Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/31

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maito d hMiograpkU (Paris, 1 889). The chief woria publiehad •Sttinst the appariUoii of La Salette are the foUowing: Donna- DiMU (peeudonym of Abb^ D^xtoN), La SalHte-FaUavaux (FaUmx ValHahou la VaUce du Menwnge (Grenoble, 1852-53); utvtoM AND CARTELLnsR, La Salette devant le pape . . . rmr pluai€ur$ membre* du elerg/' diociaain (Grenoble. 1854). For the Lamerli^re affair, see Favrs, Mimoire pour Mile Constance de Saini'Ferri'ol de Lamerlih-e (Paris, s. d. (18571): Sabbattkr, Affaire de La Salette, Mile de LamerlHre contre MM, D6i6on ei Coftellier (Grenoble, 1857). The beet work on the difficulties relating to the apparition of La Salette is Verdunoy. La Salette, aude criHqm (Paris, 1906).

LiiON Clugnet.

La Salette, Missionaries of. — ^The Missionaries of La Salette were founded in 1852, at the shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, where some priests banded to- gether to care for the numerous pilgrims frequenting the mountain. In 1858 these priests formea a little community with temporary constitutions, under the immediate charge of the Bishop of Grenoble. In 1876 Rieht Rev. Mgr Fava gave them more complete rules, and in May, 1890, the Institute was approved by Rome. Finding it hard to recruit their number from the secular clergy, the fathers founded an "Apostolic school " or missionary college in 1876. At present they have about 250 students. Their classical course lasts six years, and after their novitiate they repair to Rome, where the scholasticate is located. Here they complete their philosophical and theological course in the Gregorian University. In 1892 five of the mis- sionaries arrived in the United States with fifteen students. Bishop McMahon of Hartford, Conn., wel- comed them into his diocese, and they established themselves in the episcopal city, occupying the former bishop's residence on Collins Street. In 1895 they removed to their present quarters at 85 New Park Ave., Hartford, Conn., close to the church of Our Lady of Sorrows. Hitherto a mission church of the cathe- dral, it was made a parish and given in charge of the fathers, who began to tend it on Ascension Day of the same year. In 1894, having established themselves in the Springfield Diocese, the fathers received the French parish of St. Joseph, Fitchburg, Mass., from Rt. Rev. Thomas Beaven. In 1895 Rt. Rev. Michael Tiemey, successor to Bishop McMahon, rec|uested the fathers to take chaige of the mixed parish of St. James, Danielson, Conn. In 1901, at the suggestion of Bishop Beaven of Springfield, the Very Rev. Supe- rior General sent a few students to Poland to prepare themselves for Polish parishes in the Springfield Dio- cese, and at present the parish at Ware and that of Westfield are in their care. In 1902 they were received into the Diocese of Sherbrooke, Canada, with a parish at Stanstead, P. Q., Canada, and also into the Arch- diocese of New York, with a parish at Phoenicia, Ulster Co. At the request of Archbishop Langevin of St. Boniface, Canada, a few fathers were sent from the mother-house in Hartford to establish themselves in West Canada. They now form a separate province with headquarters at Forget, Sask. They tend to the spiritual wants of four nourishing parishes. Forget, Esteven, Ossa, and Weybum. In 1909, the mission- aries deemine their order suflSciently developed, owing to additional foundations in Belgium, Madagascar. Poland, and Brazil, the Very Rev. Superior General petitioned the Holy See to approve their constitutions. The request was granted 29 January, 1909. The students of the Apostolic schools are trained chiefly to combat the great crimes of the day, especially those denounced in the discourse of the Blessed Virgin at La Salette. The spirit of the community is that which pcarades the whole apparition of Mary on the Moun- tain of La Salette — a spirit of prayer and sacrifice.

J. GUINET.

La Smile, Jean Baptist db. See John Baptist im LA Salle, Saint.

La BaUe, RsNi^-RoBERT-CAVELiER, Sieur db, ex- , b. at Rouen, 1643; d. in Texas, 1687. In his

youth he displayed an unusual precocity in mathe- matics and a prelection for natural science; his out- look upon life was somewhat puritanical. Whether or not he was educated with a view to entering the Society of Jesus is a matter of doubt, though some religious order he must have subsequently jomed, for to this fact is assigned the forfeiture of his estates. The career of a churchman was definitively abandoned, however, when, after receiving the feudal grant of a tract of land at La Chine on the St. Lawrence from the Sulpicians, aeigneurs of Montreal — perhaps through the influence of an elder brother who was a memMr of the order at that place — he came to Canada as an adventurer and trader in 1666. For three years La Salle remained quietly upon his little estate, mastering Indian dialects and meditating on a south- west passage. Upon the latter quest he set out in 1669 with a party of Sulpicians, who, deeming that there waH ^*eater missionary work among the north-western tribes, soon abandoned the expedi- tion. La Salle's subsequent travels on this occa- sion are shrouded in an obscurity that will pep- haps never be dispelled. Whether he was the first white man to gaze upon Niagara, whether he ex- plored the Allegheny valley or the Ohio river, he seems not to have reached the Mississippi, Joliet's un- disputed claim to that distinction durmg La Salle's residence in Canada being r^arded, at present, as finally estabUshed. Indeed .joliet's announcement, some few years later, that the Orande Riviere flowed into the Gulf of Mexico perceptibly stimulated La Salle to fashion and carry out those schemes which must have been taking shape even in the novitiate at Rouen — dreams of acquinng a monopoly of the fur trade and of building up the empire of New France. The French doctrine that the discovery of a river gave an inchoate right to the land drained by its tributaries suggested to La Salle and Governor Frontenac a '* plan to effect a military occupation of the whole Mississippi valley. . . by means of military p>osts which shoula control the communication and sway the policy of the Indian tribes *', as well as present an impassable barrier to the English colonies. The money needed for such a plan drove La Salle to those attempts at a monopoly wnich engendered such persistent opposition, ana which ao^ count, partlv at least, for the failure of his plans.

A trip to France in the autumn of 1674 followed his erection of Fort Frontenac for the protection of the fur trade at the outlet of Lake Ontario. The king gave him a grant of this fort and the adjacent territory, promised to garrison it at his own expense, and con- ferred upon him the rank of esquire. Upon his r^ turn. La Salle rebuilt the fort, launchea upon the Niagara River the '* Griffin ", a forty-five ton schooner with five guns, in which, with Hennepin, a Francis- can, and the Neapolitan Henri de Tonty, he set saU in the autumn of 1678, passed over Lakes Erie and Huron, and reached the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. Here the gunboat was sent back, unlaw- fully laden with furs to appease I^a Salle's creditors, and was never heard from again. The expedition

Cushed on to the Illinois, where Fort Cr^veccsur was uilt. After waiting through the winter for the re- turn of the "Griffin", La &lle, leaving the faithful Tonty in charge of the fort, resolved to return one thousand miles on foot to Montreal, accompanied by four Frenchmen and an Indian guide. The sufferinn of this famous retreat were borne with incredible fortitude, and he was returning with supphes when it was learned that the garrison at Fort Urdvecoeur had mutinied, had driven Tonty into the wilderness, and were then cruising about Lake Ontario in the hope of murdering La Salle. The dauntless Frenchman pushed out at once upon the lake, captured the mu- tineers, sent them back in irons to the governor, and then went to the rescue of Tonty, whom he met at Mackinaw on his return trip after abandoning the