USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 13
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Zealous men accompanied Bishop Portier to the new world, to share his labors and suffering. At his first mass in Mobile, in the small dilapidated Cathedral, his followers were seen to shed tears, so striking was the contrast with their own magnificent churches and stately worship.
We have before us a list of the ancient Ursulines among whom the tradition is, that sickness was almost unknown. Most of them died octogenarians, and some older still. The ecclesiastics were also a long-lived generation, and the same may be said even of the servants of this venerable establishment, and also of the neighboring city of Mobile.
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Father O'Reilly of St. Augustine willed some land and two small houses to Bishop Portier, to found a monastery of the Visitation. The Bishop earnestly desired to establish a religious house in his diocese, where there were few priests and a dearth of Catholic teachers. He decided to erect the first house for Religieuses near his episcopal city. At his request, the Bishop of Georgetown D. C. sent eight fervent nuns to make the foundation. Being the first in his diocese they enjoyed the kindness of the venerated prelate in an eminent degree. Scarcely a day passed that the devoted father and founder did not visit the little colony, founded 1832.
Alabama was not always a land of rest to them, but a battle ground of vigorous conflicts with grinding poverty and stern necessity. Confidence in Providence was strong within them, for difficulties, apparently in- surmountable, stared them in the face.
I am with you. In these few words lay the secret of the courage and success of the Founder of the Visitation in Mobile, and the holy souls who seconded his efforts. The Bishop gave the small house and the land on which the Sisters began their work. Five years later, many of their difficulties had passed away, when, in 1840, Alabama was swept by a terrific cyclone. In its course lay the monastery and schools; and in five minutes the work of many years was demolished. No life was lost, but many inmates were severely in- jured by falling bricks and timber.
At the twilight hour the storm took the roof from over their heads and left them without shelter. The Sisters called this their noche triste and sad it was to them. They passed it in the court-yard, exposed to the fury of wind, rain, and lightning.
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The tale of woe was conveyed to their faithful Father, and in the early morning he was on the ground. Viewing the havoc made by the angry elements, he said, cheerily : " Well my children, what God sows in sorrow He will not destroy to-morrow," and by words of cheer and encouragement he transfused into his discouraged daughters the faith and courage of his own brave heart. God raised up friends for them in their Southern wilderness, and many came with as- sistance. The debris was removed, order restored, and the nuns resumed their duties. They easily accommo- dated themselves to inconvenience, for they were little used to comfort.
They desired above all things to procure a small chapel-a dwelling, however humble for Him whose delight is to be with the children of men. Although God consoled them by sending them many fervent as- pirants, and their humble possessions increased in value, yet it was many a month before they could make a move towards this cherished project.
The Bishop's watchful eye saw the necessity, and their inability, and made the case a personal one.
In an article written by him and published in the New Orleans papers, he solicited aid to build a chapel for them. A prompt and generous response was the result, and a substantial chapel was soon erected, large enough to serve as a Parish Church. The good Bishop rejoiced in the realization of his hopes and predicted great things for his cherished community, but, being advanced in years, he did not expect to see the accom- plishment of his predictions. He forewarned his daughters that the cross would not be wanting. It would be as a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by 'night. But he little dreamed of the great cross to be
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laid on them : the cross of seeing their labor, sacrifices, and hopes again scattered to the wind.
The morning of May 8, 1854, fourteen years after the cyclone, the monastery and chapel were a heap of smouldering ruins. The evening recreation had been a peculiarly happy one. After night prayers, a novice ascending to her cell, paused to admire the beauty of the scene, and fervent thanksgiving arose in her heart for God's great goodness in bringing her to so holy a home. In a few hours, she was awakened by a fear- ful glare and the crackling sound of fire. She hastily aroused the Sisters. Already the building was in flames, and but for her prompt action a holocaust of lives would have been the result. Friends and neigh- bors worked heroically to save the chapel, but in vain. The Bishop was just finishing mass in the Cathedral when the news came. Still fasting he hastened to the scene of the disaster. On gazing on the blackened ruins, all that remained of the monastery, he was un- able to check his emotion, and his tears flowed freely. The fire was believed to be the work of the Know-noth- ings.
