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Scope and Contents Flaget received a letter towards the end of the previous year from the people of the Cote du Nord Est, a petition abounding in religious sentiments. Flaget answered them without reproach promising them a pastor and the establishment of a college on the property as soon as possible. He expected them to restore peace and union and such would have been the case if they had been sincere in their protestations. But since that time there have been continued troubles. They have organized a...

Scope and Contents There is a note in Father Gabriel Richard's hand that Flaget rewrote the first two pages into three pages and seven lines which he signed and which must be accepted. Signed by Richard. Although he has been consoled by their attendance at the missions he has conducted among them during the past six months he sees that lasting fruits will not be obtained until: 1. he decides on the principal places where they can one day establish parishes;, 2. he gives to his dear co-laborers the advice which...

Scope and Contents Although it has been a source of satisfaction to have conducted missions among them unceasingly for six months and to see the fruits among them from their chance to hear the word of God, he is yet uneasy about the perseverance in these good dispositions, because of bad habits, the seductions of the world and the work of the demon. He fears that they will be like flowers that bloom in the early spring but which fade and die at a sudden north wind. He fears that he will soon learn that their...

Scope and Contents Flaget rejoices that Brute is still in the company and praises him for his work and marvelous success. This is not a compliment, it is a fact because Fathers Charles Nerinckx and Guy Ignatious Chabrat who were eye witnesses of the work have told him, and they are not flatterers. He admires what they have done and can not understand it. For if six priests did not work that these two are doing he would consider them sifficiently employed. One thing troubles Flaget that is that both are...

Scope and Contents He greets him on the feast as he is at St. Magdalene's on his way to Tennessee apart of his diocese he has not yet visited. His companion is Father Robert Abell who worried him a year ago by his illness. He is now at his house along side a convent of 3 Sisters of Charity who have a flourishing school. Abell is well and very devoted. He sees by Brute's letter that there are troubles also at the Mount. Also in Kentucky and elsewhere. What Brute has told about Father Jean Dubois's plans...

Scope and Contents According to his heart he would write Brute often but he is guided by his head which Brute knows begins many things which it cannot finish. In his diocese he is in a labyrinth of temporal affairs. Father Scheifers, Peter Schaeffer speaking of the blessings that have come to the bishop both on Catholics and Protestants that the people in his congregations are so well disposed that they speak of building a chapel of brick and of building a monastery for 5 or 6 religious and in a third ...

Scope and Contents Flaget writes from the very land of the cathedral. That morning he laid out the dimensions with Father Jean David and the architect. His encouragement is so great that he would go against Providence to delay. Now they lay the stones for the foundation and they will come from a quarry on the same ground. IN five or six weeks the foundation will be laid and he will return to lay the cornerstone with all the solemnity he can muster with his grand master of ceremonies and as many priests...

Scope and Contents Flaget encloses this letter in a letter very important for Bishop William DuBourg which he asks Bruté to expedite but carefully since he does not send a duplicate. If his seminary of Saint Thomas would be taken over by the Sulpicians he would lack nothing for his happiness there. Tomorrow on the feast of the Assumption he will bless the chapel dedicated to St. Thomas with deacon and subdeacon. Father Guy Ignatius Chabrat will be assistant priest and Father Jean David will direct the ...

Scope and Contents It has been ages since Flaget has spoken with Brute and he is sorry not to have answered Brute's letters. He has not even sent greetings for the new year. Many things have happened in the time since he last wrote, interesting things and trying things. Brute would have been very happy to see the way Bishop William Dubourg's flock welcomed him, the people of St. Louis above all others. Two carriages were sent along the banks of the Mississippi one to carry two bishops and the other for...

Scope and Contents Bruté has written him a volume of letters and he has not answered one. The time passes with such rapidity that his mind is in a whirl. He needs a cathedral, a seminary, and a convent for girls. These are some of the problems he contemplates, besides the churches confided to his care. What a difference between his cell in Baltimore and his palace in Bardstown. He thinks of it every day, but he accepts his cross. If Father William DuBourg is awake Bruté is to embrace him for the Bishop, ...

