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 NEW ORLEANS

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NEW ORLEANS

of Mater Dolorosa at Carrollton (then a suburb) was founded on 8 Sept.; that of the Holy Name of Mary at Algiers on IS Dec, 1848. In 1849 St. Stephen's par- ish in the then suburb of Bouligny under the Lazarist Fathers and Sts. Peter and Paul came into existence. The corner-stone of the Redemptorist church of St. Alphonsus was laid by the famous Apostle of Temper- ance, Father Theobald ISIathew, on 11 April, 1850; two years later it was found necessary to enlarge this church, and a school was added. In 1851 the founda- tion-stone of the church of the Immaculate Concep- tion was laid, on the site of a humbler edifice erected in 1848. This is said to have been the first church in the world dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. The parishes of St. John the Baptist in the upper town and of St. Anne in the French quarter were organized in 1852.

The French congregation of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours was organized on 16 Jan., 1858. In the midst of great progress yellow fever broke out and five priests and two Sisters of Charity swelled the roll of martyrs. The devoted services of the Sisters of Charity, especially during the ravages of the yellow fever, in attending the sick and caring for the orphans were so highly appreciated by the Legislature that in 1846 the State made them a grant of land near Donald- sonville for the opening of a novitiate, and a general subscription was made throughout the diocese for this purpose. The sisters established themselves in Donaldsonville the same year.

In 1843, anxious to provide for the wants of the in- creasing German and Irish emigration, Bishop Blanc had summoned the Congregation of the Redemptorists to the diocese and the German parish of St. Mary's Assumption was founded by Rev. Czackert of that congregation. In 1847 the work of the Society of Jesus in the diocese, which had been temporarily suspended, was resumed imder Father Maisounabe as superior, and a college building was started on 10 June. In the following year Father Maisounabe and a bril- liant young Irish associate, Father Blackney, fell vic- tims to yellow fever. The population of New Orleans now numbered over fifty thousand, among whom were many German immigrants. Bishop Blanc turned over the old UrsuUne chapel to the Germans of the lower portion of the city, and a church was erected, which finally resulted in the foundation of the Holy Trinity parish on 26 October, 1847. In 1849 the College of St. Paul was opened at Baton Rouge. On 1.3 July, 1852, St. Charles College became a corporate institution with Rev. A. J. Jourdan, S.J., as president. In 1849 Bishop Blanc attended the Seventh Council of Baltimore at which the bishops expressed their desire that the See of New Orleans be raised to metropolitan rank. On 19 July, 1850, Pius X established the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Bishop Blanc being raised to the archi- episcopal dignity. The Province of New Orleans was to embrace New Orleans with Mobile, Natchez, Little Rock, and Galveston as suffragan sees. The spirit of Knownothingism invaded New Orleans as other parts of the United States, and Archbi.shop Blanc found himself in the thick of the battle. Public debates were held, conspicuous among those who did yeoman service in crushing the efforts of the party in Louisiana being the Hon. Thos. J. Semmes, a dis- tinguished advocate, Rev. Francis Xavier Leray and Rev. N. J. Perche, both afterwards Archbishop of New Orleans. Father Perche founded (1844) a French diocesan journal "Le Propagateur Catholique", which vigorously assailed the Knownothing doctrines. On 6 June a mob attacked the office of the paper, and also made a fierce attack on the Ursuline Convent, breaking doors and windows and hurling insults at the nuns.

In 1853 New Orleans was desolated by the worst epi- demic of yellow fever in its history, seven priests and five sisters being among its victims. On 6 March,

1854, the School Sisters of Notre Dame arrived in New Orleans to take charge of St. Joseph's Asylum, founded to furnish homes for those orphaned by the epidemic. St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum was also opened as a home for foundUngs and infant orphans, and entrusted to the Sisters of Charity. On 29 .July, 1853, the Holy See divided the Diocese of New Or- leans, which at that time embraced all Louisiana, and established the See of Natchitoches (q. v.). The new diocese contained about twenty-five thousand Catho- lics, chiefly a rural population, for whom there were only seven churches. The Convent of the Sacred Heart at Natchitoches was the only religious institution m the new diocese. In 1854 Archbishop Blanc went to Rome and was present at the solemn definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In his report to the Propaganda he describes his diocese as contain- ing forty quasi-parishes, each with a church and one or two priests and a residence for the clergy; the city had eighteen churches. The diocese had a seminary under the Priests of the Mission with an average of nine stu- dents; the religious orders at work were the Jesuits with three establishments. Priests of the Mission with three, and Redemptorists with two. The Catholic population of 95,000 was made up of natives of French, Spanish, Irish, or American origin, French, Germans, Spaniards, and Italians. Distinctive Catholic schools were increasing. The Ursulines, Religious of the Sa- cred Heart, Sisters of Holy Charity, Marianites of the Holy Cross, Tertiary Carmelites, School Sisters of Notre Dame, and the Coloured Sisters of the Holy Family were doing excellent work. Many abuses had crept in especially with regard to marriage, but after the erection of new churches with smaller parochial school districts, religion had gained steadily and the frequentation of the sacraments was increasing.

In 1855 the Fathers of the Congregation of the Holy Cross came to New Orleans to establish a manual in- dustrial school for the training of the orphan boys who had been rendered homeless by the terrible epidemic of 1853. They established themselves in the lower portion of New Orleans, and became inseparably iden- tified with religious and educational progress. In 1879 they opened their college, which is now one of the lead- ing institutions of Louisiana. On 20 January, 1856, the First Provincial Council of New Orleans was held, and in January, 1858, Archbishop Blanc held the fourth diocesan synod. In 1859 the Sisters of the Good Shepherd were called by Archbishop Blanc to New Orleans to open a reformatory for girls. Bishop Blanc opened another diocesan seminary in the same year, and placed it in charge of the Lazarist Fathers. He convoked the second provincial council on 22 Janu- ary, 1860. Just before the second session opened he was taken so seriously ill that he could no longer at- tend the meetings; he rallied and seemed to regain his usual health, but he died 20 June following.

Right Rev. John Mary Odin, Bishop of Galveston, was appointed successor to Archbishop Blanc, and ar- rived in New Orleans on the Feast of Pentecost, 1861. The Civil War had already begun and excitement was intense. All the prudence and charity of the arch- bishop were needed as the war progressed. An earnest maintainer of discipline. Archbishop Odin found it necessary on 1 January, 1863, to issue regulations re- garding the recklessness and carelessness that had pre- vailed in the temporal management of the churches the indebtedness of which he had been compelled to assume to save them from bankruptcy. The regula- tions were not favourably received, and the arch- bishop visited Rome returning in the .spring of 1863, when he had obtained the approval of the Holy See for his course of action. It was not till some time later that through his charity and zeal he obtained the cor- dial support he desired. His appeals for priests while in Europe were not unheeded and early in 1SG3 forty seminarians and five Ursulines arrived with Bishop Du-