Meeting the Sister who had given the alarm, he placed his trembling hand on her bowed head and said :
"Courage, my child, all is not lost. You will live to see a more beautiful chapel than the one we have lost. I will not build it. But I shall see it from heaven. More than that, I will help you to build it, for I will ask our Lord to grant me that special favor."
The words were prophetic. The Sister, then in her teens, little dreamed of the great work for which God was fitting her.
The novice was Mary Campbell, daughter of Philip
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and Mary Campbell, afterwards so well known and so highly respected as Mother Mary Stanislaus. She was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1836. She had come from Boston to Mobile in 1852, in a sailing vessel, the voyage lasting three months.
It is said that the blessing of St. Benedict Joseph Labe, given to Jean Baptiste Vianney, while an in- fant, in his mother's arms, laid the foundation of the sanctity of the Cure d' Ars. In the years that fol- lowed, when God called the young Sister to fill the most responsible offices in the community, she kept the Bishop's words in her heart, and has long since seen the accomplishment of his prophecy. A few years after the fire, the venerable Bishop was called by his master to receive the reward of his life of devotion and self-sacrifice. His name is revered among his daughters as that of a Saint.
He died of dropsy, in the Providence Infirmary, May 14, 1859, R. I. P. His last days were the echo of his holy life. He edified all by the patience and piety with which he bore his long and severe suffer- ings.
Civil war soon threw its baneful shadow over the southland. The inmates of the quiet cloister had their share in the sufferings by which the South was made desolate. Not a hundred yards from the monastery, entrenchments were thrown up and the stillness broken by signals of war. They expected every day to be driven from their homes to give quarters to the soldiers. Food could scarcely be procured, and they had hardly clothing enough to protect them from the cold. Amid such gloomy surroundings the office was still sung with voices vibrant with love and fervor, and every spiritual exercise faithfully performed.
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The first dwelling of the foundresses was a rented house procured by the Bishop. It had only six rooms, with an out-house that served for kitchen and dining- room. Yet parents made application to place their daughters with the Sisters. For these pioneer Re- ligious brought with them a high reputation as teachers. Their first pupil was the daughter of a recently converted Protestant lady. Archbishop Whitfield appointed Mother Madeleine Augustine D'Arréger, a native of Fribourg, superior, 1832 and promised his best aid and support to the enterprise.
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CHAPTER XXX.
ARCHBISHOP BLANC of New Orleans called on the Society of Jesus for priests and obtained eight. A Father de la Croix, a Belgian, collected money in Bel- gium for St. Michael's Church in Louisiana. Like many other zealous priests he was brought out by Bishop Dubourg. He put St. Michael's in excellent order. A flag over the main entrance bears the legend : Pietas Belgarum erexit. He returned to Belgium and died there holily in 1869, aged 77.
In Mobile, as in almost everywhere else, the mis- sioners made frequent attempts to teach the children of their flocks. Many families, no doubt, sent their girls to the New Orleans Ursulines. "To my great regret," writes a correspondent, to whom we are much indebted, "the native place of the pupils is not given in the oldest records I have been able to find.
Bishop Portier bought twenty-five acres of land at Spring Hill from Mr. Robinson, Nov. 5, 1828, and later three hundred and eighty adjoining, from the city of Mobile.
The outlook for the monastery and Academy were very gloomy. Bishop Portier's novice was elected Superior. No trial seemed more heart-breaking than this, when au dedans et au dehors, nothing seemed probable but ruin and desolation. Yet every effort was made to continue the community exercises as faith- fully, as if the hallowed walls of Annecy formed their
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enclosure. Through all lived the desire to carry out the good Bishop's prophecy, to rear a sanctuary in honor of the Divine Heart, so loving, yet so little loved, an edifice in some manner fit as a thank-offer- ing for the signal favors conferred on the whole Order, and on this little tender plant, the Colony of Mobile, in particular.
