Luuisvnus
387
LOUISVnUB
towiu Until a residonoe aud church could be built,
Bishc^ Flaget resided at St. Stephen's. The bishop
found twenty-four stations and ten churches all built
of logs, except the Danville church which was built of
brick upon ground donated by an Irishman, named
Daniel McElroy, and with monies mainly given by the
Irish in the vicinity, attended by six priests. The
Catholics of Kentucky then numberecl about 6000
souls. Outside of Kentud^ he had one priest at De-
troit, Michigan, one at Keiskaskia. The congrega-
tion at Vincennes. Indiana, had no priests, and was
indifferent. Caholda had no pastor, but was anxious
for one. The bishop sent Fr. Savine. There was no
priest in Ohio. He had ten priests for a territory
over which before his death ten bishops wielded the
crosier. Father David removed on 11 November,
1811, to the Howard house and farm and began to
erect a log seminary and brick church. On Christmas
Day, 1811, Bishop Flaget ordained in St. Rose's
church Girf Ignatius Chabrat, first priest of the semi-
nary and nrst priest ordained west of the Alleghanies.
With the help of the seminarians who cut wood, burned
the brick, and mixed and carried the mortar, a small
brick church was built in 1816. Then (1817) followed
the erection of a brick seminary. The first diocesan
B3mod in the west was held on 20 February, 1812.
According to the bishop's report to Pius VII (11 April,
1815) the Catholics had increased to 10,000 souls, minis-
tered to by 10 priests, there were 6 subdcacons (5 of
them Dominicans), 6 in minor orders, and 6 tonsured
clerics, 5 brick and 14 log churches; Tennessee had
about 25 Catholics; Ohio 50 families without a priest;
Indiana 130 families attended occasionally from Ken-
tacky; Illinois about 120 families; and Michigan 2000
souls. The seminary from its beginning until 1819
had given eleven diocesan priests to the missions.
Vocations were numerous, out on account of the
poverty of parents and bishop, almost as many were
turned away as were received . Burdened with episco-
pal labours too heavy for one, Bishop Flaget applied
tor a coadjutor with right of succession, and Kev.
Father David, president of the theological seminary,
was appointed m the autumn of 1817, but the conse-
cration was put off until 15 August, 1819, one week
after the completion and consecration of the cathedral
at Bardstown, which had been begun on 16 Julv, 1816.
Bishop Flaget was relieved of Ohio and North- West-
em Territory by the erection of Cincinnati (19 June,
1821) and the consecration of Father Fen wick as its first
bishop (13 Janiuuy, 1822). A community of religious
women under guidance of Dominican Fathers was
started (1822) near St. Rose's church. The bishop
initiated (1823) a religious society called the Brother-
hood of die C^stian Doctrine, but it survived only
three years. The year 1826 is notable for a wonder-
ful renewal of faith as the fruit of a series of missions
all through the diocese. The missions were successful.
Six thousand received the Sacraments of Penance and
the Eucharist, 1216 were confirmed, and many con-
verts were baptised. In 1828 Bishop Flaget conse-
crated Most Rev. James Whitfield, fourth Archbishop
of Baltimore. In September, 1828, he attended the
First Council of Baltimore. Soon after his return to
Kentucky he consecrated Dr. Kenrick (6 June, 1830).
