USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 14
USA > Florida > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 14
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Father Bazin, a native of Lyons, came to Mobile as a missionary in 1830, and at the recommendation of the sixth Council of Baltimore, he was made Bishop of Vincennes and consecrated in that city by Bishop Portier, October 24, 1847. In a few months he was
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attacked by mortal illness, and expired April 23, 1848.
Bishop Loras did much to revive in the North West the missions interrupted since the time of Hennepin in the 17th century. Though the Indians forgot their religion they clamored for the blackrobe. It was easy to almost uproot the religious practices of a people never famous for high sanctity or unusual asceticism.
They do not appear to have found fault with their clergy. Tradition describes their priests as kind and generous, and most charitable to the poor. They were greatly devoted to the celebrated Père Dagobert, who at the period of the arrival of the Spaniards, re- ceived, with royal honors at the church portals, at the head of his brethren, the great man Count O'Reilly who represented the potent monarch of Spain. Père Dagobert solemnly welcomed him, and promised fidel- ity for his clergy and people, with utmost enthusiasm, having previously bestowed the benediction of the Church on the Spanish flag, whose flaming colors had just replaced the lilies of France.
At this time Père Dagobert must have been about seventy-five years of age 1 and had been over fifty years in the Colony. He was, therefore, a venerable figure to welcome the princely Irishman. As they lived con- tiguous, it is likely that the priest met the Governor almost every day. And O'Reilly would not tolerate anything wrong or even unseemly in the clergy.
The late Judge Gayarre, several of whose relatives were acquainted with Père Dagobert, spoke of him as full of charity, and greatly loved by the people, among
1 During some little fracas, Dagobert turned toward his assailants and said, says Gayarre, " I have been fifty years among you and have I ever injured any one of you ? "
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whom the traditions of him lingered almost into our own day.
For many a year the old Creoles and the Creole darkeys 1 were accustomed to visit, on All Soul's Day, the last resting place of their favorite, Père Dagobert, and beg eternal rest and perpetual light on his immor- tal soul !
A hurricane destroyed an enormous amount of prop- erty in Louisiana, in 1780, and eight years later, New Orleans was nearly consumed by a fire which broke 1 out on Good Friday. It has since been almost drowned by floods, and more than once decimated by Cholera and yellow fever. But, though not seated on a rock, the old city has weathered all storms and is richer and more prosperous to-day than at any period of her past history. The old priests have faithfully chron- icled the family events of many generations, and regis- tered with historic accuracy the various transfers of the Colony. Thus does Père Dagobert record the Transfer of Louisiana to Spain, August 10, 1769:
" The Spanish troops entered to take possession of this city and of all the province, the 10th day of August, 1769.
" On Nov. 30, 1803, the Feast of the Apostle, St. Andrew, Father Antonio Sedilla records the transfer by Spain to France :
" And on the 20th of December, same year, the same Father Antonio records the delivery of Louisiana to the United States.
All these transfers are entered in Spanish.
1 Creoles in Louisiana being descendants of French or Spaniards or both, a Creole darkey is one once owned by these families as distin- guished from colored servants owned by purely American families.
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In 1723, the intrepid Bienville established the seat of government in New Orleans, and defined with his good sword a certain plot of ground upon which was to be built a Catholic Church. This site has since been consecrated to the service of God. The little church of wood and adobe was swept away by the hurricane, 1780, and a fierce conflagration consumed its more ambitious successor, in 1788. The third edifice was erected in the last decade of the 18th cen- tury, and was the munificent gift of the princely Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas, who is said to have expended four millions on the city of his adoption. Besides St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans owes him the Charity Hospital, the picturesque buildings flank- ing the Cathedral, the Chapel of the Ursulines, the large, well proportioned presbytery of the Cathedral and many other gifts of public utility. This distin- guished philanthropist, the greatest New Orleans had seen, was born in Andalusia, in 1725, and died in New Orleans, 1798, may he rest in peace. He married, in 1787, Miss Louise de Laronde. Their only child, the richest heiress of the century in Louisiana, Michaela Leonarda Antonia, was born in 1795. In 1811, she was wedded to Monsieur Joseph Xavier de Pontalba, by Father Antonio de Sedilla.1 The taking possession of Louisiana by Spain under O'Reilly, and the mar- riage of this lady were the two grandest ceremonies that ever took place in early days. Count Marigny de Mandeville stood sponsor for the bride, and Count Macarthy was among the elite who signed the mar- riage record as witnesses. Although Madame de Pontalba made her home in Europe, she several times
1 In the chapel of the military treasurer, Don Vincente Nunez.
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visited the scenes of her early days and was well known in New Orleans as the Baroness de Pontalba.
