Chapelle, Father , New York, New York, to Archbishop Anthony Blanc, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1859 November 15

Chapelle, former canon of the Cathedral Church of Monde, France, and Secretary of the bishopric, now chaplain and confessor of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in New York and Manhattanville. Since March 19, 1827, when Bishop Claude Joseph Brulley da la Brunière, then Bishop of Mende, asked him to publish the regulations of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith and to establish it there, Chapelle has longed to consecrate himself to the missions. After 30 years he has at last obtained the consent of his bishop and is already on the way to Blanc for employment where he can work without a complete knowledge of the English language. Unfortunately he was ill advised as to the route and expenditures necessary to get to New Orleans and so must stop here to replenish his purse. The Brothers were without any spiritual aid for a long time and asked Chapelle to accept their chaplaincy in the city and in the country. On seeing the papers that Chapelle brought, the Archbishop of New York wanted to give Chapelle that title but it seems to Chapelle that another could do better here. Chapelle also offers Blanc a young seminarian of 18, his nephew, who finished his classical studies this year at Enghien College in Belgium. Since then Chapelle has been having him follow a little course in philosophy and the humanities but he would like to have him enter a seminary. The nephew is in good health and pious. If Blanc consents, Chapelle will send him as soon as his finances permit and will hasten to rejoin him as soon as he can get another chaplain for the Brothers. Although Chapelle is 60, he is in very good health thanks to the manual labor he has done during the past two years but if he remains here he will lose it because of the enforced idleness on five days as he works only on Sundays and Wednesdays. He asks Blanc to let both of them work for him. :: VI-2-b A.L.S. French 4pp. folio