Seminary Education in the Louisiana Territory: the Incv Entian Contribution John E Rybolt, Depaul University
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DePaul University From the SelectedWorks of John E Rybolt 1983 Seminary Education in the Louisiana Territory: The incV entian Contribution John E Rybolt, DePaul University Available at: https://works.bepress.com/john_rybolt/34/ Seminary Education in the Louisiana Territory: The Vincentian Contribution John E. Rybolt, C.M. I. Louis William Valentine Dubourg, Bishop-elect of Louisiana, traveled to Rome in order to obtain missionaries for his diocese. In the summer of 1815 he lodged, as many others did, with the Vincentian community at its central house of Monte Citorio. Not finding other missionaries, he persuaded the Roman Vincentians to send some of their members with him, probably because the needs in Louisiana agreed with the traditional Vincentian works of seminary education and parish missions. As a result Dubourg and the Vincentian superiors signed on September 27, 1815 a contract which specified “that the missionaries will go out with him . especially to found a seminary as early as possible, by means of certain funds which have been promised them, together with the savings of the missionaries.” Under the leadership of Father Felix De Andreis, C.M., the first group of Vincentian and diocesan missionaries left Bordeaux in June, 1816, arriving in Baltimore after a difficult crossing of some six weeks. These missionaries traversed the Alleghenies, left Pittsburgh by riverboat, and arrived at Louisville November 19, reaching Bardstown shortly thereafter. Near Bardstown at Saint Thomas, the location of Bishop Flaget's seminary, the new missionaries spent the winter learning English and coming to experience the American frontier. At the same time a small band of English Catholics from Maryland, who had settled in Kentucky and then in Missouri, were seeking priests for their location. They agreed with Bishop Dubourg that the first seminary for Louisiana would be situated in what is now Perryville, Missouri. Once the buildings were underway the Vincentians moved from Saint Thomas and arrived in Perryville, October 2, 1818, beginning a long and continuous history of Vincentian activity in the Midwest. As the Seminary of Saint Mary's of the Barrens grew, it served first as a Vincentian scholasticate, with a novitiate for the community, then a diocesan seminary, and in 1822, accepted lay collegians. As early as 1839, Rosati planned to open a seminary for diocesan students in Saint Louis. here young Clergymen would find a holy and most useful apprenticeship of zeal in teaching the Catechism to the very numerous Catholic youth of the city; and, whilst adding to the dignity and beauty of divine worship in our Cathedral or other future Churches, they would form themselves to a due accuracy in the holy chaunts and in the sacred ceremonies of the Church. Rosati had the further reason for moving from Perryville, since “it is shown that this admixture [of lay and clerical students] brings about the loss of vocation for a good number of young ecclesiastics.” After Rosati left for Haiti, his successor, Peter Richard Kenrick, moved the diocesan students to Saint Louis in 1842. As we shall see, disagreements between Kenrick and the 1 Vincentians led him in 1848 to move his students again. The Saint Louis Theological Seminary in suburban Carondelet remained under the direction of the secular clergy until 1858 when the Vincentians again resumed charge. This arrangement lasted but a single year, since the bishops of the Saint Louis Province determined in the Provincial Council of 1858 to ask the Vincentians to turn their already flourishing Saint Vincent's College in Cape Girardeau, Missouri into a seminary for their province. With only limited success, the seminary remained there until 1893, at which time the present Kenrick Seminary opened in Saint Louis. The second major site for Vincentian activity was lower Louisiana. Dubourg’s original plan had been that the Vincentians would open their seminary close to New Orleans. He returned to this idea in the synod of 1821, and later in 1825, but the Vincentians could not begin another seminary because of inadequate manpower. After Dubourg’s resignation and the division of the diocese, another Vincentian, Leon DeNeckere, asked for his confreres to begin their second seminary. They agreed to do so by 1839, and in that year the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Saint Vincent de Paul opened in Ascension Parish, now Plattenville on the Bayou La Fourche, some sixty miles northwest of New Orleans. The small seminary continued there until the last day of February, 1855 when it burned to the ground. The Superior wrote that afternoon: What sad news I just received; the seminary is in ashes. I left yesterday evening with Brother Sala to teach catechism to the blacks in the Farriere plantation. I learned the next morning . .that the fire broke out in the kitchen . and that almost nothing could be saved. Thanks be to God no one was injured. Because of the inconvenient distance of Plattenville from the See city, the Vincentians and the bishop agreed