michael Portier, Bishop of Olena i. p. i. were invited to the Council of Baltimore. Ere the Council met, Bishop Portier, was made a suffragan of Balti- more.
Before leaving Baltimore the Bishops went in a body to pay their respects to the last surviving Signer, of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll, of Carrolton. The aged patriot, though in his 96th year, appeared to enjoy perfect health and to be full of life. The Bishops admired his retentive memory and his perfect mental faculties.
A few still living heard traditionally of the simple delightful ways of the celebrated nonagenarian, and his elegant manners. Not many years since, we heard them described by his accomplished grand-daughter, Miss Emily Harper, of Baltimore. How he came to the head of the stairs with his guests, like a prince, to the last and the grace and friendliness with which he bowed them out.
The aged prelate bore all his trials in perfect sub- mission to the divine will, and humbly besought the good God to guide His Church aright, and save it from the consequences of human passion and human frailty.
He had a great consolation in the restoration of the Society of Jesus, to which he had belonged in his youth, by Pope Pius VII., Aug. 7, 1814.
It was said that the Archbishop and his coadjutor would gladly have laid down their mitres and croziers, to assume once more the habit they had worn in youth, but they were beyond the time of active labor.
Indeed the years of the patriarch were now num- bered. All the summer of 1815, he showed signs of IO
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increasing weakness. Early in November, he became alarmingly ill. On Wednesday, 24, the whole Seminary attended the solemn administration of the Viaticum, and Extreme Unction. He expressed a wish to be laid on the floor to die, and asked to have the miserere read: Fortified by the consolations of the religion to whose service he had devoted his life, he expired almost without agony, about six in the morn- ing, Dec. 3, 1815. His holy remains repose in the grand structure which he founded for the glory of God, one hundred years ago, and of which the hierarchy recently celebrated the First Centeninal.
Archbishop Carroll's relative, often called "the Signer," survived him many years. Not long before his death, the venerable Charles Carroll wrote: " When I signed the Declaration of Independence, I had in view not only our independence of England, but the toleration of all sects professing the Christian religion, and communicating to them all equal rights. Happily, this wise and salutary measure has taken place, for eradicating religious feuds and persecution, and become a useful lesson to all governments. Re- flecting, as you must, on the disabilities, I may truly say, on the proscription of the Roman Catholics, in Maryland, you will not be surprised that I had much at heart this grand design founded on mutual charity, the basis of one holy Religion."
CHARLES CARROLL to G. W. P. Custis.
Feb. 20, 1829.
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CHAPTER XXI.
THE genial Charlevoix keenly felt the spiritual destitution of the Southern settlers and the Indians whom they were gradually to replace, and on his re- turn to France pleaded the cause of Louisiana so suc- cessfully that several Jesuits came to its aid. "The young French girls," says Father Le Petit, "are in danger of being brought up little better than the slaves."
February 22 eight Ursulines embarked on the Gironde at L'Orient; they were accompanied by three Jesuits. After five months navigation, the party ar- rived at the Mississippi, July 23, 1727.
At the Balize, the Commandant, M. Deverges, offered his house to the religious party.
July 31, Father Doutreleau and Brother Crucy, with Mother de Tranchepain and five Sisters, began the difficult ascent of the river in a pirogue, (dug-out), the others following in a chaloupe, (schooner). The first party reached New Orleans Aug. 6, the second, Aug. 7.
Father de Beaubois, owing to illness, was unable to meet the travelers. He came out of his house, leaning on a cane, to greet and welcome them. He led them to the poor church, where they thanked the good God with hearts full of gratitude and love, for bringing
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them safe, through the awful perils of their tedious voyage.1
They next went to his house where about eleven o'clock they sat down to a comfortable breakfast.
The delight of the good Father at the arrival of the nuns whom he had given up for lost, cannot be de- scribed. He conducted them to Bienville's country house, which the Governor lent them while their own was in course of erection. Aug. 9, Mass was offered here for the first time, and the Blessed Sacrament was reverently placed in the humble tabernacle they had devoutly prepared.
Some one had the happy inspiration to assemble the Ursuline Sisters as they stepped from their shaky vessels on landing, and sketch the picture:2 Father de Beaubois points out the Indians and the Negroes, their future charges. The strong features of the nov- ice, Madeleine Hachard, are shaded by the white veil of her Order. A negress with a solemn black baby in her arms, regards the group with awe and wonder- ment. A beautiful squaw, decked with beads and shells, half reclines with easy grace, on some logs, and a tall Congo Negro has suspended work, and betaken himself to the top of a wood pile, to gaze leisurely on the scene. A young girl, Claude Massy, carries a cat, which she tenderly carresses. Another girl, styled simply, Sister Anne, is searching eagerly for something in a basket over which she stoops. Both are dressed
1 For fuller particulars of the voyages of the Ursulines and their early labors, in the Colony, see : "The Old Convents of Orleans Is- land," Irish Monthly, Twelfth Vol., 1884; "Essays Educational and Historic," O'Shea, New York, 1899, both by the writer.
