[188] Several years previous M. Badin, after having received the vows of a few pious persons, and having had donated to him a hundred acres of land, had a monastery built for the same purpose; but as it was a frame building, it was, through the carelessness of the workmen, burnt before being completed.
[189] We here submit an extract from an English letter written the 15th of March, 1820, by Father Fenwick to the author of this notice: “I hope that this will find you in good health and on the point of returning to America. It will be a great pleasure for me to see you again and to hear from your lips the particulars of your trip. If possible, bring me home some pictures. With gratitude would I receive some for the altars of the Blessed Virgin and S. Joseph, as also any other church furniture or books, such as the lives of the saints of the Order of S. Dominic by Father Touron, the history of the miracles of the holy fathers, or any other works on those subjects. If you saw my relative, M. J. F., I flatter myself sufficiently to hope that you remembered me to him, and that you laid before him the needs of my mission. We have built three churches, and only for one of these three do we possess sufficient ornaments and other articles necessary for divine service.”
[190] We have to-day in the United States five bishops of French origin: Bishop Maréchal, born at Ingré, in the Diocese of Orleans, third archbishop of Baltimore; Bishop Cheverus, of Paris, first bishop of Boston; Bishop Flaget, born in Auvergne, bishop of Kentucky, and Bishop David, of the Diocese of Nantes, his coadjutor; and, finally, Bishop Dubourg, bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, who resides in St. Louis on the Mississippi, in the State of Missouri. The see of Philadelphia became vacant by the death of Bishop Egan, and that of New York is occupied by Bishop Connelly, an Irishman of the Order of S. Dominic. The number of American bishops is continually increasing. New Orleans and the Floridas are too far from St. Louis; the Dioceses of Baltimore and Bardstown are too extensive; and, moreover, the number of Catholics is daily increasing, in consequence of the immigrations from Europe and from conversions.
[191] By his writings you can judge the man; and we can give you no better idea of the mildness, humility, and modesty of the Bishop of Bardstown than by inserting here extracts from several letters which he wrote from Baltimore to his vicar-general in Kentucky. His zeal, his disinterestedness, and his self-abnegation are equalled only by his confidence in divine Providence: “God be my witness that I do not desire riches; and I would a thousand times rather die than be attacked by this craving. The less we possess, the less worried will we be with regard to it; but there are some things necessary, and it is upon you that I depend to procure them for me. I must rely upon the friendship which you have for me to ask you, my dear M. Badin, henceforth to provide for my wants. After all, you desired it; for if it had not been for you, I would never have been made bishop. We will have eight or nine trunks filled with books and other articles. The distance is great and transportation very high; the trip and the transportation will cost more than 4,000 francs, and we have not a cent. We can only wait until Providence comes to our rescue. To lessen my expenses I will leave the servant who offers me his services in Baltimore; and I would even leave my books there, did I not consider them essential to our establishment. In order not to increase your expenses I will only bring with me M. David, and we will both be but too happy to share your mode of life, however humble it may be. If the bishopric had only presented difficulties of this nature, I would not have hesitated so long before accepting it. Providence calls me to it despite myself, and it was useless for me to travel over land and sea in order to evade this charge. All my trouble was lost. God seems to exact it of me that I bow my head to this weighty yoke, even though it should crush me. Alas! should I stop sufficiently long to consider my weakness and my troubles, I would fall into despair, and hardly would I dare take one step in the vast career that is opening before me. To reassure myself it is necessary that I frequently recall to mind that I did not install myself in this important post, and that all my earthly superiors in a manner forced me to accept it.”
From Baltimore, where he had more than one hundred miles by land and three hundred miles by water over which to travel to arrive at Bardstown, he writes thus: “Remember that for the use of seven or eight we have but one horse, which I destine for M. David, as he is the least active among us. For myself and the other gentlemen, we will go on foot with the greatest pleasure, if there is the least difficulty in travelling otherwise. This pilgrimage will please me exceedingly, and I do not think it derogatory to my dignity. I leave it all to your judgment, and I would be very glad to have sufficient money to join you at Louisville; the remainder of the journey will be entirely at your expense. That the will of God be done, I would a thousand times prefer going on foot rather than to cause the slightest murmur; and you did very well to recall the subscription which had been started for my benefit, as it would only have tended to alienate people from me. It was, however, but right that people anxious to have a bishop among them should furnish him means to reach them. There is nothing I would not do for the sanctification of my flock. My time, my work, my life even, is consecrated to it; and, finally, it will only remain for me to say that I am ‘an unprofitable servant, having done only that which I ought to do.’”
Divine Providence, whose intervention he had merited by his zeal and his resignation, supplied, as if by miracle, in some invisible way, the needs of the prelate, who on the 11th of June, 1811, arrived at St. Etienne, the residence of M. Badin, with two priests and four scholastics. There he found the faithful on their knees singing holy canticles, the women nearly all robed in white, and some of them still fasting, although it was then four o’clock in the afternoon, as they hoped to assist at his Mass and receive Holy Communion from his hands that very day. An altar had been erected under some shrubbery to afford a shade where the bishop might rest himself. After the Asperges he was conducted in procession to the chapel, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin being sung meanwhile; and then followed the ceremonies and prayers prescribed in the Pontifical for such an occasion. M. Badin lived in a little frame house, and, in consequence of the expenses incurred to rebuild the burned monastery of which we have already spoken, he with difficulty was able to build two miserable little huts, sixteen feet square, for his illustrious friend and the ecclesiastics who accompanied him. Finally, one of the missionaries slept on a mattress in the attic of this whitewashed episcopal palace, whose sole furniture consisted of one bed, six chairs, two tables, and the shelves for a library. The bishop resided here one year, and he considered himself happy to live thus in the midst of apostolic poverty.
[192] The Dominican Fathers, assisted by their novices, with their own hands performed a great deal of the work on their monastery and the beautiful church of S. Rose. Like them, the scholastics afterwards made bricks and lime, cut the wood, etc., to build that of S. Thomas, the seminary, and convent of Nazareth. The poverty of our establishment forces them to devote their hours of recreation to this work. Every day they spend three hours in gardening, in working in the fields or in the woods. Nothing could be more frugal than their table, and that of the two bishops is no better; pure water from a spring is their ordinary drink. Neither could anything be more humble than their clothing—imagine fifty poor scholastics who are obliged to cover themselves with rags, and to borrow decent clothes with which to appear in the town.
Bishop Flaget hopes that pious and charitable persons who are not able to send him money for his cathedral will endeavor to send clothes or books necessary for the studies and the clothing of his beloved scholastics.
[193] Since the appointment of Bishop Dubourg to St. Louis, the too distant mission of Illinois, which was part of the Diocese of Bardstown, has been attended by this prelate, whose residence is in the vicinity.
[194] Eight of these buildings are brick and stone, and the others frame.