Calendared content

Scope and Contents

Simon Rivollet wishes to validate his marriage of almost two years ago before a judge, with ésarine Déé, sister of his deceased wife. They ask for a dispensation. :: VI-1-c A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents

Jan takes the opportunity of Father Dubernard's going down to the city to send his respects. He received Blanc's letter of the 12th this morning. He will not delay to carry out the commission which Blanc has given him and to give him the results. :: VI-1-m A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents His visit to Abbeville has been made; there is obvious exaggeration in the reports Blanc has received. Jan did not discover the slightest dissatisfaction against the pastor. The 3 or 4 persons against Father Jean Arthur Poyet have been silent since Blanc's visit. Jan showed Blanc's letter to Poyet who has been very well behaved under the circumstances. One has already been tried and the $100 subscribed. The other case is still pending but Poyet promised that he will do his best to have it...

Scope and Contents

Arcade Potin and Elisa Guidry wish to marry and ask for a dispensation. Jan has their license; they can pay only 10 piastres. :: VI-1-h A.L.S. French lp. 12mo.

Scope and Contents

Jan has just received a letter from Father Joseph Roduit, S.J. which annoys him. Jan had asked Roduit for a priest to replace him during the retreat. Roduit replies that it will be impossible. Jan knows that Father A. de Chaignon, S.J . will remain at his post, but he is so far away and could not tend to the needs of 4 parishes besides his. :: VI-1-h A.L.S. French 2pp. 12mo.

Scope and Contents By Blanc's letter of the 9th, Confirmation at St. Martin is set for September 18 and at Pont-Breaux for the 20th. If it could have been at St. Martin on Sunday and Pont-Breaux on Thursday, it would have been more convenient but Jan will hold to what Blanc wrote. Mr. Dumartrait died July 24 of a paralytic stroke. It is a real loss for the parish. Jan is still in the old presbytery; he freezes in winter and burns in the summer. Now that Dumartrait is gone, Jan thinks it will not be rebuilt for...

Scope and Contents Jan believes that they are at last rid of the epidemic whose beginning Blanc saw here. Today, however, there was one death. The number of victims is 60 in the town and almost the same in the country. Their doctors greatly facilitated Jan's ministry, especially Dr. Landry . Fifteen young people came to ask where the most ill were. Their devotion, day and night was most worthy of praise as it was disinterested. The trustees having been absent for two months, the affair of the presbytery and...

Scope and Contents

Two of Jan's parishioners, Ulinar Dugas and Clélie Gamoulin ? wish to marry and ask for a dispensation. Jan doubts that he can get the 20 piastres as they are poor. :: VI-1-j A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents Ernest Guidry and élestine Guidry ; and Michel Alléman and Scholastique Trahan wish to marry. They ask for a dispensation. They already have their licenses; they can offer only 15 piastres. Alcibiade Deblanc recently bought an arpent of land next to the cemetery wnd wishes to make it a family cemetery. He asked Jan to bless it. Jan did not want to promise anything without referring it to Blanc. Deblanc only wants to get a decline in the sale of lots in the parish cemetery. Two articles on...

Scope and Contents Two of Jan's parishioners, André Lasseigne and Marie Almaide Dorothée Grénière-Durand wish to marry and ask for a dispensation. Jan has the civil license. Father Stephen Rousselon arrived yesterday at midnight at New Iberia, by noon he was at St. Martin from where he left today for Lafayette. His health does not seem to have suffered from his trip. Alcibiade Deblanc has returned several times to ask for Blanc's decision about his cemetery. In the meantime, Deblanc has had a tomb erected in...

Scope and Contents The news of Blanc's accident so soon after he left them, threw them into consternation. Today they are glad to hear of his recovery. Father Jean Honor Dubernard asks Jan to submit a request to Blanc. Because of the new responsibility caused by the arrival of his father, Dubernard cannot manage at Pont-Breaux; he would like to be at Plaquemine. Dubernard will leave important improvements at Pont-Breaux and not a cent of debt, thanks to the 3000 piastres he won in the Havana lottery. Since...

Scope and Contents

Two of Jan's parishioners, Joseph Potier and Emilie Broussard ask for a dispensation. They can give only 15 piastres. :: VI-1-j A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents

Two of his parishoners, Ursin Leblanc and Marie Azélie Guidry wish to marry. They ask for a dispensation. Jan has their license. They can give only 15 piastres. :: VI-1-j A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents

Two of Jan's parishioners Emile Claireman Thibodeaux and Idalie? Castille wish to marry and ask for a dispensation; Jan has their license. Two slaves, Antoine, belonging to Adolphe Lassalle and Sylvanie to Hilaire Lopez, also presented themselves but the father of one is the brother of the mother of the other. They want to marry in conformity with the religion they have practiced faithfully for a long time. Their masters have given their consent. :: VI-1-j A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents Jan is finally going to give the result of the contention between his trustees and himself whose cause Blanc knows. Jan continues to have full enjoyment of the church enclosure. These gentlemen to longer talk of the setting of their projected walk. But Jan heard in confidence that they proposed to appeal to the legislature. Would it not be better to compromise with them? Jan could offer to give them what they want on condition that they give him in exchange a more suitable place on the...

Scope and Contents Jan has thankfully received the news that Blanc has decided to give him an assistant. He is glad of the delay as it will give Jan time to submit some of his ideas. If the pastoral retreat is not to be held soon, Jan would like to come down to the city for a few days. The request that New Iberia has made to the Legislature has thrown everyone into a great excitement. The "little Versailles" of Louisiana sees itself threatened to be only the last branch of Attakapas. Pont Breaux would become...