This lady built, in 1849, on each side of the ancient Place d' Armes, now Jackson Square, on the site of the old Royal store-houses, the picturesque structures known as the Pontalba Buildings. The Cabildo es- tablished by O'Reilly, was rebuilt in 1795 and is one of the most imposing edifices left us by the Spaniards. The Civil Courts below the Cathedral were erected in 1810, on the site of the Capuchin Convent, by Baron de Pontalba. The Baroness laid out Jackson Square in the French style of gardening, having first cut down the ancient elms that gave it its peculiar charm.
The stately Cathedral of Almonaster was repaired and enlarged by Archbishop Blanc, in 1850. Its roof was flat, and in the Spanish régime the Sereno or night-watchman, paced to and fro during the night on the look-out for fires. The name Sereno,1 was ex- tended to all the police. Later they were called gen- darmes.
Almonaster was buried in a crypt of his Cathedral. A marble slab of imposing dimensions marks his sepul- chre. Upon it is inscribed his coat of arms, and the record of his life, titles, and services, in Spanish. His friends, several of the Counts of Marigny de Mande- ville, repose beside him. The marble slab over their remains shows their coat of arms, and gives their epitaphs in French. . One of these, Bernard de Ma- rigny, was a princely planter in Louisiana. He re- ceived and aided the exiled duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe. After many days De Marigny became poor, but the king of former years, though he knew of his
1 Sereno from calling out the hours of the night and the state of the weather.
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benefactor's sore distress, made no effort to assist him. He never retrieved his fallen fortunes. "He died poor, it is said, but without a stain on his proud es- cutcheon." Many still living in New Orleans knew and revered this illustrious nobleman.1
Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas is commemorated every Saturday evening in the Cathedral, which owes him so much, by services offered for the repose of his soul. And, as the sun sets on that day, the sweet but mournful sound of the tolling bell recalls the memory of this great and good man to his fellow-citizens.
The Marignys de Mandeville lived some time in Mobile. Two of them, Antoine and Philippe, were born in Mobile, as is recorded on their respective tombs in the New Orleans Cathedral.2
1 This family was highly considered in New Orleans. Kerlerec, third Governor of Louisiana, arrested Marigny de Mandeville, Bossu, and others as partisans of his intendant,1 and shipped them to France. His conduct was disapproved at court. For this and other causes, he was imprisoned in the Bastile, and died, it is said, of grief, soon after his release.
2 Etienne de Boré, another wealthy planter, who placed his home and his purse at the service of the fugitive prince, was rewarded, through his grandson, the late Charles Gayarre, who being in Paris during the reign of Louis Philippe was sought out by that monarch, received into his palace, and treated with every possible kindness and distinction, as Mr. Gayarre often gratefully acknowledged.
1 The Intendant in those days had really a good, deal of power. He was said to be the man in the saddle who managed all.
Governor Kerlerec did so much for the Indians whom he assembled in Congress in Mobile, that they voted him " Father of the Choctaws."
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CHAPTER XXXII.
MICHAEL PORTIER, the first Bishop of Mobile, was born at Montbrison, France, in 1795, and even amid the terrors of the French Revolution was trained to piety by his worthy Christian parents. Very soon he entered the theological Seminary at Lyons, a city to which on account of early asociations he was always much attached. Bishop Dubourg of Louisiana coming to France for subjects, young Portier was one of the first to respond to his call. He accompanied that pre- late to America, and landed at Annapolis, September 4, 1817, at the age of twenty-two. Having completed his studies under the Sulpitians at Baltimore, he was ordained priest at St. Louis, in 1818. During the next year, his first in New Orleans, he was attacked by yel- low fever while attending the sick, and having re- mained several days at death's door, slowly recovered. Soon after he was made Vicar General. A new Vicar- iate composed of Alabama and the Floridas was. erected, and for its government Very Rev. Michael Portier, V. G., was selected. He was most reluctant to assume this responsibility, but finally yielded, and was consecrated at St. Louis by Bishop Rosati, Nov. 5, 1826, being about thirty-one years old. His juris- diction included the two old Spanish Catholic cities of St. Augustine founded 1565, and Pensacola, 1696 each with its church and congregation. In Spanish times Florida had been a missionary field, where
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Dominican, Jesuit, and Franciscan Fathers had shed their blood in their heroic efforts to convert souls.
