USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 8
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1765.
Baudouim, S. J., 1765.
1753, George de Fauque-
ment, 1765.
1765. Dagobert, 1776.
1765, Dagobert,
1776.
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III
CHAPTER XV.
BIENVILLE devoted his labors to the territory con- tiguous to the Gulf Coast, and founded, on its present site, the city of Mobile. Several years earlier, Iberville began a settlement at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff. Here is the site of the "Vieux Fort." A well under a hickory-tree still marks the spot. It was called Fort Louis, from Louis XIV. and was safe above ordinary high water. Here often assembled many of the early explorers. Here Iberville and Bienville, Blondel, and Pennicant, exchanged their great thoughts, and the faithful Tonty watched out for his beloved La Salle, who lay dead in a Texan forest.
In 1709, a rise in the river occurred which over- flowed the town and fort. This destroyed the crops of the Indians, and, as, of course, it might happen again, it became necessary to move the site of the Colony. A new Fort was built, and the old fort aban- doned. A square facing the sea, was selected for the Church, and the present space occupied by the city was laid out for a fort, barracks, and building lots. In 1710, the movables and merchandise were brought down in canoes-cannon, amunition, by floats, and the old fort abandoned entirely. The people were fol- lowed by their Indian neighbors. This city was founded in a time of scarcity due to floods. Bienville billited his unmarried colonists among the savages.
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Blondel and thirty soldiers spent the period of scarcity among the Indians.
The French and Spanish peasants, soldiers, and sailors, were able to join in the hymns, prayers, and psalms, of the church, which they not only knew in correct Latin, but could sing, as the Stabat Mater, the Te Deum.1
The first Cure of Mobile after it was removed to its present site, was Mons. Le Maire, who was very friendly to Bienville. He acted as chaplain to the Fort. Previously he had been several years on the Louisiana mission.
Bienville knew the Indians thoroughly. He was conversant with all their ways, on land and water, whether in the birch canoes of the east or the rafts of other regions; by horse, mule, or burro; or in the God-given locomotion by which "the Creator had given them a pass over the whole system." It was said each could carry 200 pounds of produce to market 20 miles. He was at home with them on river and forest, and found their climate soft and caressing as a dream. The fur-trading days of the coureurs de bois were never forgotten, and even of peltries not a little came from Mexico, " the land of the patient back."
The daily life was picturesque as is its history to- day. The wild Indian and his civilized brother, the daring French and Spanish explorers, the adventurous backwoodsmen ; the terrible tragedy of war and revolu- tion, the richness of the Southern surroundings, the thrilling incidents as time rolled on-but, above all, the meek disciples of Christ ready to give their blood for
1 Suppose the Vexilla Regis or other hymn, were given out in one of our schools or churches to-day, how many of the pupils or congregation could respond, without words or notes ?
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the souls of strangers, even of enemies, formed the poetry entwined with daily life, in forest and on ocean.
The whole missionary Church of America sustained a loss by the death at San Carlos, in the odor of Sanctity, of the Saintly Prefect Apostolic, Junipero Serra, June 3, 1770.
Catholic missionaries had prosperous settlements long before Santa Fe, the second permanent city, was established. As the Israelites with no King but God, entered the promised land, so, many Indians, and colored brethren not a few, found their way to the missioners. The Indians renouncing the Great Spirit whom they knew, but did not worship, soon received upon their heads from the genuine ambassadors of Christ the saving waters of the great sacrament of regeneration. The colored disciples no doubt followed their example. The holy Fathers who used every means save roughness, which never led any one to God, to attract the poor children of the forest, were always ready to receive them with open arms. At a late Catholic Exhibit, some stones, the remains of the first Church erected in the New World, were rever- ently shown. And the Bronze " Bell of the Fig Tree," the first that sounded on American shores, presented to Isabella Church by King Ferdinand, gave out its sweetest notes on the same occasion. (World's Fair, St. Louis.)
The Colonial Empire of Spain was perhaps the greatest the world has ever seen. In seeking fresh lands, the chief ambition of the grand discoverers was to bring souls to Christ. Writing to Pope Alexander VI., Columbus says : " I hope it will be given to me, with the help of God, to propagate afar the Most Holy Name of Jesus and His Gospel." And he de- 8
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clares that "by his energy and efforts he has not sought for anything but the glory and development of the Christian religion." And his royal mistress, Queen Isabella, declares that " he realized for the divine glory a most signal honor."