Scope and Contents Apparently the postscript of a letter entitled Commissions. He sends his thanks to Madame Berquin who told him of the death of Mrs. Duffant and who has promised rosaries for him, to Madame Fournier, Madame Leroy, Madame Lacombe, Madame Miran, and Dumoulin. Also Mesdames St. Martin, De Levite, and Mademoiselle Constance. He asks to be remembered to Mesdames Orrourck and Latallaye, Madam Granpre and her brother, Madame Amiote and Madame de Volumbrun. Mr. Xoupy is a little negligent in...

Scope and Contents Kentucky absorbs all his thought and all his projects, and poor Kentucky has little of what he wants. If Father Ambrose Maréchal comes he hopes he will not be forgotten. He would like to have Father Gabriel Richard for his seminary, and for other work. He would use Father John David for preaching and for other work. Even Protestants desire to listen to him. He asks that Bruté not forget Kentucky where the roses are surrounded by thorns. He hopes for a love of God to bear his burdens....

Scope and Contents Flaget is very grateful for Bruté's letters which are like gazettes. His poor country is so buried in the woods that his messages are very much appreciated. He begs Bruté to continue to send them news of the church. Flaget tells of attending a sick child which suffered from convulsions which had been cured by spitting up worms while he was there. Three other children experienced the same illness which was attributed to witchcraft. The father said that only a priest could cure the...

Scope and Contents Flaget does not know why their correspondance has ceased, but if he is the cause he is without malice, but Brute's response has taken away any cause of ill-feeling as his letters have always done Father Guy Ignatius Chabrat, the first fruit of his episcopacy bears this letter and Brute can ask him many questions about affairs in Kentucky for which Brute is to give him some letters of introduction to some of his friends. Flaget asks if it true that Brute has left the Sulpicians. He ...

Scope and Contents He once reproached Bruté for writing too often now he does not write enough. It seems like 10 years since he spoke with Bruté. If Bruté composes a book like the Imitation he should suppress a chapter to give him all the news since he was at Baltimore. Today the Indians of Missouri know as much as he does and perhaps more. Father Gabriel Richard had written him that he has 40 nations of Indians in his diocese who are ready to receive the gospel. Bruté is to speak to his seminarians...

Scope and Contents Flaget wishes Brute a happy new year and assures him of his affection. He thanks Brute for having brought back his good Roger whose services have become so necessary. He also thanks Brute for the apparatus and their things which arrived in good condition and for which Brute paid the customs. They arrived some days before Christmas and Flaget has opened the boxes except those containing the apparatus, since the room for it is not ready. Father Stephen Theodore Badin has announced that...

Scope and Contents Flaget writes in good humor and as Brute desires he is sending the $50 to Father Gabriel Richard to sweeten his misfortune in not being elected a second time. Richard says that it is good for priests to run for Congress. To him Richard was greater in his prison with his bed of straw than in the center of Congress. Father Stephen Theodore Badin is always having Richard made a bishop, but the letters from Rome say nothing about it but the promotion of Father Benedict Fenwick to Boston, ...

Scope and Contents Brute can scarcely appreciate how valueable his letters are with their precious news which they get from nowhere else. He asks him to continue them even when he cannot answer letter for letter, for that is the etiquette of the world. The news from Philadelphia while less serious in the second letter than they were in the first are lamentable. Flaget and Bishop Jean B. David are becoming convinced that a national council would be useful in these lamentable circumstances. It is the ...

Scope and Contents The bearer of this letter is a young man Augustine Spalding subdeacon whom Flaget has ordained at ember time of penetcost. He is scarely able to explain the authors that one sees in the humanities but he has behaved so well during the four years with them that Flaget has no doubt about his vocation and he would rather admit these to orders than to leave them to the temptations of the devil. Byrne is not to be scandalized if the man is not as good as Ignatius Reynolds, it is not the...

Scope and Contents Flaget gives his definitive judgment regarding the differences which have taken place in the parish. Flaget expresses his sorrow at the unhappy division which threatens them with schism and even loss of faith and finds no more suitable expression of his feeling than those of St. Paul to the Corinthians I Cor VI, 8, 12, 13, etc.. If St. Paul had been writing to the people of Detroit instead of the Corinthians he would have made the same reproaches. Flaget regrets that in the past two years...

