. Baltimore, had shown ability, judgment, theological ability, and skill in temporal affairs. His presence was needed indeed at Baltimore, where the college was struggling with a heavy debt, and this alone seems to have delayed the action of Archbishop Carroll, who in 1810 sent the Rev. Mr. Sibourd to Louisiana. That clergyman reached New Orleans from France on the 29th of December, 1810, with two Ursuline nuns for the convent there, the Community needing help, as their academy was prospering with sixtythree boarders and many day-scholars, and their asylum contained thirty orphans.' Rev. Mr. Sibourd endeavored to collect the English-speaking Catholics at the Ursuline chapel, but at first he found few who cared to profit by his ministry or approach the sacraments, only one coming to perform his Easter duty. His sermons at the chapel on Sundays, and his care in preparing candidates for first communion, which twelve received on Low Sunday, produced a good effect. Father Sedella and his unworthy assistants were also compelled to preach, and to make some show of discharging the duties of the ministry.' By the erection of the Sees of Boston, New York, and Bardstown, Archbishop Carroll's diocese ceased to border on that of Quebec. He accordingly wrote in March, 1811, to Bishop Plessis in regard to the matter, asking him to continue in the new dioceses the charitable services on the frontiers which he and his predecessors, Bishops Hubert and Denaut, had performed, by allowing their priests to attend Catholics in the United States near the boundary, and by themselves administering the sacrament of confirmation. Bishop Plessis accordingly made Bishops Cheverus and 1 Rev. L. Sibourd to Archbishop Carroll, March 22, 1811. ? Same to same, June 12, 1811. Flaget, and Father Anthony Kohlmann his Vicars-General, and they in turn made Bishop Plessis Vicar-General in the dioceses of Boston, New York, and Bardstown.1 Bishops Cheverus, Egan, and Flaget, and Father Kohlmann in organizing the dioceses under their care, constantly appealed to the Archbishop for direction and advice, and New York depended on Bishop Cheverus for all episcopal acts, although the diocese was not actually under his care as Dr. Carroll had solicited the Holy See to place it. In his own diocese of Baltimore, Archbishop Carroll was consoled by seeing the peaceful progress of religion. Emmittsburg became a centre of Catholic life and activity. It had been a mission attended from Frederick from an early period, a chapel in the house of the Elder family having been the constant place of worship. The Rev. John Du Bois, after attending it for several years, resolved to build a church for the faithful whose numbers had increased. Near by was a log-house which he purchased with a piece of land. It was an humble beginning, but destined to become the cradle of two great institutions, one training young men in the faith and fitting them for the world, while it sent zealous priests to all parts of the country; the other the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity, who at this mountain home became accomplished teachers of rich and poor, mothers to the orphan, comforters of the sick and afflicted. The modest mountain church was visited in the autumn of 1808 by Bishop Carroll, who administered confirmation on 1 A priest at Detroit, Niagara, or the Passamaquoddy could thus under powers given him validly exercise the ministry when necessary on British soil. In the case of New York it is curious to find a Jesuit Father (Kohlmann) appointing a Bishop his Vicar-General. Archbishop Carroll to Bishop Plessis, March 12, 1811. Archives of Archbishop of Quebec. MOUNT ST. MARY'S COLLEGE. 643 the 20th of October, and who, we may feel assured, encouraged the hopes of the zealous priest. When Rev. Mr. Du Bois, who had long wished to establish a school near his church, proposed to Rev. Mr. Nagot to remove the establishment then at Pigeon Hills, Pa., Rev. Mr. Du Bourg, with some other Sulpitians, visited the mountain, and a tract of five hundred acres was acquired from a lady, payment being made by an annuity. About Easter, 1809, sixteen young men arrived from Pigeon Hills. A brick house intended at one time for a church became the "Petit Seminaire," Rev. Mr. Du Bois with the teachers and some pupils residing in the log-house. Work was at once commenced on two rows of log buildings, which were to be the future college. Rev. Mr. Du Bois at first proposed placing them on the brow of the hill in front of the church, but by the advice of Rev. Mr. Du Bourg adopted a more sheltered site at the base of the hill near a beautiful spring. Such was the commencement of Mount Saint Mary's College, which seemed to enter at once on a career of prosperity, though the founder was utterly destitute of means. Rev. Mr. Duhamel soon joined him from Hagerstown and relieved him of the parochial work. In 1810 the college had forty pupils, and three years after double that number, exclusively Catholic. When his log buildings were ready, the Rev. Mr. Du Bois gave his log-house temporarily to Mrs. Seton and her Sisters, so that it was also the cradle of her community. On Sundays and holidays the pupils of both establishments proceeded to the church, a distance of some two miles from the college, the Sisters of Charity conducting the choir.2 1 This building was on a piece of land conveyed to Bishop Carroll October 24, 1793, by Mr. Alexius Elder. Note of Archbishop Maréchal. 2U. S. Catholic Magazine," v., p. 36. MRS. SETON IN BALTIMORE. 645 Mrs. Elizabeth A. Seton, after her reception into the Church at New York, opened a little school: but the alienation of her early friends, and the condition of Catholic affairs there at that time, made her struggle so hard that she thought of withdrawing to Canada. Dr. Matignon and Rev. Mr. Cheverus, of Boston, and the Rev. J. S. Tisserant, a French priest at Elizabeth, N. J., were, however, her friends and guides, and they soon learned to believe that God called her to special work in this country. In May, 1808, the Rev. William Du Bourg urged her to proceed to Baltimore in order to open a school in a house near the seminary. This the Rev. Mr. Cheverus warmly recommended: "Such an establishment would be a public benefit to religion, and we hope, a real advantage to yourself and amiable family. We infinitely prefer it to your project of a retreat in Montreal." She accordingly sailed from New York with her daughters in a Baltimore packet on the 9th of June, and took up her residence in a house still standing in Paca Street near the Seminary of St. Sulpice. Here her heart expanded with holy joy. Near a chapel where she could hear mass every day from daylight to eight o'clock, and attend Vespers and Benediction every evening, her happiness was complete. Her first scholars were nieces of the Rev. Mr. Du Bourg. Others soon came. Miss Cecilia O'Conway became her assistant and other ladies were soon ready to join her, desirous of their own spiritual advancement and of serving the poor.1 The next year it was deemed best to give them a habit, consisting of a plain black gown and cap, with plaited border and a rosary hanging from the girdle. Mrs. Seton took the three simple vows of religion, in the hands of Bishop Carroll 1 Rev. Wm. Du Bourg to Mrs. E. A. Seton, May 2, 1808; Rev. J. Cheverus to same, May 12, 1808. |