2 The sketch was probably made August 8, as the party arrived in two installments.
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as peasants and wear the peaked Normandy Cap.1 Several priests appears in the distance; Jesuits, in the ample cloak of their Society; Capuchins, heavily bearded. The group is shaded by immense trees which have long since disappeared.
Madeleine Hachard, in her graphic letters to her father, mentions "well built houses, with pillars of white-washed masonary, wainscotted and latticed, roofed with shingles, that is, boards cut to resemble slates and having all the beauty and appearance of slates." In the muddy streets were sung songs which compared New Orleans to Paris. "The city," she writes, "is very beautiful, but it has not all the beauty the songs ascribe to it; I find a difference between it and Paris. The songs may persuade those who have never seen the capital of France; but I have seen it, and they fail to persuade me."
Though sometimes reduced to live on cracked corn, great luxury appeared in their dress. The ladies wore robes of rich brocade and damask, although such goods were three times as dear as in France. They daubed their faces with red and white paint, as some of their descendants still do.
Bienville's house, the best in the colony, was built in the square bounded by Bienville, Chartres Custom House, and Decatur Streets. It was two stories high, and the flat roof could be used as a gallery or belvidere. Six doors gave air and entrance to the ground floor. There were many windows, but instead of glass the sashes were covered with fine thin linen. On all sides were found forest trees of prodigious size and height.
1 Claude Massy when embarking at L'Orient, carried her cat aboard, saying: " Perhaps there may be rats and mice in New Orleans. The cat will be useful."
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From the roof the nuns could look on a scene of weird and solemn splendor. The surrounding wilderness, with its spreading live oaks and gloomy cypress, cut up by glassy meandering bayous, the home of reptiles, wild beasts, vultures, and many wondrous specimens of the fauna of Louisiana.
The Religious began at once to teach the children, instruct the Negroes and Indians, and nurse the sick. The Governor wished them to open a Magdalen Asylum. They received the Orphans of the French- men recently massacred by the Natchez, and the Filles-a-la-Cassette,1 whom the King had sent out as wives for his soldiers. Women were few, and the poor Filles had hardly tasted the hospitality of the Ursuline ladies when they were claimed by planters and settlers in need of helpmates. These marriages made on so short an acquaintance, almost invariably turned out well.
Later, the Ursulines received large numbers of the exiled women and children of the wandering Acadians whose descendants are numerous to-day by the Tèche and other streams, especially in the Attakapas. The nuns received under their care not only the unfortunate of their own race, but the gentle Choctaw and the fierce Chickasaw, the coal black Congo, and the comely Yoloff, the intelligent Foulah, and the terrible Mandingo. So deeply were their hearts imbued with the spirit of their divine Master that they sought not so much the rich and the lofty, as the poor and the lowly. A happy change was soon wrought in all, and the hearts of the new teachers overflowed with joy. They opened their arms to unprotected innocence and had a warm place in their hearts for abandoned sinners.
1 Girls with a trunk or casket.
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It is one of the marks of a divine vocation that others readily receive its impulses. Many holy and accomplished ladies felt the inspiration to follow Father de Beaubois across the Sea, and not a few of these gentle apostles were soon called home, having in a short time fulfilled a long space.
Bienville's third term lasted eleven years, 1733-1744. His return to Louisiana was welcomed with delight, for he was deservedly a favorite with the Colonists. Had he been governor earlier there would have been no massacre. Of the Natchez Indians, Father Le Petit writing, July 12, 1730, from New Orleans to his Procurator, in France, Father d'Avengour, gives a description of the character and customs of the Natchez tribe, and an appalling account of the horrible massacre. It began about nine, a. m. Nov. 28, 1729.
Among the victims were two Jesuits, Fathers du Poisson and Souel, of whose zeal and labors the most edifying reports had gone forth. He says there is nothing to fear in New Orleans now, yet a panic has seized all there, especially the women.
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CHAPTER XXII.
IN 1730 was laid the corner-stone of the new Con- vent :
In the reign of Louis XV. King of France and of Navarre, The first stone of this monastery Was laid by the most high and most illustrious Lady Catherine Le Chibelier.
Spouse of Sir Stephen de Perier, Knight of the Order of St. Louis, Captain of the Frigates of His most Christian Majesty, Commandant of the Province and Colony of Louisiana.
In the year of Grace, MDCCXXX. The names of the Sisters followed. Three of them, like Moses, were doomed to die before entering the promised land of the new Convent.