During the civil war, Mobile being a sea-port, was blockaded in 1862, and the nuns were forced to keep a continual Lent. Supplies were cut off and they suf- fered from actual hunger. Besides the inmates of the monastery, there were a number of boarders who had to be provided for without any income from parents who were cut off from all communication with their children. Coffee was made from roasted potato peel- ings, and for tea they had a drink distilled from the leaves of the Yupon-bush in the forest. Their feet were bare, save when covered with shoes made of scraps of cloth. In August, not knowing when the war would cease, it was decided that two Sisters should go to New Orleans, then in the power of the enemy, to beg provisions and clothing. One of the two selected was the energetic Mother Mary Stanislaus. The grief of the Sisters who witnessed their departure was as great as if they were being borne to the grave.
Great indeed was the necessity which could force cloistered nuns to leave their monastery. It was their comfort to know they were to be accompanied by a Jesuit, Rev. P. Usannez, who was going in the interest of the College, suffering also from the blockade.
After hearing Mass, they set out through a pine forest to a point on the river where was anchored a little vessel having a neutral flag. They hardly dared to hope the Captain would have the hardihood to take
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them aboard. Constrained by their earnest appeal, he yielded a reluctant consent. Arrived at New Orleans, they sought shelter with friends until they could gain an audience of the officer in command of the city.
Meanwhile, the Captain of their little vessel whose movements were watched by sharp-sighted spies, had been arrested. When the Sisters heard this, they made application to the Federal General for the re- lease of their friend in need. After some annoying preliminaries, Father Usannez and the two Sisters were ushered into the presence of General Banks, who re- ceived them courteously and after a few pertinent questions entered into pleasant conversation with them. As soon as they explained the position of the Captain, General Banks sent immediately to have him released. Mother Stanislaus chanced to be from Boston, the General's native city, and he spoke of points and places well known to both. Reassured by his kindness, she stated the deplorable condition of the monastery and asked to be allowed to seek supplies in New Orleans, explaining in her earnest straightforward manner what she needed. " Well, now," said he, with an amused air, " how much money have you to get all these fine things?" "Fifty cents," was the rejoinder. He laughed heartily, and, without more ado, wrote an un- limited order for provisions and supplies of all kinds. Handing her this he accompanied them to the door, and bowed them out with every mark of respect. His order was filled without a murmur wherever pre- sented; and the Rev. Father and the Sisters, returned on a vessel laden with provisions and other necessaries. The name of General Banks is still held in grateful re- membrance at the Convent, and every Sister knows this incident by heart.
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The end of the war soon came, but not the end of their difficulties. The whole South was left in poverty and disruption, and the outlook for the Convent was gloomy. But everything soon prospered once more.
The Superior and two companions set out for France that they might see the Rules and Customs observed at the fountain head, and obtain the fullest share in the true Visitation spirit. They were received most cordially by their Sisters at Paris, Boulogne, Annecy, Orleans, Amiens, Rouen, Westbury, Versailles, and Paray, also Lyons, Nevers, Dijon. These journeyings to the chief houses of the Visitation were of infinite service to the Sisters of the Mobile Community.
The neighboring city of New Orleans continued to suffer at times from the Church-Wardens. Sister M. Gertrude Young who entered the Ursuline Con- vent, New Orleans, as a pupil, in January, 1818, told the Sisters there was at that time, besides the Ursuline Convent, only one select school, and that was con- ducted by an Episcopalian minister. Her uncle, while he was traveling with his son, gave her a choice, and, though a Protestant, she hesitated not to choose the Convent school in preference to the minister's Acad- emy. Previous to that time, she and her cousins had a tutor at home. This was the ordinary practice in Mobile too. The wealthy sent their children away or employed tutors or governesses, who usually came from a distance, to educate them. Miss Young be- came a fervent Catholic, and was the last nun professed in the old Convent, June 27, 1824.
This lady, Maria Catherine Young, was connected with Mobile, but we have been unable to learn how. In Religion, she was Sister Mary Gertrude. She closed her long and useful life, November 19, 1892,
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at the age of ninety years and ten months, seventy-two years of which she spent in the cloisters of St. Ursula, having been a pupil in the old Convent before she took the veil.