The celebrated Bishop England who at this period filled the neighboring see of Charleston, says he does not know a better man than Dr. Portier, and was de- sirous he might be appointed to the more important see of New Orleans, "where," he says, " he would do well." And he adds that, next to New York, perhaps, New Orleans is the most important diocese on this side of the Atlantic.1
The Indian missions had been destroyed by the Eng- lish and their Indian allies. Catholics of other races were slowly coming in, but the poor young bishop had everything to create or to restore. He was the only priest in his Vicariate. "I need two or three priests," he wrote, " but dare not ask for them, as I am afraid I cannot now support them. I have neither pectoral cross nor chapel, neither crozier, nor mitre," and to add to his difficulties, his little church at Mobile was destroyed by fire, in October, 1827.
Bishop Portier made a visitation of his Vicariate as a missionary, beginning at Mobile, and riding on horseback to Pensacola, Tallahassee, and St. Augustine. His letters show that the fatigues and privations of this journey were such that it seemed little short of a miracle that he survived them. As soon as he could secure one priest to attend to West Florida, he begged Bishop England to lend him another for St. Augustine. He went to Europe in 1829, and God having blessed his labors, he soon returned with two priests and four
1 The Carolinians, the Georgians, the Virginians, the New Englanders, with much foreign immigration poured into Mississippi and Alabama and laid the foundation of their present population, but this increase was mostly non-Catholic.
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ecclesiastics. During his absence the Holy See erected Mobile into an episcopal See, and Bishop Portier was transferred to it. The ancient French city where a parish had been canonically erected, July 20, 1703, thus became the residence of a Bishop.
The Bishop built a modest Church, 20 by 30, in which he was enthroned. A two-roomed frame palace was contiguous. He soon began to erect churches at Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, and other places. He was very successful in collecting congregations and with his small force of priests he met their more im- mediate wants. He secured some property at Spring Hill, near Mobile, where he opened a College which still exists. Bishop Portier succeeded so well in Mo- bile that Bishop England seems to continue to regret that he had not been appointed to the more important See of New Orleans, " where," says the Bishop of Charleston, " he was known and loved." He adds that Bishop Portier's College and Convent are supplied with pupils from New Orleans. It was not easy to get Bishops for these southern cities. Although to desire to be a Bishop may be to desire a good thing, still this was a good thing which the southern clergy seldom or never seem to have desired; a command was often necessary to force them to accept the episco- pal consecration, and several of the earlier prelates resigned the mitre. Bishop England writes of an ex- cellent priest about this time, "Jean-Jean1 is away hiding somewhere to escape the mitre."
1 Rev. Aug. Jean-Jean. Bishop England and several other ecclesiastics recommended Père Jean-Jean for the New Orleans mitre, and the bulls came for his appointment, but he returned them and left the city. Bishop Portier, with much difficulty, persuaded the Belgian priest, Leo de Neckers, to accept the bishopric of New Orleans, 1829.
