On this day (January 14) in 1849 the Right Rev. Jacques M. Maurice Landes d’Aussac de Saint-Palais, commonly known simply as Maurice de St. Palais was consecrated the fourth Bishop of Vincennes.
St. Palais was born at LaSalvetat, France on November 15, 1811. He was ordained a priest at Paris, on May 28, 1836. He heard the call of Bishop Brute and came to Indiana shortly thereafter. He was assigned to the area near Loogeetee. He also served in Chicago. Upon the death of Bishop Bazin, the third Bishop of Vincennes, he was named Administrator of the diocese.
St. Palais was named Bishop of Vincennes on October 3, 1848 and consecrated in the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier at Vincennes, January 14, 1849, by Bishop Pius Miles, OP, of Nashville, assisted by Coadjutor Bishop Martin John Spalding of Louisville and Very Reverend Hippolyte Du Pontavice, vicar general of Vincennes. St. Palais oversaw a great change in the diocese with a large influx of settlers, and the Civil War. He died at St. Mary-of-the-Woods, June 28, 1877. His body is interred in the Old Cathedral, Vincennes.
