On this day (May 3), 1798, Celestine de la Hailandiere was born in Combourg, France, a town just about 25 miles north of Rennes, where Servant of God, Simon Brute was born.
In this day and age of “freedom of religion“, in is interesting to note that Hailandiere was baptized the same day he was born by a priest who was in hiding from the revolutionaries, in the home of his parents. As a child, his family moved to Rennes.
Hailandiere trained to be a lawyer, but later rejected that life and he entered the seminary at Rennes in 1822.
All this aside, I am finding some discrepancies in some of these important dates again…
The official directory of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis says Hailandiere was born May 3rd. Yet, Henry Cauthorn’s St. Francis Xavier Cathedral as well as Alerding’s History of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Vincennes and Clarke’s Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the United States all say May 2nd.
A similar controversy happened with the priestly ordination of Bishop Brute — two different dates.
We shall see what happens…