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From his arrival in New Orleans, Father Portier was often present at the ceremonies of the Ursulines in their beautiful chapel. April 24, 1823, he preached at the reception of Miss Maria Catherine Young, tak- ing for his text: " He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it to life everlasting." This was the last taking of the white veil that occurred in the old Convent on Chartres St. This lady lived to be almost a centenarian, dying Nov. 19, 1890, retaining to the last the full use of all her mental faculties. She had a vivid recollection of Father Portier's open and benign countenance. Father Portier is mentioned as present at several other cere- monies, the last of which took place in November, 1819, on which occasion were also present Very Rev. Father Sibourg, V. G., Father Louis Moni 1 and others of the early priests. Father Portier was well ac- quainted with the Ursulines. Mother Seraphina Ray was born in the same year with himself, 1795, and, like him, not far from Lyons. She was baptized in a barn whither she was conveyed in a basket, so as not to excite the suspicions of the vile informers whose business it was to denounce the priests, and the Cath- olics who dared to give them hospitality. At eighteen, she became a Religieuse of St. Charles. She received the habit, 1813, from Cardinal Fesch, uncle of Napo- leon, whose mother, Madame Letitia, stood godmother for the novice, having arrayed her in royal fashion for the occasion. Several personages of the imperial court were present, and the Cardinal's Vicar General, Very Rev. Mr. Aribert, preached an eloquent sermon on the
1 Father Moni was one of the four Italian priests procured for his diocese by Bishop Dubourg in Rome ; the others being Fathers Bigischi, Biglii, and Rossi.
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beauty and advantages of the religious state. In 1815, she made her profession, and the following year, Bishop Dubourg invited her to leave Lyons, and join his Ursulines in New Orleans. Mother Seraphina worked incessantly in her holy community till her 85th year. All these excellent women were among the friends of Bishop Portier, and he loved in later years to recall their holy lives. It is hardly necessary to say that good Mother Seraphina had often to rehearse for her bright French pupils her experiences with Madame- Mère, and the court ladies who attended her brilliant reception. Nor did she fail as an antidote to repeat the words: "Vanity of vanities, all is but vanity."
Bishop Portier was of a mild and most amiable character, and would take much pains to serve any person to whom he could be of use. The case of the Frenchman accused of killing young Wyzer, in Eutaw, is not yet forgotten. William M. Murphy, styled " the Curran of the American bar," defended the Frenchman so eloquently that he obtained his acquittal. Bishop Portier sent him a liberal fee, as the Frenchman was unable to pay for his defence, but Murphy returned the money. Bishop Portier laid the facts before the Arch- bishop of Paris, who acquainted the French govern- ment with them. Monsieur Guizot, the premier, wrote to Mr. Murphy a letter conveying the thanks of King Louis Philippe for the humane and disinterested aid he had extended to a French subject in distress. In showing this letter to a friend, Mr. Murphy said: "This is the largest fee I ever received."
Rev. Napoleon Joseph Perché was for twenty-eight years chaplain to the Ursuline Convent. To defend religion with pen as well as voice he founded the journal, Le Propagatcur Catholique, and was among the ablest adversaries of the trustees.
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
IT has been said that if the people of these watery regions were wise, they would have an ark or two in readiness for an immediate escape. But the people still go on as they have done for centuries making history. The effects of all this in colonial days had something to do with the progress of religion, in a pre-eminently missionary country.
On Good Friday, March 21, 1788, in the terrible fire which began in the chapel of the military treasurer, Don Vincente Jose Nuñez, on Chartres St., New Or- leans was almost wiped out of existence : nine hundred buildings were totally destroyed. The Parish Church, a brick structure dating back to 1725, the adjoining Convent of the Capuchines, the home of Bishop Cyrillo, and the Spanish schools, were among the buildings reduced to ashes. The afflicted people ex- perienced in their measure the truth of the words:
" A thousand years scarce serve to form a State, An hour may lay it in the dust."
Some time before this conflagration, the Holy See, at the instance of the King of Spain, had erected the Bishopric of Havana, including Louisiana and the Floridas. Right Rev. Joseph James Trespalacio be- came first Bishop of the new diocese, April 11, 1787.
In the midst of the universal desolation, the greatest benefactor of the Colony appeared, in the person of
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a Spaniard who had lived in New Orleans during the Spanish Régime, and was known as a notary and a contractor-Don Andres Almonaster y Roxas,-to whom the spacious Cathedral of New Orleans owes its existence.
When, in 1779, a terrible hurricane swept away the humble hospital founded 1737, by a poor sailor, named Jean Louis, Almonaster had a new one built at a cost of one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars, (114,000.)
On March 21, he proposed to the Cabildo to re- build the Parish Church on a grander scale, the prop- osition was promptly accepted, and the building be- gan in 1789.
This generous Spaniard became the Saviour of the burned city. He rebuilt a large portion of it, thus giving work to thousands of the poorer classes, black and white. The new church was nearly completed in 1794, and narrowly escaped destruction in a second conflagration, Dec. 8, 1794. It was to become a Cathe- dral, with Don Louis Peñalvert y Cardenas for its first Bishop.