The name and memory of Columbus are connected with prayer and praise. To this day is revered the Templete, in Havana, across the Plaza de Armas, erected in the shade of a Ceiba tree, beneath which, according to the legend, Columbus was wont to retire to pray.
" When thou art dead " says Thomas a Kempis," thou wilt not despair, for they will pray for thee who have read thy works. He who gives a cup of cold water to a thirsty person shall not lose his reward. Much more he who gives the living water of saving wisdom to his readers, shall receive his reward in heaven.
"The only way to convert the Indians, says Las Casas," is by long, assiduous, and faithful preaching, until the heathens shall gather some ideas of the true nature of the Deity, and of the doctrines they are to embrace. Above all the lives of Christians should be such as to exemplify the truth of these doctrines, that seeing this, the poor Indians may glorify the Father, and acknowledge Him who has such worshipers, for the true and only God.
Prescott sketches a beautiful picture of one of the early Indian missioners, which might justly be applied to many of these glorious men :
" Olmedo was a true disciple of Las Casas. His heart melted with the warm glow of Christian charity. He had come out to the New World as a missioner among the heathen and he shrank from
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no sacrifice for the poor, benighted flock, to whom he had consecrated his days. If he followed the banners of the warriors, it was to mitigate the ferocity of war, and to turn the triumphs of the cross to good account for the natives themselves, by the spiritual labors of conversion. He afforded the uncommon example
· of enthusiasm controlled by reason, a quickening zeal, tempered by the mild spirit of tolera- tion."1
It is said that the Spaniard entered on the conver- sion of the heathen with all the enthusiasm of a paladin of romance." "With sword and lance, he was ever ready to do battle for the Faith, and as he raised his old war cry of St. Jago, he fancied himself fighting under the banners of the military Apostle, and he felt his single arm a match for more than a hundred infidels. It was the expiring age of chivalry; and Spain, romantic Spain, was the land where its light lingered longest above the horizon.
1 Vol. I. pp. 403-4.
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CHAPTER XVI.
BILOXI is the oldest settlement on the Gulf, and the first capital of Louisiana. Mobile the second, has now ( 1908) a population of over 75,000. We shall now speak of the numbers who were baptized into the Church, with notices of the holy men who, though endowed with abilities that would have enabled them to make grand success in the world, renounced all that is transitory and embraced much that is painful, even to choosing for their daily companions the poorest, dullest, and lowliest, of their kind, and toiling, without comfort or reward, so far as earth can give, to win souls to God.
The names of many of these holy men may be seen in the ancient registers so carefully preserved in our Cathedrals. The Records of St. Augustine are kept in Havana. The Records of Natchitoches are rever- ently guarded in the Cathedral of that city. The New Orleans Registers have a special building to them- selves, and one or more care-takers, enthusiastically devoted to their work. Much of the history of the South may be gathered from these venerable papers.
The first clergy who officiated in Mobile kept full accounts of births, marriages, and funerals from 1704, as may be seen by the records of their careful custo- dians. It has been noticed that the history of the Church after the Ascension of Our Blessed Lord, be- gins with two Apostles whose backs were adorned
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with stripes. In like manner, many of our holy men, of whom the world was not worthy, were sufferers in the sacred cause of religion. In one instance appeared among the laborers in the vineyard, a man who showed himself a wolf in sheep's clothing: Dominque Mary Varlet, who had been six years on the Louisiana mis- sion. He signed himself " Apostolic missionary," and " Vicar General of Bishop St. Valier of Quebec." No details of his labors on the Mississippi are given, but his name appears in a few entries in the Mobile Register.
Returning to Europe, he was appointed, 1718, Bishop of Ascalon and co-adjutor to the Bishop of Babylon. As early as 1713, he was found to be a Jansenist in disguise. The Pope recalled him from the east. He withdrew to Utrecht where he became a prominent schismatic. There is not, so far as we know, any record of his conversion. He died near that city in 1742, at the age of sixty-four. It does not appear that he ever preached in Mobile during his short sojourn there, the gloomy doctrine of Jansenism which wrought such havoc to souls wherever it was introduced.
