Louis William Valentine Dubourg
Louis William Valentine Dubourg (
1766 –
1833) was a leader of the
Roman Catholic Church who played an active role in the growth of the church in the early years of the
United States. He was born in Cape Francois, Santo Domingo, now known as
Cap-Haïtien,
Haiti.
He was ordained a priest in
Paris in
1790, and was studying at the
Sorbonne at the advent of the
French Revolution. Events caused him to be concerned for his safety, so he took shelter with his family in
Bordeaux, escaped to Spain, and sailed to the United States in
1794. He entered a seminary in
Baltimore, Maryland and became a member of the
Society of Saint-Sulpice one year later.
He was appointed president of
Georgetown College in 1796. Under his adminstration, the curriculum expanded and the college's enrollment grew substantially. He went on to turn what had been St. Mary's seminary in
Baltimore, Maryland into St. Mary's College, which would eventually become
St. Mary's Seminary and University. It was under his administration that the state of
Maryland gave the school the power to confer degrees. He also invited the widow
Elizabeth Ann Seton to Baltimore in
1808 to establish a Catholic school for girls and later establish the
Sisters of Charity of New York there.
He became the apostolic administrator of the
Louisiana Territory in
1812. When he arrived in
New Orleans, he found that the rampant vice of the city, coupled with the insubordination of Antonio de Sedella, a popular
Spanish Capuchin priest who catered to the whims of the lukewarm local Catholic population, gave him reason to request that a new bishoporic be created for Louisiana. After a trip to France and
Rome, and he was named the second bishop of
Louisiana and the
[East and
West] Floridas in
1815. Shortly thereafter, however, he found he could no longer safely reside in New Orleans, and to avoid a schism, he relocated to
St. Louis, Missouri in 1817. While in St. Louis, Dubourg founded
St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary, the first college founded west of the
Mississippi River. He also helped to bring
Rose Philippine Duchesne and her newly created
Society of the Sacred Heart to the St. Louis area. In 1823, his last year in St. Louis, he welcomed the arrival of
Pierre-Jean De Smet and his fellow
Jesuits to the diocese. These same men would later found
St. Louis University.
He then returned to New Orleans, leaving the St. Louis Catholic community greatly expanded, even if in considerable debt.
Joseph Rosati became his coadjutor in 1825, and after Dubourg returned to France, Rosati became the first bishop of the new
diocese of Saint Louis.
In 1825, Dubourg returned to France, having resigned his seat in New Orleans due to supervisory conflicts with Rosati. In France, DuBourg served as Bishop of
Montauban, and was appointed Archbishop of
Besançon in February
1833. He died later that same year.
*Bowden, Henry Warner.
Dictionary of American Religious Biography, Westport, Connecticut:Greenwood Press, 1977. ISBN 0837189063
*Christensen, Lawrence O., et. al.
Dictionary of Missouri Biography. Columbia, MO, and London:University of Missouri Press, 1999. ISBN 0826212220
Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume 1607-1896. Chicago:Marquis Who's Who, 1967.
*
Dubourg's role, continued
here in what became the
Archdiocese of Saint Louis
