Benedict Joseph Flaget

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The
Auvergne, Kingdom of France
DiedFebruary 11, 1850(1850-02-11) (aged 86)
Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Previous post(s)Bishop of Bardstown (1808–1832; 1833–1841)

Benedict Joseph Flaget

Catholic bishop in the United States. He served as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bardstown between 1808 and 1839. When the see was transferred to Louisville in 1839, he became Bishop of the Diocese of Louisville
where he served from 1839 to 1850.

Education and call to ministry

Flaget was born on November 7, 1763, in Contournat, now part of the

priest on June 1, 1788.[2] Flaget then taught theology for two years at the University of Nantes, and soon held the same post at the seminary at Angers, until those institutions were closed by the French Revolution
.

Early church work in America

In January 1792 Flaget sailed from Bordeaux, accompanied by fellow Sulpician

Suppression and expulsion by British forces in 1763. There was a considerable number of French settlers and the mission which had gone without the presence of a resident priest for decades.[3]

Flaget journeyed west in a wagon headed through the

Falls of the Ohio (Louisville), where he continued on his journey to Fort Vincennes with George Rogers Clark. They reached the fort on December 21, 1792.[4]

At Vincennes, in addition to his pastoral work, Flaget founded a school and library in the church (now the

Miami tribe
. Flaget himself became ill, but recovered.

Flaget was recalled by his superiors to Baltimore and on April 23, 1795, traveled to Kaskaskia and then down the river to New Orleans and from there sailed to Baltimore. He taught geography and French at Georgetown College for the next three years.[4] One of his students was the future bishop of Boston, Benedict Joseph Fenwick.

Flaget left Baltimore with two colleagues in 1798 bound for

Louis Phillippe of France and his two brothers had arrived there on their journey in exile. The refugee aristocrats were befriended by their fellow Frenchman, Flaget, in 1800.[6] This was a kindness which Louis Phillippe remembered and returned when he later ascended the throne of France as King.[1]

Flaget returned to Baltimore in November 1801. He brought with him 23 young Spaniards whom he had recruited to study at Georgetown College. He then spent the next several years in various posts at that school.[1]

In 1821 he started on a visitation of Tennessee, and bought property in Nashville for the first Catholic church.[7] Flaget conducted the first Catholic mass in Nashville, Tennessee at the home of Revolutionary War Patriot and Commissioned Officer, Captain Timothy Demonbreun.

Bishop

Flaget was appointed by the

Diocese of Bardstown on April 8, 1808. This was the largest diocese ever formed in the United States and comprised an area now covering 10 modern states, including Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan, Indiana and others. Today this area includes 35 dioceses. Flaget, however, vigorously opposed the appointment and traveled to France in an effort to have it reversed. He was unsuccessful in this effort.[8]

On his return trip to the United States, Flaget brought other early Sulpician missionaries to America:

Simon Bruté, Guy Ignatius Chabrat, Anthony Deydier, James Derigaud and Julian Romeuf. The first two also became bishops in America. Upon his arrival, Flaget was consecrated a bishop by now-Archbishop Carroll on November 4, 1810[4]
in a ceremony at the Baltimore Cathedral, now a basilica.

Upon taking office the following year, Flaget found himself charged with the pastoral care of the western frontier of the United States, having the assistance of seven priests. In 1814, there being no Anglican clergyman in St. Louis, George Rogers Clark asked his old friend, Flaget, to baptize his three oldest children.

Bardstown remained a titular see
.

By 1817 Flaget was able to supply clergy to care for the French and Native American peoples living around the

Archbishop of Quebec
.

Flaget attended the First Provincial Council held by the American bishops in Baltimore to organize the Catholic Church as it was beginning to establish itself in the new nation. Worn out by this and his other labors, due to his poor health he submitted his resignation as bishop, which was accepted effective May 7, 1832. The outcry at this was so great from both the clergy and laity of the diocese, however, that he was appointed to that post again on March 17, 1833.[8] The Bardstown Diocese was later transferred to Louisville, Kentucky on February 13, 1841, becoming the Diocese of Louisville.

During a cholera outbreak in 1833, Flaget's care for the afflicted of all classes and creeds elicited general admiration from the public. In 1834 he received a new coadjutor bishop in the person of Guy Ignatius Chabrat, S.S., whom Flaget himself had recruited from a Sulpician seminary in France in 1811 and then ordained. The following year, Flaget left for Europe, where he stayed until 1839. By the time of his departure, he had erected four colleges, a large female orphanage and infirmary, eleven academies for girls, and had introduced three congregations of Religious Sisters and four religious Orders of men. After his return, he helped the Trappists to establish their first successful monastery in the nation in his diocese.[8]

Chabret resigned as Coadjutor in 1847, and Flaget himself became confined to his bed for the last years of his life. He died February 11, 1850,

Coadjutor Bishop, Martin John Spalding, with the sermon given by Bishop Purcell.[11] He was buried in the undercroft of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, Kentucky
.

Legacy

Several institutions have been named for Benedict Joseph Flaget:

References

  1. ^ a b c Spalding, Martin John. Sketches of the life, times and character of the Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, First Bishop of Louisville, 1852
  2. ^ Catholic Hierarchy
  3. ^ History of the Old Cathedral, Basilica of St. Francis Xavier Archived March 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b c Maes, Camillus. "Benedict Joseph Flaget." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 6 October 2014
  5. ^ History
  6. ^ The Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail, December 21, 1930, page 41
  7. ^ New Advent - Nashville, TN
  8. ^ a b c Virtual American Biographies Archived June 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Mussulman, Joseph. "Deists in the 'Wilderness'", Discovering Rogers and Clark, December 2013
  10. ^ "Past Bishops of Diocese and Archdiocese of Louisville", Archdiocese of Louisville
  11. ^ The Milwaukee Sentinel And Gazette, February 26, 1850
  12. ^ Bishop Flaget School, Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Schauinger, J. Herman (1952). Cathedrals in the Wilderness. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company.

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
none
 Bishop of Bardstown
1808–1832 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Bishop of Bardstown
1833–1841 		Succeeded by
none (transfer of See)
Preceded by
none (transfer of See)
 Bishop of Louisville
1841–1850 		Succeeded by
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