On July 20, 1703, the Bishop of Quebec formally erected Mobile into a Parish, with Rev. Henry Roulleaux de la Vente, as pastor, and Rev. Alexander Huve as Curate. The first entry in the ancient register is the Baptism of an Apalache girl by the good Father Davion, September 6. He discharged parochial func- tions pending the arrival of the appointed priests, who came on the Pelican, July 24, 1704. In the same vessel came two Soeurs Grises, escorting a number of mar- riageable girls to the Colony. After seeing them settled, the Grey Sisters returned to Paris.
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Besides assisting in the Parish Church. Father Huvé took charge of a band of fugitive Apalaches who, flying from English persecution, settled ten miles from Mobile, 1705. These faithful Indians erected a chapel and a priest's house. Father Huvé afterwards became chaplain to a large church built on Dauphin Island, 1709, which drew many settlers to this region. But he was nearly killed by the English who made a descent on the Island, November, 1710, and he lost all his effects. He afterwards undertook an Indian mission, but having little facility for acquiring Indian languages, he was unable to instruct his congregation in any Indian dialect. He struggled on for some years, however, doing all the good he could, till, having become almost blind, he returned to France, 1727.
Father Huvé spent much time in Mobile where he was greatly beloved. He endeared himself to his flock, French, Indians, Negroes. He was well ac- quainted with all, and was often at their poor houses. His last entry in the Mobile Register is the baptism of a Negro child, Jan. 13, 1721. The induction of the Curé de la Vente, in 1704, noted in the Mobile Records, is attested by Bienville, Boisbriant, and Nicholas de la Salle.
The good Davion who often assisted Huvé in Mobile, and is mentioned in 1704, 1712, 1713, and, in 1720, signs himself Vicar of Kebec.
About 1714 Bienville gave shelter and a home on the Mobile River to the Taensas, from one of the exterminating wars on the Mississippi. He punished the Natchez for robbing and murdering traders, pass- ing through their territory. In 1720, the French built Fort Rosalie among them.
From 1684 to 1715, the Great King of France,
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Louis XIV., and his wife, the de facto Queen, gave an example of purity and piety to the rest of the world, including especially their own subjects. This was owing to the celebrated Françoise de Maintenon whom the great King married, June 12, 1584, in the Royal Chapel, Versailles. Madame de Maintenon has been styled the " most influential woman in French history," and her influence was wholly for good. The King and his wife led useful, exemplary lives, without falling away, for 31 years. Louis XIV. died Sep. 1, 1715, aged 77 years; his widow died April 15, 1719, at the age of 84 years. One of her last words was: " I have a great devotion to Extreme Unction." She received it with the greatest fervor, answering all the prayers most piously to the end. " I have spared others," she said, " but I have never spared myself." Both died fortified by the sacraments of the Church.
The Bishop of St. Valier resigned the care of Louisiana to his Coadjutor, Father Mendon, a Capu- chine, who never came to America. From 1721, Regular Orders, mostly Capuchins, worked in Mobile. Bishop St. Valier died, Dec. 26, 1727, aged 64, at the Hospital in Quebec, which he had founded. His charity to the poor was immense and incessant. He expended two hundred thousand crowns on the poor of his diocese.
In 1754, the last priest was sent by the Seminary, Father Duverger.
Rev. Mr. Courrier who labored at his post for several years was justly regarded as a man of extraor- dinary sanctity. Broken by incessant labors and agonizing disease, he went to New Orleans to obtain medical treatment, and died, tenderly nursed by the capuchins of that city, 1735.
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There are several instances of the extreme kindness of the New Orleans Capuchins to sick and destitute priests, throughout its history.
The population of Mobile remained, to a great ex- tent, French, though the ruling class was partly Spanish. There may not have been extraordinary progress in church affairs in Mobile, but there seems to have been much peace. None of the disedifying ac- cusations or unseemly dissensions that disturbed the Church on the river border seem to have troubled the peace of the second capital of Louisiana. An in- toxicated sleeping sergeant by letting his lighted pipe fall in his tent, started a fire which consumed Biloxi, and so terminated its history as first capital of Louisiana.
During the incumbency of Rev. Mr. Amand, 1738, 1742, the Mobile Church which had never been dedi- cated, and was now completely rebuilt, was blessed, September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, Mons. Amand was especially empowered by the Vicar-General of Quebec, for this function. He or- dained that the anniversary should be celebrated every year. The Church was styled "Notre Dame de Mobile." Some time later, Governor Galvez styled it La Purissima, and it has since been known as The Church of the Immaculate Conception.