A new church, a replica of Bardstown cathedral, was
built on Fifth street by the Rev. Robert A. Abell, and
consecrated in 1830. The Sisters of Charity started a
school for ffirls near the St. Louis's church. The Jesu-
its, invited in 182^ arrived in 1832, and were pre-
sented with St. Mary's Colle^ by its founder and
owner. Rev. Wm. Byrne. Whilst at St. Louis, Bishop
Flaset received news from Rome that his resignation
of the Bishoprio of Bardstown had been accepted, and
that his coadjutor. Father David, would be his suc-
(2) *Rt. Rev. John Baptist Mary David, b. in 1761, Nantee, France, educated and ordained there on
24 Septemlx^r, 1785. Having joiniHl the Sulpicians,
he taught philosophy and theology in France, and, in
1792, came to the United States. He laboured on the
Maryland missions for twelve years with indefatigable
zeal; and after teaching some years at Georgetown
College and St-Mary's, Baltimore, in 1810 he went
west with Bishop Flaget, and established the theo-
logical seminary of St. Thomas at Bardstown. He
was a strict disciplinarian and an able and lucid pro-
fessor. He foimued the religious institute of Sisters
of Charity of Nazareth (November, 1812), and was
their ecclesiastical superior almost to the end of his
life. Appointed coadjutor to Bishop Flaget in a-u-
tumn, 1817, his consecration was delayed for almost
two years by reason of his reluctance to accept the dig-
nity. After his consecration, he continued at the
head of the seminary, discharging at the same time
the duties of professor and pastor of the cathedral
parish. The priests trained mider him numbered
forty-seven, of whom twenty-three were either natives
of the diocese, or had been raised in it from childhood.
Four of them became bishops: Chabrat (coadjutor to
Bishop Flaget), Reynolds (Charleston), McGill (Rich-
mond, Va.), Martin John Spalding (Louisville, and
later Archbishop of Baltimore). Ujwn succeeding to
the bishopric early in December, 1832, his first act was
to appoint the former bishop, the Rt. Rev. B. J. Flaget.
vicar-general with as ample faculties as he could, and
then forward his resignation to Rome. Rome ac-
cepted the resignation (May, 1833), and reappointed
Bishop Flaget to the See of Bardstown. Declining
health compelled Bishop David, towards the end of
1841, to retire to Nazareth, where he died 12 July,
1841, aged 80, in the fifty-sixth year of his priesthood,
and twenty-second of his episcopate.
(3) Bishop Flaget, reappointed to Bardstown, thus became its third bishop. Dr. Chabrat was named his coadjutor (29 Jmie, 1834). After consecrating him (20 July, 1834), Flaget left to him the details of the administration. In September, of the same year, a small church and orphan asylum were erected in Cov- ington, thus laying the foundation of the Covington Diocese. Indiana, and the eastern portion of Ilhnois, were removed from Bishop Flaget's jurisdiction by the erection of the Diocese of Vincennes, 6 May, 1834. Bishop Flaget, in 1835, visit^'d France, and made his episcopal visit to Rome. The first weekly Catholic paper, *'The Catholic Advocate", was published in Bardstown in 1836, succeeding a month!}' magazine, the " Minerva", founded and edited by the faculty of St. Joseph's College, in October, 1834. During the years 18;»6-7 sevend churches were erected and dedi- cated, among them one at Ixixington, Fancy Farm, Lebanon, and Ijouisville (St. Boniface was the first erected for German Catholics). In April, 1837, Dr. Chabrat attended the Third Provincial Council of Bal- timore, and made known Bishop Flaget's desire to have Tennessee formed into a new diocese. Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Nashville on 25 July, 1837. Father Napoleon Joseph Perch6 (afterwards Arch- bishop of New Orleans) organized a new city parish. Our Lady's of the Port. The diocese numbered at this time forty churches, seventy stations, fifty-one priests, two ecclesiastical seminaries, and nine acade* mies for young ladies. Bishop Flaget returned to Bardstown in September, 1839, and new churches were erected at Taylor3\dlle and Portland. Louisville had in 1841 a population of 21,210. Owing to its in- creasing population, and the development of its Catho- lic institutions, the episcopal seat was transferred to it from Bardstown in that year, and Flaget became Bishop of Louisville and Bardstown.
Diocese op Louisville. — La Salle, a Catholic ex- plorer, was the first white man who visited the Falls of Ohio and the site upon which the city of Louisville is built. Thomas Bullitt and party arrived at the Falls on 8 July, 1773, and marked oft \3K»«^u&<AViosv