Scope and Contents Flaget has received Bruté's latest letter and tribute for which he is very grateful. He wants to know the source of the oval reliquary, the portrait of Our Lord and Our Lady embossed in silver and a little ivory statue of the Blessed Virgin so that he can send a testimony of his gratitude. He is grateful to God for the bit of the cross he gives him every day to keep his apostolic way. The little success he had in Baltimore for his cathedral is disappointing. He asks that Bruté ...

Scope and Contents He apologizes to Bruté for writing to him only on envelopes but he has to take advantage of the best means to get his letters to Europe through Baltimore. He encloses a letter for Madame Fourrier which is for the most part for her brother, the Bishop; he hopes that Bruté will not delay it. That to Father Jean Tessier is open so Bruté can read it and also their confreres who may be interested. Father Felix D'Andreis and eight of his confreres who may be interested. Father Felix...

Scope and Contents It was during the Paschal season, the harvest season for the priests and bishops, that Flaget received Bruté's letter. Apparently there are many sheaves but the final results will show a greater abundance of straw than grain. To all the burning pains of a laboring ministry, perhaps fruitless, are added the inexplicable contradictions and unexpected disappointments v.g. the instance of Maximilian Godefroi who failed to send the plan which he had offered so generously is an example. He...

Scope and Contents In his recent letter he wrote as a child who forgets the things of the past in the excitement of the moment. The affair of Mr. Millet has been resolved to Flaget's satisfaction and he has said his mea culpa about his letter to Bishop Louis William DuBourg. As a mark of their good relations Flaget has given Millet permission to make a reredos for the altar in the seminary which has already a fine tabernacle. If Bruté has not told anyone of this affair he asks him not to do so. Tomorrow ...

Scope and Contents If the members of the opposition persist in their revolutionary and Calvinistic principles, Flaget will carry out his former pastoral and place them under interdict and if they persist he will include with them all who do not sign the lists prepared by the legitimate corporation. Even if 2/3 of the congregation join the rebellious group he will not give in, because they will have really excluded themselves from the bosom of the church. He will be sufficiently satisfied by the good of those...

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Although not desiring to interfere in matters that concern the Dominicans and conscious of the great good they have done for him in his diocese, Flaget feels that he must agree with Fenwick and support his petition as the only way in which Fenwick can fulfill his obligations in the new diocese. At the same time Flaget thinks that it will promote religion in both diocese.` A.L.S. Latin 2pp. 8vo.

Scope and Contents If Father Jean Tessier worries him in the next six months as he has during the past year Flaget will lose his life or his head. Bruté knows how he has made him suffer over Father Jean David. After that he had some money in his hands that belonged to Flaget and with which he made Flaget pay for some things which friendship should have allowed. Now he comes to engage Father Guy Ignatius Chabrat, demanding him without regard to Flaget's claims. Chabrat adopted Flaget's diocese at ...

Scope and Contents The imposter Timon mentioned in his letter had already visited Kentucky, blessing and preaching sometimes as a bishop, sometimes as a freemason. Although bold enough to pass through Bardstown, he dared not visit any clergyman. He went by the name of Bishop Michael Portier, lately appointed bishop for the Floridas. Flaget wrote immediately to Fathers Blanc and Jeanjean in order that he might be detected. At least it has afforded Timon and Flaget the occasion to renew acquaintance. ...

Scope and Contents Flaget acknowledges the receipt of the petition of the habitants of the month of October. He has read it with close attention, but feels he must wait until he has heard the other side so that he can examine the matter sincerely and render a just judgment in the case. He wishes, however, to set forth certain principles which must be the basis of the future judgments. 1. It appears to him and to Bishop Joseph Octave Plessis of Quebec that the church of St. Anne should be rebuilt in Detroit...

Scope and Contents Brute's arguments have convinced him that he should give the $50 to Father Gabriel Richard. They must not let a simple matter of money break up their friendship. His situation is very unpleasant. The subscriptions for the cathedral are not being paid. Flaget has simply told his agent to get the money here and now. He needs $4,000. The Sisters of Charity through the maladministration of a mother need a like sum. To this he has added a personal debt for a house costing $5,000. He ...