Indiana Catholic History

On this day there are two items to pass along. The first was in 1839, when Celestine de la Hailandiere was named Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes. Hailandiere was in France at the time, seeking assistance for the young diocese. By the time word got to Bishop Brute of Hailandiere’s appointment, he was already dead. Hailandiere was consecrated at Paris on August 18, 1839.

We also celebrate on this day, in 1921, Msgr. John J. Doyle was ordained. (The holy card below is from Msgr. Doyle’s First Mass.) Msgr Doyle wrote “The Catholic Church in Indiana 1686-1814″ in 1976. He also wrote a series of articles for the Criterion, the newspaper of the Archdiocese, in 1982. He died in 1985. This web site is dedicated to his memory. You can read moe about Monsignor Doyle in this 2009 post.

In the foreword to his book, he said:

“It is my hope that the reading of the story told here may awaken the desire, latent in almost every heart, to understand what we are by discovering how we came to be, and to stir up the ambition to preserve for those that come after us the memory of the works worthy of emulation that God preformed by the hands of those that went before us, while we strive to deserve our heritage”

Mother Theodore Guérin died on this day in 1856…

Mother Theodore, Anne-Thérèse Guérin, Saint Theodora Guérin died on May 14, 1856 – 151 years ago. The official website of the Sisters of Providence have the following posted. (see: SP’s Official Website)

The “Catholic Telegraph and Advocate” in Cincinnati, Ohio, published the following notice about Mother Theodore’s death. She died May 14, 1856.

“Died – At Saint Mary’s-of-the-Woods (sic), in the 58th year of her age, Wednesday, 14th inst., Sister St. Theodore, Superior General of the Sisters of Providence in Indiana.

“This woman, distinguished by her eminent virtues, governed the community of which she was the superior from its commencement, to the time of her death, a period of nearly sixteen years. Being a perfect religious herself, and endowed with mental qualities of a high order, she was peculiarly fitted to fill the duties which Providence assigned her.

“Not only her Sisters are bereaved by her death, but all those who knew her excellence and the amount of good she did, join in lamenting that she should have been removed from the sphere of her usefulness. To judge from the celestial expression of her countenance as she lay in death, there is every reason to believe that she has already taken her abode among the Saints in Heaven, enjoying the munificence of God, who rewards His servants ‘according to their works.’”

One of the overlooked heroes of the early Church in Indiana, Father John Corbe wrote, upon the death of Mother Theodore:

“Mother Theodore and Sister Saint Francis both loved God with all the strength of their ardent souls; they served Him with the most perfect devotedness, and both terminated their careers of virtue and good works in the most cruel suffering, but they loved and desired these sufferings, and their happiness as they said themselves, was to be on the cross with their Beloved … If God has sent them almost the same sufferings, He has also bestowed upon them the same favors. He has given them a foretaste of the joys of heaven by visions and extraordinary consolations.

Both have already given indubitable marks of their power with God … I hope that these proofs will multiply and that God will glorify before men those who have sacrificed everything for Him with so much generosity.”¹

Pretty simple stuff for such a holy woman! But, perhaps that is the point…

1. John Corbe to A Mme. Le Fer de la Motte, 11 June 1856-SMW Archives [↩]

In this day and age, when genealogy is still a very popular pastime, the existence of early Church records makes a genealogist’s pulse increase. Although I am sure that many baptisms, marriages etc. were performed in the early history of Indiana, many priests carried their sacramental records with them, mainly because there was no church to deposit the records into. [One example of this would be the Sacramental Record carried by Simon Lalumiere]

However, it is always a mark of true ‘stability’, if you will, when a sacramental record ‘stays put’ in one place. With that in mind, today we honor the memory of at least three people who helped to make that ‘stability’ happen. On April 21, 1749 The marriage of Julen Tratier and Josette Marie was witnessed by Fr. Sebastian Louis Meurin S.J.

John Law wrote:

The first entry on the church records here, is dated April 21st, 1749. There is neither title page nor introduction. The first entry is the certificate of marriage between “Julien Trattier, of Montreal, Canada, and Josette Marie, the daughter of a Frenchman and an Indian woman.” The only baptisms recorded during the year, are those of the Indian adults. One of the first deaths was Madam Trattier, aged eighteen years, whose marriage we have above recorded. She was but a short time a bride, having been buried in December, 1750, in the church, under her pew, on the “Gospel side” — so says the record. The resident priest was “Father Sebastian Louis Meurin.” All certificates except those of deaths are signed by “M. de St. Ange, Lieutenant of Marines and Commandant for the King, at Post Vincennes.” Father Meurin left in 1753. His last official act was the burial of “the wife of a Corporal in the garrison, March, 1753.” He was succeeded by “Father Louis Vivier.” His first recorded act is a marriage, May 20th, 1753. On the 24th of the same month he buried “Pierre Leonardy, Lieutenant of the garrison.” His last record is dated August 28th, 1756. The number of baptisms and marriages is small, but increasing. Half of them are of “Red or Indian Slaves,” belonging to the Commandant and to the inhabitants. It was a number of years after the departure of the Jesuits, who had officiated as priests until about the year 1760, that another priest visited Vincennes. During the interregnum, one “Philibert,” Notary Public, administered baptism as a layman, privately, and duly recorded the names of those to whom he administered the rite, on the register.¹

