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 LOUISVILLE

388

LOtnSVILLl

city in August of the sjime yt^ar. Louisville was establish^ by Act of the legislature of Virginia on 1 May, 1780, on 1000 acres belonging to one John Connolly. Three French priests, Revs. Flaget, Levadoux. and Richard, met in Louisville and prob- ably said M&Ba there for the first time in 1792. It is not certain that any professing Catholic was resident before 1791. Several Catholic families of Irish and American birth settled there between 1805 and 1825. In 1806 a large colony of Frenchmen, with their fami- lies, settled about one or two miles south of the city limits, and upon the southern bank of the Oliio, and though but very few of them were practical Catholics they aided Father Badin liberallv. A church was erected on the comer of Tenth and Main streets, and opened on Christmas Day, 1811, but not finished until 1817. Father Philip Hosten attended it occasionally from Fairfield until 17 August, 1822, when he was ap- pointed pastor of Louisville. Typhoid fever was carrying off hundreds of the population when he ar- rived, and he ministered night and day to the sick and dying. He fell a victim to the fever and died, 30 Oc- tober. He was succeeded in 1823 by Father Robert A. Abell, who attended the Catholics in the town proper, and the villages of Shippingport and Portland, St. John's, Bullitt county, on the southern, and those of New Albany and Jefifersonville on the northern bank of the Ohio. Father Abell was succeeded by Rev. J. I. Re>'nolds, who had for assistants Fathers George Hay den, McGill, and Clark. Father Stahl- smidt replaced Father Clark, and gathered together the Catholic Germans in the basement chapel, and thus laid the foundation of the first German congrcga- tioQ in the city.

Bishops, — (1) Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Flajjct, on the removal of the see from Bardstown to Louisville, appoint^ Father Reynolds vicar-general, and Rev. Dr. Martin J. Spalding, pastor of the old cathedral at Bardstown. A colony of five sisters of the Good Shep- herd, from Angers, France, arrived in Louisville m 1842, and were installed in a home on Eighth street near Walnut purchased for them by Bishop Flaget. This was the cradle of this religious community in the United States. The confraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners was es- tablished on 21 March, 1843, by Bishop Flaget. The coadjutor bishop, Dr. Chabrat, being tnreatened with the loss of sight, tendered his resignation, which was at length (1847) accepted, and Dr. Martin J. Spalding appointed in his place. Two Franciscan Brothers from Ireland opened the first free school in Louisville in 1847. The year previous the Jesuit Fathers, in charge of St. Mary's College for fourteen years, left the diocese. About Alay, 1848, negotiations between the bishop and the Jesuits of St. Louis were completed, by which the fathers took chai^ of St. Joseph s College, at Bardstown, and the Catholic free school founded by the Irish Franciscan Brothers. Soon after the Jesuite arrived in Louisville, they erected a spacious edifice as a college adjoining the free school. The college at- tendance was from 100 to 200, and that of the free school about l^OO boys. Late in December, 1848, a colony of Trappists from Melleray, France, arrived at and settled on a farm of about 1600 acres formerly belonging to the Loretto Sisters, and named Gethse- xnanL Bishop Fkiget d on 11 February, 1850 (see Flaget, Benedict Joseph).

Coad j utor Bishop Guy Ignatius Chabrat, b. at Cham- bre, France, on 28 December, 1787; d. at Mauriac, France, on 2 1 November, 1868. He came to Kentucky in 1800 and was ordained on 25 December, 181 1. He did missionary duty at St. Michael's, Fairfield, St. Clare's, and Louisville. He had charge for a short time (1823) of St. Pius's, Scott County. Upon the death of Father Nerinclu, Father Chabmt succeeded /t//o as superior of the Loretto sisterhood till 1 8 16. IIo ooaaecr&ted (20 July, 1834) Biahop of Bolina and

coadjutor of Bardstown. When Bishop Chabrat was forced to resign by reason of his approucliing blindness he retired (1847) on a comfortable pension to his old home in France. He died in the thirty-fourth year of his episcopate.