An ancient and venerable Ursuline nun of whom we could say much, did space permit, Sister Mary Angela Johnson, said that Archbishop Blanc had told her that, once he believed a man could not suffer all that he was made to suffer, and live. She also said that it was after an interview with the marguilliers or their agents, by whom injurious things were said to him, and of him, that he entered his room (in the Convent,) and leaning against his bed, buried his face in his hands and quivered with emotion. In this posi- tion he was found soon after, almost dead.
Archbishop Blanc, who became Bishop in 1835, and Archbishop in 1850, died suddenly July 20, 1860, " after seeing several persons." His Vicar General, Father Rousillon, who was hurriedly summoned, had scarcely time to administer Extreme Unction and the last absolution. No words of ours could describe all that this saintly prelate, who was most sensitive, suf- fered from the frequent rebellions and litigations of these unruly, misguided persons.
From the time of Bishop Dubourg the State of Mississippi had been merged into the diocese of New Orleans, but in 1837, a see was established at Natchez, which, with Little Rock, Mobile and Galveston, were the suffragan sees of New Orleans. The first Provin- cial Council of New Orleans was held in 1856.
Religion flourished in Louisiana under Archbishop Blanc; the sacraments were frequented; and pious practices became general. The Redemptorist Fathers were introduced for the needs of the Germans, espe-
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cially in the Fourth District, of New Orleans. The yellow fever slew its thousands, in the frequent epi- demics. . In 1858, while hastening to the relief of the sufferers from this awful disease, the Archbishop stepped into a hole in the wharf, and broke both bones of his leg. From this most painful accident he never fully recovered
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CHAPTER XXXI.
" You will succeed," wrote Mother Chappius, of Troyes, to the Mobile Superior, " but by way of the cross." True daughters of Holy Mary, the Sisters stood beneath the cross. Bishop Portier's novice, now an ancient professed, was the Mother of this intrepid band. They worked with earnestness and fervor to draw down God's choicest blessings. Trusting in God's goodness, with the kind Bishop's consent, they began to build a monastery such as the exigencies of the Order required.
The school was carried on in a manner to keep up the excellent standard already reached. In thanks- giving for the wonderful mercies which had preserved them amid wars, cyclones, conflagrations, they built to the Sacred Heart a sanctuary as beautiful as gener- ous loving hearts could make it-a monument whose every stone records a sacrifice, whose foundation was laid in humiliation and suffering.
To-day we have before us " the new chapel," grand, beautiful in the dazzling and artistic grace of carven stone. Fifty years ago, almost on the same spot, we see only the blackened ruins of the first Visitation Chapel in Mobile, and, near by, a small group of nuns, with tear-stained, disconsolate faces weeping over the smouldering ashes. The woe this scene depicts can hardly be appreciated by this generation. Only the pen of the Recording Angel can fully tell the tale
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of courage, heroic devotion, lasting from the founda- tion. The work is perfect-a marvel of beauty, a picture most fair to look upon. Yet to one who can look through the vista of years, and gaze on the won- derful background of this fair scene, it is plain that to perfect the picture the shadows of the past must be placed upon the canvas, that the beauties of the present may be fully appreciated.
It was fitting to make such an offering in thanksgiv- ing to that divine heart whose tenderest predilection is for the Daughters of the Visitation. This magnifi- cent edifice the crowning of a life of untiring devo- tion to the fulfillment of good Bishop Portier's proph- ecy, was begun in 1894.
The flood-gates of Virginia and the Carolinas were now hoisted, and mighty streams of immigration poured through them spreading over the whole terri- tory of Alabama. But the influx was not Catholic.
The Vine and the Olive Company, consisting mostly of friends of Napoleon, settled near Demopolis in 1817, but failed. Some went back to France, others scattered over Marengo County. They did not come in the spirit of religion to teach Christ Crucified. They were rather like the philosophers, so called, than the early settlers. In the towns that sprang up in many quarters education so called was spreading. But it was education without religion which the great O'Con- nell said, " is worse than ignorance." Fear God and keep his Commandments, for that is the whole man," says the Wise Man, " and if that is the whole man," says Bossuet, " the rest is nothing." The modern edu- cation, expressively styled " Godless," is not for the whole man. It does not train the heart with the head, and make an upright Christian as well as a bright
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scholar. " The more schools we open in these days," says a shrewd observer, " the more jail room we shall need."