1. Law, John. The Colonial History of Vincennes, under the French, British, and American Governments, from its First Settlement Down to the Territorial Administration of General William Henry Harrison, Being an Address Delivered by Judge John Law, Before the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society, February 22d, 1839, with Additional Notes and Illustrations . Vincennes: Harvey, Mason and Co., 1858 [↩]

On April 4th, in the year 1835, Bishop Simon Brute had his first ‘ordination’ as Bishop of Vincennes. It was not an ordination to priesthood, but rather to the Sub-Diaconate. The ordinand was Matthias Ruff. He was from the Alsace region and therefore he spoke French as well as German. Here is what Herman Alerding, in his “History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes” quotes Bishop Brute as saying:

At Fort Wayne they had finished one, 60×30 feet, and the congregation numbered 150 Catholic families. I was happy to send them the Rev. M. Ruff from Metz, in France, recently ordained and speaking the three languages, French, English and German. Of the latter there are a good many living there and in the environments. I had ordained Rev. M. Ruff subdeacon and deacon before my journey to Chicago, and had sent him to the Seminary of St. Louis (St. Mary of the Barrens), to make his retreat, and there he was ordained priest by that excellent prelate. Doctor Rosati.”¹

Ruff had come to Vincennes from Cincinnati apparently. In those days there was little any bishop could do to keep a priest from ‘moving on’ so to speak. In fact, Ruff left the Diocese of Vincennes in 1837 and probably returned to France. Perhaps weary of the frontier, which is hard to imagine in this day and age. In their necrology, Frs. William Stineman and Jack Porter speculate that Fr. Ruff returned to France and that he died and was buried there.

The image to the left is a copy of the original Liber Ordinationum, or the official book of ordinations. It shows the Sub-Diaconate ordination of Ruff as the first entry.²

Also this week, we celebrate the birth of Benjamin Marie Petit, the missionary to the Pottawatomi who died on his return from the “Trail of Death”. He was born on April 8, 1811 in Rennes, France. He was graduated from the University of Rennes in 1829 and attended law school, from which he graduated in 1832. In 1835 he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice³

1. Alerding, A History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes, Indianapolis, 1883 [↩]
2. Courtesy of the Archives, Archdiocese of Indianapolis [↩]
3. McKee – Trail of Death, p26 [↩]

On March 28, 1933, Joseph Elmer Ritter was ordained (in those days they were ‘consecrated’) auxiliary bishop of Indianapolis at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul. Ritter had been appointed titular bishop of Hippo and auxiliary to Bishop Joseph Chartrand on February 3rd. His consecration was officiated by Bishop Chartrand, assisted by Bishop Emmanuel Ledvina of Corpus Christi and Bishop Alphonse J. Smith of Nashville, both of whom were former priests of the Diocese of Indianapolis. Ritter had been named Vicar General of the Diocese of Indianapolis two days after the announcement of his appointment as auxiliary, on February 5, 1933. Perhaps Bishop Chartrand knew his time was limited, and in fact, it was. He died in December of 1933.

Upon the death of Chartrand, Ritter was named Bishop of Indianapolis on March 24, 1934. Ritter had an enormous impact on the this (Arch)diocese, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis as well as the universal Church. There was a time when Ritter’s name was mentioned as a possible candidate for Pope. Ritter was the last Auxiliary of the Archdiocese before Bishop Christopher Coyne was named last year.

Also on this day, the Diocese of Vincennes, officially became the Diocese of Indianapolis. For all intents and purposes that move took place about 20 years previously, in 1878, when Bishop Francis Silas Chatard became the fifth bishop of Vincennes. (He was, of course, also the FIRST Bishop of Indianapolis). By apostolic brief dated March 28, 1898, the title of the diocese was changed to that of the Diocese of Indianapolis, with the episcopal see in the city of Indianapolis. Although the bishop’s official residence was changed, the patron of the diocese remained St. Francis Xavier, the title of the Old Cathedral at Vincennes.

Upon his appointment in 1878, Bishop Francis Chatard was directed to fix his residence at Indianapolis. Although the site of the cathedral and the title of the see were continued at Vincennes, Bishop Chatard used St. John the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis as the cathedral. Even after the see was moved to Indianapolis in 1898, St. John’s continued as the pro-cathedral until the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul was completed in 1907. St. John the Evangelist Parish, established in 1837, was the first parish in Indianapolis and Marion County.

You can read more on Saint John’s in a previous post. There are also a number of sites featuring items (particularly the architecture) on St. John’s. Here is the result of a typical Google search