in 1858 to reopen the seminary in New Orleans. The seminary barely survived the Civil War, but could not survive Reconstruction, closing finally in 1867. Although not in the Louisiana Territory, four other Vincentian seminaries of the pre- civil war days should be mentioned here: Saint Charles, Philadelphia; Saint Joseph Seminary, New York; Saint Mary's of the West, Cincinnati; and the Bardstown seminary. John Timon, as Provincial Superior (or Visitor), undertook the direction of these small institutions as part of the traditional Vincentian apostolate. The community withdrew from each of them after only a few years, due either to disagreements with the Ordinaries (in the case of New York and Cincinnati), or to lack of manpower. II. In reviewing the Vincentian contribution to seminary education on the Midwestern frontier, we will examine three features of seminary life which still interest us today: quality of formation, control of programs, and financial support. In the Vincentian system, uniformity guaranteed the quality of formation Saint Vincent himself, for example, insisted that his confreres “shall read [the rules] over or hear them read at least every three months,” thereby ensuring uniformity. After Vincent's time the 2 decisions of the General Assemblies (or chapters) of the community, took on ever greater importance. Those concerning seminaries were codified under the two great nineteenth- century superiors general, Jean-Baptiste Etienne (1843-1874) and Antoine Fiat (1878-1914.) Father Etienne described the importance of the “primitive spirit” in his review of the sad history of the community during and after the French Revolution: “This is the secret of all the great things accomplished before our eyes, and this will be the same movement of spirits which will accomplish even greater things if it is maintained in its fervor and if it communicates this to future generations.” Examples of this Vincentian uniformity abound. From the very beginning De Andreis described the novitiate opened in Saint Louis in 1818: Within it is a smaller apartment, two cupboards, small altar, a pretty good little library, three beds, separated one from the other by blue curtains similar to those used for the novices in Rome . We observed, even to the least point, all the regulations that are in Rome and elsewhere . everything, including the reading at table, is according to the same form as in Italy. The standard schedule of the community differed somewhat in the seminaries, since the seminarians did not observe all of the spiritual exercises of the Vincentians. The 1850 rules specified: rising, 5:00; morning prayer, 5:30; Mass, 6:00. Then study until breakfast at 7:45. Study, class and spiritual exercises occupied the rest of the day until night prayers at 8:30. Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons were free for longer periods of recreation and relaxation. Beyond the ordinary examples of style and schedule, extraordinary examples also occur here and there in Vincentian sources. One remarkable instance involved uniformity in hair, beard, and clothing to guarantee both a humble and simple style as well as uniformity. The Assembly of 1673 decreed that an engraving of the model missionary and the model lay brother would be drawn up “both according to the norms followed in this house of Saint La- zare.” Moreover the Assembly decreed for the same purpose that: “no one should be shaved except by those who were set aside to do this by the superior, in order that this decree might be kept forever, the visitors and the local superior should oversee the matter.” In the same vein, Father Etienne decided in 1869: in clothing, both as regards to the style and the quality of the material, the usage of the motherhouse should be followed. To insure this uniformity we have determined to establish in our house a depository for Winter and Summer cloths and stuffs, and from this each house will be able to get supplies. Despite the wonders of Parisian fashion, it is difficult to imagine how the missionaries in China, Algiers, Mexico, and Perryville, Missouri would preserve this holy uniformity of the primitive spirit in hair, beard and clothing. In fact, it appears that the American Vincentians never observed these decrees; they illustrate of the spirit of uniformity nonetheless. The same Rules of 1850 required professors to use only approved textbooks. It must be said here, however, that no list of specifically approved textbooks apparently existed; general church approval sufficed. Professors were to give to the opinions of Saint Thomas 3 Aquinas “that holy reverence due them; mention of the holy Doctor shall always be deferential.” The classroom procedure deserves a little longer treatment. When the signal is given for class to begin, the professors will go immediately to their respective classrooms, and having recited the customary antiphon “Veni Sancte Spiritus” with its versicle and prayer, they will first hear the students recite what they have learned; secondly, they will give an opportunity for the presentation of difficulties, and for discussion; thirdly, they will devote the remainder of the class time to a lecture on the next day's matter.