Scope and Contents Duties prevent Jan from coming to the city as he would have preferred. Jan, since learning of the naming of an assistant at St. Martin, while filled with gratitude, still has a feeling that may seem like a weakness. The frictions and ruptures which are too often kept in the secret of the presbytery make Jan dread to expose himself to the risk of giving his parishoners a spectacle which would not edify them. He believes that in an interest common to Father Jean Honoré Dubernard and himself,...

Scope and Contents The arrival of Father Jean Honoré Dube nard both surprised and pleased Jan. Dubernard left for Grand Coteau a week ago and is to return here July 2. His installation is set for the 5th. This new organization will be an immense advantage for Pont Breaux . Jan accepts the function of vicar general for Attakapas which Blanc has conferred on him. The presbytery is about to be finished; shortly Dominique Fois will go down to buy the furniture. Jan has been robbed. The money he had for expenses,...

Scope and Contents

If Jan had known Blanc's wish sooner he would have been only too happy to offer him the horse. But now it is too late; Jan sold it two months ago to the Jesuits and has learned recently that the horse died. The one they bought to replace it is blind in one eye. Jan has asked Mr. Fois to look for a horse that would suit Blanc. Jan is expecting Father Jean Honoré Dubernard today and Sunday he will accompany him to Pont Breaux. :: VI-1-m A.L.S. French 2pp. 8vo.

Scope and Contents

The Steamer Courier for some time has not arrived regularly at St. Martin. Jan fears that if Blanc takes this way he will not arrive Wednesday. Jan will have him taken on Thursday to Grand Coteau. :: VI-1-m A.L.S. French 1p. 12mo.

Scope and Contents

St. Cyr Dugas and Noemie Bernard, married civilly a few days ago, have asked Jan to bless their marriage. Jan had to refuse as Dugas is the brother-in-law and cousin of Miss Bernard. Jan will wait until he receives Odin's reply. :: VI-2-l A.L.S. French 1p. 4to.

Scope and Contents

He sends his accounts for the second half of last year by Father Aristide Plotin . $51.65 for the jus cathedraticum, $80 for expenditures, $29.70 for the seminary, $14.40 for the Propagation of the Faith and $14.50 for the Holy Childhood. Times are hard and money is scarce. Jan gave a sharp rebuke to the father of the girl to whom Odin granted a dispensation and it seems to have had a good effect. Jan did not hesitate to bless the marriage. :: VI-2-m A.L.S. French 1p. 4to.

Scope and Contents Odin's letter of the first did not arrive until the 16th. The donation proposed by the widow, Mrs. Neuville de Clouet is not acceptable. She can neither sell nor give any portion of her property which is indivisible and of which she has only one half. Alcibiade de Blanc, lawyer and heir of Mrs. Neuville says the title would not be valid. If it were valid, Odin would never give consent to set up a chapel almost exclusively for the convenience of a few lax people and much less for the benefit...

Scope and Contents On September 5 Vermillionville was the setting of a scandalous scene. Father Joseph Outendirck was there and decided to stop in a café for a drink. He became drunk. They took him to the presbytery. When Father Gustave Rouxel returned he found Outendirck lying on the floor surrounded by about 15 young people. Jan hastens to give details of this unfortunate affair because he knows that the people of New Iberia are going to send a petition to Odin asking him to keep their pastor. It seems that...

Scope and Contents Since he has found a safe way Jan sends the money he owes Odin. From 1862 to 1865 he received for baptisms, marriages, and burials, $573 in silver of which he owes Odin $28.65; and $686 in greenbacks of which he sends $34.25. There is also $90 for dispensations, $11 silver and $13 greenbacks for the Jubilee. The total is $330.90. He received Odin's last two letters, one through Father Francis Ceuppens and the other through Father George Lamy . Ceuppens went to his post the day after he...

Scope and Contents How difficult the days they have just passed through! He is not forgetting that he owes Odin for the Jus Cathedraticum, dispensations, seminary collection, etc. But he has nothing but Confederate bills which he was obliged to turn into bonds. He will pay when times are better. When Confederate notes still had some value he received more Mass intentions than he could say. Today when these notes have no value is he bound to say the Masses remaining? He has been advised to ask the United States...

Scope and Contents Odin's letter of September 12 was not received until December 12. He is sorry to tell Odin that the information about the deplorable happening at New Iberia is true. What is worse is that the author of the scandal has resumed his habit of drinking constantly. Father E.J. Foltier's departure at the same time of Father Jean Honoré Dubernard is very inconvenient. A Jesuit goes to Vermilionville for Mass on Sundays and a priest who is stopping at Grand Coteau will say Mass Thursday at Pont...

Scope and Contents Jan finds an opportunity to send the bottles for the holy oils. Mrs. Chauveau will bring them and send them back by her son-in-law who is Jan's near neighbor. Jan also asks for the second ordo which Rousselon proposed to send Jan, at the retreat. He would also like to have his certificate as pastor. He sees that his predecessors have put theirs in the registers and he would like to do the same. He had the pleasure of having Father Louis Rocoffort, S.J. for two weeks to preach the retreat...

Scope and Contents Father Anthony J. Jourdant, S.J. Jourdan having promised to go by today on his way to the city, Jan takes the opportunity to send 198.50 piastres: $145 from dispensations this year, $53.50 from the collections for the seminary. The Association of the Propagation of the Faith remains to be settled. Father Anthony Désiré Mégret plans to go to the city next week; Jan asks Rousselon to send back with him 2 ordos and some Annales; they have 6 groups. Jan thanks Rousselon for the note in Father...

Scope and Contents

During the last retreat, the Archbishop said that the holy oils would be given out in Attakapas district at an opportune time. But the time for the use of the old oils has expired and none have come. Knowing Rousselon's many occupations, Jan would have written to Father Richard Kane but he has heard that Kane is no longer at the Archbishop's house. :: VI-1-n A.L.S. French 1p. 8vo.