He was born at Havana, April 3, 1749. He received his early education in the famous College which the Jesuits maintained for nearly half a century at Havana. He was studying philosophy there when the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles III., closed all the Col- leges of the Society, in his dominions. The magnifi- cent church of the Jesuits in Havana was built almost entirely by his parents, who were much revered for their piety and charity: Don Diego Peñalver, and Doña Maria Luisa de Cardenas.
The name of this austere and exemplary prelate is sometimes spelt Peñalver, but probably not correctly.
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The historian, Gayarre, spells it Peñalvert, and Gayarre was a contemporary. Peñalvert means green rock. It is customary with Spaniards of rank to add the name of the mother to that of the father: Peñal- vert y Cardenas.
Baron de Carondelet, one the ablest of the Spanish Governors, was in office when the first Bishop was expected, and most anxious for his coming. " I regard his coming to these provinces as supremely necessary for the advancement of our holy religion," wrote the Baron. The Bishop reached New Orleans, July 17, 1775. He began at once to study the situation, which was anything but consoling. Some one has said " that a firm seat in the saddle should be acquired before any attempt is made to lead the procession of the Knights-errants of civilization," or, we may add, of religion. The Bishop though a saintly and learned man, seems to have had little of what, a later age called magnetism. He was not liked by all. Though he toiled incessantly for the good of the strange med- ley of nations, over which he was placed, he had little success as a ruler in Israel. In a letter to His Ex- cellency, the Governor, he gives a heart-rending de- scription of his situation, and the dreadful condition of his flock. The Catholic Church, the oldest organ- ization in America, which had announced Christ to every tribe from ocean to ocean, seemed little more than a failure here. The prelate denounced the sins of his flock in terms, strong and scathing. Much of the evil was due to the circulation of infidel liter- ature of the worst species. Impious works had all but produced that saturnalia of slaughter and licen- tiousness which had disgraced France and appalled the world. The French had dethroned God and deified
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Reason, and, in their ancient Colony, Religion had reached its lowest ebb. But there were many holy souls fired by the burning words of the pious prelate, and sustained by his brilliant example of every virtue; and hopeless as matters now seemed, they felt that virtue would not ultimately be left to be its own re- ward.
The brightest spot in New Orleans was the Ursuline Convent. The Bishop appreciated the labors of the daughters of St. Angela, and seemed to delight in tes- tifying his esteem and paternal affection for them. He presided over the triennial elections, July 12, 1797, and the Chronicles observe that this was the first time a Bishop was present on similar occasions. The first mention of the saintly Bishop was made in an Act of Profession, February, 1796, but his Lordship was not present, and the act was signed by Antonio de Sedilla, for the Bishop. He was then Pastor of the Cathedral, and he so signs his name.
Bishop Peñalvert traveled much over his vast diocese, preaching, preparing the people for Confirma- tion, and conferring that great sacrament. We seldom find him baptizing: " God sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel." The Ursuline Annalist says in a letter : "It may interest you to know "-she speaks of the vicious men, who formed no small part of the Bishop's flock-" that these worthy descendants of the so called Catholics who had banished the Col- ony's best friends, the Jesuits, rebelled against lawful authority, calumniated and stimatized one of its noblest representatives, O'Reilly, the good and mag- nanimous while they gave the glorious title of martyr to the arch-traitor, Lafrenière."
Father Sedilla, (Père Antoine) ceased to be in
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charge of the Cathedral, when the Bishop, on his with- drawal from Louisiana, to accept the mitre of Guate- mala, left the diocese in charge of Very Rev. Thomas Canon Hassett, and Very Rev. Patrick Walsh, both priests of learning and experience, who had long lab- ored in the Colony. This resulted in a schism, excited to some extent, by the marguilliers. Our Annalist says: "It is probable that the marguilliers or trustees of the Cathedral, had more to do with this schism, than poor, good-natured Père Antoine, whose courage to resist their unjust pretentions and anti-Catholic spirit was certainly not equal to that afterwards dis- played by Archbishop Blanc, and his faithful cham- pion, Rev. N. J. Perché.
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