(2) Rt. Rev. Martin John Spalding, b. 23 May, 1810, was one of the first pupils of Father Byrne's College, afterwards of the diocesan seminary of St. Thomas, thence he passed to Rome and was ordained on 13 August, 1834; became vicar-general of the diocese in 1844, caidjutor bishop on 10 September, 1848, and bishop on the death of Dr. Flaget, 11 February, 1850. Upon the death of Dr. Kendrick, Bisliop Spalding was elevated, 11 June, 1864, to the Archdiocese of Balti- more. He appointed his brother. Rev. Dr. Benedict Joseph Spalding, administrator of the diocese. In 1848 Bishop Spalding found 30,000 souls in the whole state, cared for by 40 priests, and at his departure there were 70,000 souls with 51 diocesan and 24 re- ligious priests in the Diocese of Louisville. There were but 43 Catholic churches in the state in 1848; in 1864 there were 80 in the Diocese of Louisville. Dui^ ing the administration of Dr. B. J. Spalding the Jesuit Fathers of St. Joseph's College left the diocese (see Spalding, Martin John).

(3) Rt. Rev. Peter Joseph Lavialle, b. in 1820 at Laviallc near Mauriac, in Auvergne, France, made his preparatory studies in France, and came to Kentucky with his relative, Bishop Chabrat, in 1841; he was or^ dained pnest in 1844, and assigned to work at the cathedral. In the year 1849 he was appointed pro- fessor of St. Thomas's Seminary where ne remained until Bishop Spalding, in 1856, made him president of St. Mary's College, which office he held until he was consecrated Bishop of Louisville on 24 September,

1865. He invited the Dominican Fathers to locate in the episcopal city in Decenil>er, 1 865. The following year St. Joseph's and St. Micliael's churches, Louis- ville, were dedicated, and a temporary frame church (St. Louis Bertrand's) built and the convent of the Dominican Fathers commenced. Though exhausted from continued labours and mortifications, he at- tended the Second C-ouncil of Baltimore in October,

1866, and on his return resumed the diocesan visita- tion, but had to retire to St. Joseph's Infirmary, and thence to Nazareth Academy where he died on 11 Mav, 1867. He was buried in the crypt of Louisville cathedral. Very Rev. B. J. Spalding was again ap- pointed administrator of the diocese, but he soon died (4 August. 1868). Archbishop Purcell then ap- pointed Very Rev. Hugh I. Brady administrator seoe vacante,

(4) Rt. Rev. William George McCloskey; b. on 10 November, 1823, in Brooklyn, N. Y. He studied law in New York City, but abandoning his worldly career he was ordained priest by Archbiishop Hugnes on 4 October, 1852. After acting as assistant for one year to his brother, Rev. John McCloskey, pastor of the Nativity church. New York, he was appointed pro- fessor of Latin and after^-ards of holy Scripture and moral theology at St. Mary's College, Maryland, and in 1857 was chosen as director of Mount St. Mary's Seminary, which office he held until he was appointed (8 December, 1859) by Pius IX first rector of the recently established American College at Rome. Upon the death of Bishop Lavialle the Pope named Dr. McCloskey to the vacant see, and he was oonaecrated bishop by Cardinal Reisach in the American College on 24 May, 1868. Bishop McCloskey ruled the dio- cese for forty-one years and died at Preston Park Sem- inary on 17 September, 1909. Very Rev. James P. Cronin, former vicar-general, was appointed adminia- trator of the diocese by ArchbishopldoeUer of Cincin- nati. The Right Rev. Denis Ol>onaghue, Titular Bishop of Pomario (25 April, 1900) and Bi^op Auxiliaiy of Inclianapolis, was chosen as the new Bishop of Louia- villc and took possession of hia see on 29 Mareh^ 191flL