From the precious and venerable Registers of Mobile, it may be gathered that French, Spanish and English-speaking clergy exercised their sacred ministry in this little far away ciudad and presidio, long before the American Republic was born.
The Registers in the custody of the Church of Mobile are evidently originals. They were not issued annually, for each of the old volumes covers several
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years. The paper and ink are excellent, quill pens were used. The writing is bold and legible, mostly good, and often excellent. Judge Gayarre told the writer he regarded Antonio de Sedilla, whom he knew well, as a prodigy of ignorance. But this would not be inferred from his writing which is particularly good in the Mobile Register. And we noticed the same, in the larger Registers of New Orleans Cathedral, which we had the privilege of examining.
Jan. 21, 1726, Fleurian, of New Orleans, delivered to Brother Matthias, a Register for marriages, baptisms, and burials, containing ninety pages, num- bered and initialed. Prefixed is an extract from an ordinance bearing on the subject. Fleurian signs as a royal councillor and Attorney General to the Superior Council of the Province. (Martin's History of Louisiana, page 293.)
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CHAPTER XVII.
Nov. 14, 1722, Brother Matthias received the ab- juration of heresy of Madeleine Moyennant, from the vicinity of Geneva. She could not write, but five witnesses attest her mark. Dec. 23, Jean Baptiste de Roy made his abjuration of the same, before seven witnesses who signed the document, among the names were some well known in the Colony, as Carrion, Beau- champ, and Durand.
In February, 1736, Brother Raphael de Luxembourg seems to have made a visitation, as Vicar-General of the Bishop of Quebec. Father Matthias was em- powered by the same prelate to receive an abjuration, September 8, 1727. Edward Harksall from England, made a profession of Faith in the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, and publicily abandoned his former Protestant heresy, with the prescribed cere- monies, in presence of several distinguished personages, among them Rev. Mathurin Le Petit S.J. and Mons. Divon, Commandant of Fort Condé.
In some cases owing to a lack of Holy Oils, children baptized are not christened but are said to be endoyer, the ceremony being supplied as soon as possible.
In 1730, the Jesuit Father, Francis de Mornay, performed the functions of Cure at the Fort. He sometimes went on a mission to the Coosa River. But when the English, under Oglethorpe, were pushing into the Alabama basin, this excellent Father was re-
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called to succeed Father Doutreleau in charge of the hospital and Convent in New Orleans, when he died in 1761. He was born in 1701, and entered -the Society 1720.
Father Le Roi, one of the last Jesuits who labored in Mobile, had some trouble because he vigorously op- posed the sale of fire-water to the Indians. From 1754 until the expulsion of the Jesuits, by decree of the Superior Council, June 9, 1763, Father Jean Jacques Le Prédour, was on the Mobile mission. In 1726, the Alibamons and Choctaws had been definitely as- signed to the Jesuits, who occupied the Mississippi up to Natchez.
Several stations higher up were filled by Seminary Priests. Davion built his chapel on a rock-Roche-à- Davion.
March 4, 1763, Father John Francis signed as Parish Priest of Mobile, Capuchine; March 26. Father Ferdinand, of the Same Order, signed in the same capacity, April 18, 1769. His name appears for the last time. In Dec. 1777, Father Paul baptized many Negroes of the Krebs family. All were admitted to the blessings of the Church. " There were no classes or races, but one universal brotherhood."
The Parish Register of Mobile, hitherto kept in French, begins at this point in Spanish.
March 12, 1780, the Fort of Mobile surrendered to his Catholic Majesty, represented by the General of the Expedition, Don Bernardo de Galvez, Knight pen- sioner of the Order of King Charles III., and Don Jose Espeleta, Colonel of the Infantry Regiment of Navarre.
Father Salvador was Parish Priest 1780, and the services of the Catholic Church were restored to their
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former pomp and solemnity, Fathers Velez, Notaria, and Arazena, followed, till 1784.