Bishop Portier established schools for boys in Pensacola and St. Augustine. By 1838, the ecclesias- tical troubles of Pensacola, if not quite over, were con- siderably lessened. The church seemed about to rise, phoenix-like, from her ashes. For, at the date of the Revolutionary war, not a mission remained in these regions of the many founded in the days of old by Dominican Franciscans, Jesuits, secular clergy, and others who sowed the good seed throughout the land : " An enemy hath done this."
The Indians as a rule may be said to have vanished, but the blacks have long since taken their place, as special objects of zeal in the Catholic Church here. The frequent visitations of yellow fever to the South- ern cities were a great drawback to the establishment of schools and churches. The negroes were not or- dinarily subject to this fever.
This terrible disease retarded the labors of the great Bishop England in Charleston. He wrote to his friend, judge Gaston, in the midst of an epidemic in Charleston : "I have often through weariness fallen asleep on the ground in the midst of my office. Yet, thank God, I never enjoyed better health." It was said in Charleston1 that in these awful epidemics the Bishop was scarcely ever absent from the bedside of the stricken. Yet he never took the yellow fever.
Most of the Jesuits who came to Louisiana were destined to labor in Mobile, as professors at Spring Hill College, and in the usual apostolic functions.
1 One of Bishop England's disciples called South Carolina : " The land of many horrors and no hopes."
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A church and college were begun at Grand Coteau, the foundation stone being laid by Archbishop Blanc, July 31, 1837. The college was opened Jan. 6. It closed the first year with fifty-six pupils. The num- ber of students, and the amount derived from them, depended on the success of the sugar and cotton crops, as in all plantation districts. There was sometimes question of closing the college, and it is said that a holy nun predicted that the Jesuits would never abandon the college. Be that as it may, it still exists, and many pious prayers have ascended to heaven, that it may continue to exist for the welfare of souls.
The Fathers not engaged in teaching did mission- ary duty in many places under their Rector, Rev. Father Ladaviére. Much good was done that history takes little note of. The Indian Laws-" Las Leyes de Indias-" formulated by the crown of Spain, with the assistance of the Catholic Church-are a glorious monument to Spanish Rule in America. From first to last the Catholic Church was the friend of the Indians, and had these laws been more faithfully ob- served, history would have a fairer tale to tell of the Aborigines. Yet the Indians were among the whites during the whole Colonial period, always an object of zeal and interest to the Catholic clergy.
Father Constantine Maenhaut was pastor of Mobile from 1823 to 1827. Father Ganilh was there also. One of these holy men said : " As I ponder our exploits I feel that it was not of ourselves we performed them, but that it was the Providence of God guided us." We feared death," said another, " for we were men." But when the honor and glory of God and the salva- tion of souls were to be promoted, all fears vanished.
Two of the little band who came to America with
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Bishop Portier became Bishops, of Dubuque and Vin- cennes respectively, within a few years. Father Loras was appointed Vicar General, and later, President of Spring Hill College. He worked energetically among the poor, sick, and ignorant and was devoted to the Creoles and half breeds. His bark canoe was well known on the neighboring waters, and he once said : " It seems to me that I am saving a soul by every stroke of the paddle." Being Rector of the Cathedral, he had his share in the crosses of a parish priest, and he cried out in a moment of unusual suffering : "O had I known what is it to be a Cure, I would have buried myself in the shades of La Trappe." He modeled himself on the Cure d' Ars, whom he had known and loved.
At first his lines did not fall in pleasant places, as a Bishop. He was consecrated Bishop of Dubuque, Dec. 10, 1837, by Right Rev. Bishop Portier, assisted by Right Rev. Bishop Blanc, and died, Feb. 19, 1858. In Dubuque he was so persecuted that he seriously thought of asking to have his see transferred to Bur- lington. Ingratitude cowardice, obstinacy, weakness, insubordination, came into his experience. But he remembered many acts of kindness on part of some good people in Dubuque, and thinking, perhaps, of the few just for whom God would spare the sinful city, he remained to the end, " Angel of the Church " to which he was appointed. And success soon rewarded his devotedness.
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