May 28, 1730, sixty married ladies and twenty un- married, were formed into a Sodality, whose director was Father de Beaubois. They met on Sundays and feasts for instruction and devotional exercises, and did much to spread and nourish piety in all classes. Through the influence of Father de Beaubois, a sepa- rate building was erected for a Hospital, where the Sisters devoted themselves to the sick, soldiers and civilians.
In the absence of Father de Beaubois, an Ursuline always presided over the Sodality. Fathers Vitry and Le Petit aided Father de Beaubois, in all his functions,
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and sometimes officiated in Mobile. The Jesuits had little parochial duty in New Orleans, but they had control of the schools, sodalities, Convent, and Hos- pital, where the Sisters devoted themselves to all who needed their ministrations.
In these ways an immense amount of good was done for the Colony. Father de Beaubois had an in- valuable coadjutrix in the holy and accomplished Mother de Tranchepain. The community suffered an almost irreparable loss by her death, Nov. 11, 1733, which was bewailed as a public calamity. "It was through her energy, address, and tact, that the obstacles to the setting out from France of the nuns, and their establishment in New Orleans were finally overcome."
The chief helper of the Religions, Father de Beau- bois, was about this time assailed by many persecu- tions. "If we had the misfortune to lose him, by illness or otherwise," wrote Sister Hachard, " we should be deeply afflicted and greatly to be pitied." The injustice done her able and holy director was not the least cross of the dying mother.
October 21, 1733, the feast of St. Ursula, Mother de Tranchepain was stricken with a grievous illness. After eighteen days, she asked for Extreme Unction, which Father de Beaubois administered, with leave of Father Raphad, to her great consolation. In death as in life " she gave evidence of all the virtues that could be desired in a worthy and perfect Superior."
Mother de Tranchepain had the highest esteem and veneration for Father de Beaubois. In her first Con- vent home, at Rouen, she was supernaturally enlight- ened as to his plans for the regeneration of Louisiana through the wives and mothers of the Colony, and the
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prayers and labors of the nuns. Her management of these great enterprises brought out all her admirable qualities. She was deeply regretted by the colonists. Her own spiritual children could not easily reconcile themselves to her loss. She had made the yoke of the Lord sweet and His burden light to all who called her mother. But they felt "she was not lost, but gone before," and that she would help them from Zion.
All the Jesuits and Franciscans in the city attended her obsequies. When the Sisters removed to their present Convent in 1824, her remains were carried to its cemetery, where her tomb is still regarded as a sacred spot.
The celebrated Norman, Madeleine Hachard, who has left us so many delightful pictures of the early days of New Orleans, and so many touching examples of "the first fruits of the spirit," lived until 1760. She was found dead in her bed, August 9, to the grief of her religious Sisters. During her whole con- ventual life, 1727-1760, she had been accustomed to make a daily preparation for death. Another of the foundresses, Sister Angelica Boulanger, passed away, June 29, 1765, " and," says the Annalist, " both had the inexpressible grief to learn, with the whole com- munity, of the iniquitous proceedings against the Jesuit Fathers, the best friends of Louisiana and the Ursulines."
Sister Angelica remained till 1765, to tender a cor- dial welcome to the heart broken exiles of Acadia, and minister lovingly to their wants. "Charity," says the historian, Martin "burst open the door of the cloister, and the nuns ministered with profusion and cheerfulness to the wants of their sex."
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Meanwhile, the troubles of the Jesuits were in- creasing. The nuns prayed for the persecutors of the Society whose glory it is to have for enemies only God's enemies and those of his holy Church.
A few Acadians were enrolled in the Ursuline Sister- hood as Lay Sisters. One of these Sister Mary Joseph (Gertrude Braud), lived till 1818. Another, not having the qualities necessary for the religious life, was allowed to make her home at the Convent, where she died at the age of a hundred. She was portress, use to wear a cap and veil and was regarded as eccentric. If she felt no consolation in her visits to the Blessed Sacrament, she would say : " Good-bye, dear Lord, I see you have company. I will come back another time when you are free." She was called Sister Mary.
The first American-born nun was Mary Turpin, daughter of an Indian mother and a Canadian father. She died 1761, aged 32. Sister Martha Ladras, a native of Mobile, daughter of a surgeon, entered the Convent, 1776 and died ten years later, aged 28.
Father de Beaubois was on the Illinois mission 1720, and returned to France 1725, to seek more laborers for his master's vineyard. He was also com- missioned by Bienville to procure Sisters to teach the Louisiana girls. His projects were eminently success- ful. Many a good work was done for the souls and bodies of the colonists. The Jesuits aided the nuns in every possible way. We may see to-day the traces of the oranges and sugar-cane they planted in the Ursuline ground.