The large residence built for the clergy in 1707, on the left of the Fort, overlooking all the surrounding country, continued to serve its purpose for many years. The Mobile priests were kind and hospitable to their brethren from all parts of the country. Very Rev. Mr. Bergier came to Mobile with tidings of the death of the Canadian Priest of Natchez. On his return he became very ill, and Father Marest, hearing of his condition, hastened from Kaskaskia, and remained a week till Father Bergier seemed out of danger, when he returned to his own mission. He was soon sum- moned back to celebrate a Requiem for his soul. Father Bergier suddenly relapsed, and expired Nov. 9, 1707.
Of the seven thousand Acadians seized as Popish recusants, many found their way to Louisiana. The last French priest to officiate in Mobile was the Aca- dian, Father Ferdinand. They settled in many parts of Louisiana where their descendants still flourish. Their precious Registers were placed in the Church of St. Gabriel, Iberville, where they are still reverently preserved.
Some few Creole families date back to Spanish times. They speak not Spanish, but French. In marriages, names, ages, quality, and residence of bridal couple are given. In baptismal entries, the date of birth, the names of the child's parents, of godfathers and godmothers.
We have frequently mentioned the zeal of the clergy for their flocks. And this extended beyond the clergy. A distinguished writer says: " The cavalier felt he had a high mission to accomplish as a soldier of the
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cross. Not to care for the soul of his enemy was to put his own in jeopardy."
The Quebec Bishops usually selected Jesuits for their Vicars-General. The most celebrated of these officials was Nicholas, Ignatius de Beaubois, founder of the Louisiana missions and the New Orleans Ursuline Convent. Born at Orleans, 1689, he entered the Society of Jesus of the age of 17. His labors in America will be frequently noticed. Some opposition on part of the Capuchins of New Orleans was the occasion of his returning to France, 1737. He labored in various houses in the Province of Paris. In 1762, he was occupied in the city of Vanues, Britany, direct- ing several pious works, among them, retreats and sodalities. He was then seventy-three years old. The Society of Jesus was suppressed in France, 1762. After that year all trace of Father de Beaubois is lost.
From 1739, Father Vitry, S.J. was Vicar-General, and in 1757, Father Baudouin who, had previously labored many years among the Choctaws. After the Suppression, Father Baudoin, then old and infirm, gratefully accepted shelter from the wealthy planter, Etienne de Boré, grandfather of Charles Gayarre, chief historian of Louisiana.
Having mentioned Madame de Maintenon as de facto, Queen of France, it may not be uninteresting to add that the wife of Etienne de Bore had been a pupil of Madame de Maintenon's famous Seminary of St. Cyr, near Paris, and propagated among the elite of New Orleans the Christian sentiments and the elegant manners she had then acquired.
After the removal of the capital to New Orleans the Mobile curé had often to undertake charge of a large territory. In 1728, the Apalaches and Dauphine
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Island, are mentioned as dependent on Mobile Parish. The Registers show many priests assisting in Mobile, among them the redoubtable Antonio de Sedilla.
The history of this section is connected with the chief nations of the globe. Over Mobile have waved five flags, and it was the centre of an extensive Indian civilization. Many of our names are Indian still. It would be difficult to find a region of greater historic interest. The Chateau Bienville, built on the bay which " the literary Carpenter, Pennicant," says " was surrounded by beautiful gardens, filled with fruit trees," a league from the fort, was a splendid mansion. Bienville's country house in New Orleans would be a handsome home to-day. He knew how to build elegant houses. The Mobile streets are still French to some extent-Royal, Conti, Dauphine, St. Louis. The name of the Fort was changed to Charlotte, for the Queen of George III. The Spaniards called it Carlota.
The chief city grants date from the Spanish period- 1781-1813; and several streets go back to Spanish . times, as St. Emanuel, St. Francis, St. Michael, Esclava. Fire has been very destructive in Mobile. We can see its former glories only through the haze of romance. The grey walls, the tiled roofs, the quiet courts of old New Orleans have nothing analogous in Mobile.
Among the villages that often fell to the spiritual care of Mobile was Pascagoula. Here, on a still summer night is heard the mysterious music of the Gulf Coast, whose sweet tones resemble the music of an Eolian harp, vibrating softly as if stirred by a gentle breeze. Science has investigated it, but without finding a satisfactory solution. The phenomenon has been ob- served also on the Southern Coast of France. Bien-
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ville heard it when he visited Pascagoula in 1699, and made a note of it in his records.
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