Their own plantation was the model garden of the Colony. It helped to create the love of flowers, plants, and fruit, characteristic of the Southern people, always
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common in the Southern metropolis, and an example which wealthy Creoles were not slow to follow.
The Ursuline Schools were crowded from the be- ginning. They have always maintained a high degree of culture and efficiency. The Boston, New York, or Philadelphia, of those days, was not so well provided with educational facilities as New Orleans under French and Spanish sway. The Mother Superior of the Ursulines, and her disciple, Madeleine Hachard, have, in their diaries, and letters, given proof of their fitness to teach, in the ease and elegance with which they wrote their native language, and the genuine elo- quence with which they describe the scenes of a day that is done, but which lives again in their graphic pages.
In the Atlantic States persecution for religion, that is, the Catholic, went on with little intermission. In 1683, Governor Thomas Dongan, an Irish Catholic, presided over the first legislative assembly in which religious freedom and trial by jury, were granted to the Colonists, in " a charter of liberties," in New York. Dongan was appointed Governor of New York, by James, Duke of York, Lord of that Colony. These were called the Duke's Laws. Dongan settled the boundary dispute with Connecticut, and made a treaty of peace with the Indians. Freedom of worship was often promised, but in most of the Colonies it was not practised as regards Catholics.
Mother Duchesne, a French Religious, visited the Ursuline Convent and received multiplied attentions from the Ursulines. " Mothers," said she, " could not do more for their children." Great was the delight of this ardent lover of the Sacred Heart on finding the devotion of which she had hoped to be the first
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Apostle in the United States, already fervently prac- tised by the Ursulines and their pupils. Not counting slaves or their children, their pupils then numbered more than three hundred. Mother Duchesne took a special interest in the little negresses, hailing them as the first fruits of the poor whom she wished to evangelize. In a letter to Madame Barat, she wrote: " Alas, we shall not have the glory of being the first to bring to the United States Devotion to the Sacred Heart. I have found here a beautiful picture of this divine Heart, painted at Rome, and I have also seen a book of prayers in honor of the same, which has been printed in New Orleans."
The painting to which Mother Duchesne alludes is now hanging over the Archbishop's throne in the sanctuary of the Convent Chapel of New Orleans, just beneath a marble slab bearing the inscription that there repose the hearts of Right Rev. Bishops Dubourg and De Neckere. It is interesting to know that this picture commemorates a vision vouchsafed to Mother Gensoul, who beheld the Sacred Heart of Jesus burning with love for mankind, adored by angels, the chief figure being the Eternal Father, under the appearance of a venerable old man, who seemed to say :
" Behold the Hope of Christians."
" Among other acts of kindness, the Ursulines gave the Sacred Heart Religions a gift of fifteen hundred dollars. Mother Duchesne had been a Visitation nun before the Revolution, and it is well known that since the days of Blessed Margaret Mary, of Paray, the Visitation nuns regarded it as their special mission to propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
EARLY in the 18th century, a feeling adverse to the Jesuits appeared in many parts of Europe. Several provincial parliaments had condemned them, and measures were taken to Suppress them. Following this evil example, the Superior Council of Louisiana, an insignificant body of officers, issued a decree de- claring the Society dangerous to royal authority, to public peace, and safety. The members were forbidden to use its name or its habit. An order was issued to sell its property, save books and clothing, at public auction. Their chapels the only places in many many instances, where Catholics could worship, were leveled to the ground.
The alleged crimes of the Jesuits were : I. They had neglected their missions: 2. brought their plantation to a high state of culture : and, 3. usurped the office of Vicar General. This last, if done, could be done by only one, but all had to suffer. The Jesuits were arrested; their chapel was demolished, even to expos- ing the bodies of their dead, and other profanations committed by men assuming to be Catholics.
Of course, the guilt of the accused was a foregone conclusion, but the Jesuits made a spirited defence which bore upon its face the certainty of truth. This was known in France as well as nearer home. . " There is hardly any province in France," wrote one, " where
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there is not some prominent person who has lived in Lousiana; there is not one who has not known the Jesuits there, and most of them have been able to scrutinize these Jesuits very closely. " And nothing but edification has resulted from this scrutiny. Sev- eral of the Jesuits assembled in New Orleans to await a vessel to bring them to France. As they had no longer house or home near New Orelans, they depended on the charity of strangers. All manner of kindness was shown them by the natives. The chief people of every district lavished kind attentions on the pious fugi- tives. Near New Orleans, they came to the estate of Monsieur Macarty, former lieutenant of the king in that city, who by his benevolent efforts recalled to their remembrance the goodness he had always shown them in Illinois, when he had been Major Command- ant-general. When in town he gave them many tokens of his friendship.
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