Simon Bruté

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The Very
Saint Sulpice in Paris

Simon William Gabriel Bruté de Rémur (March 20, 1779 – June 26, 1839) was a French missionary in the United States and the first

Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. President John Quincy Adams called Bruté "the most learned man of his day in America."[1][2]

Early life and education in France

The Palace of Justice in Rennes, birthplace of Simon Bruté

Bruté's father,

Palace of Justice, where the mother's family had occupied apartments in one of the wings since 1660.[3][4][5]

Bruté's father had an uncle and two brothers in holy orders. Abbé Jean, the older of the brothers, was a doctor of the Sorbonne and pastor of Saint Benedict's Church in Paris. He was the author of several valuable literary works. The younger, Abbé Bruté de Loirelle, was royal censor of Belles-Lettres at Paris, and was the author of several works in prose and verse. Moreover he made valuable translations from the writings of German and English authors. Bruté's mother had an uncle who belonged to the Premonstratensians, and a sister in the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.[6]

The Church of St. Germain in Rennes, where Bruté was baptized and received his first holy Communion

Bruté was born at night on March 20, 1779, at

Rennes, France, and baptized early in the morning of the same day in the church of St. Germain [fr].[7][8] His brother Augustine was born in 1784.[4] Bruté's father served as Director of the Finances of his native province with the promise of succession to the more remunerative office of Farmer-General of the revenues at Paris. Bruté's mother often addressed him in the words, "you were born to live in opulence." However, the family's fortunes changed with the sudden death of Bruté's father. Bruté later wrote, "'You were born to live in opulence,' my good mother often said to me ... [but] God ordered it otherwise. My father died (27th February, 1786) a few days after a very painful operation which had been rendered necessary by a fall from his Horse—and instead of a succession of opulence, left his affairs in the greatest disorder. Your Father, my Mother often said to me, could never be made to distrust anyone; he believed every person to be good and honest like himself—and the state of his accounts at the time of his death showed it." Not only were all his affairs in confusion, but it was found he was surety for the debts of others to the amount of one million francs. Friends and lawyers advised her to renounce the succession, Bruté writes, "but she, very justly, regarded an honourable name, as of more importance than wealth, and in order to preserve this to us, she determined to take upon herself the management of his affairs, even at the sacrifice of her own property." She worked day and night until she got the accounts in order, and owing to her diligence and management, all the debts were paid, with the losses much less than they would otherwise have been.[9][10]

Upon the death of her second husband, Madame Bruté obtained the reversion of Francis Vatar's title of printer to the King and Parliament. This occupation afforded her only support for the family. The books edited at her office chiefly concerned law and jurisprudence, and her stock of books was valued at 130,000 francs when it was rendered obsolete by the Constituent Assembly's abolition of all local laws and customs; new publications had to be rushed to press to preserve her business from complete destruction. During the height of the French Revolution, she made young Bruté work in the print shop, learning to composite type and set pages, to save him from being enrolled in a regiment of boys aged 14 to 16 named "the Hope of the country."[11] Despite his mother's efforts to shield him from the Reign of Terror and other horrors, the aristocratic youth still witnessed many disturbing scenes, including the trials and executions of priests and nobles. He frequented the prisons and made friends with the guards, who admitted him to the cells, where he received and delivered letters for the clergy incarcerated there. Disguised as a baker's assistant, Bruté would bring the Eucharist to imprisoned priests. The baker was, in reality, a priest in hiding.[12]

Bruté began studying

Society of Saint-Sulpice, and taught theology in the diocesan seminary at Rennes from 1808 through 1810.[12]

Due to his long interest in

diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky
.

Missionary

In June 1810, Bruté sailed for

Bardstown, Anthony Deydier, and others. He taught philosophy (while learning English) for two years at St. Mary's College, Baltimore. During vacations, he worked as a missionary. Bruté spent some time on the Eastern Shore. He was then sent to Mount St. Mary's College, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In Emmitsburg, he acted both as a teacher and as pastor, as well as spiritual director to Elizabeth Ann Seton. He became known for his unselfishness, his austerity, and his spirituality, as well as for his immense erudition. In 1815, he returned to France to retrieve his library, which he donated to St. Mary's College. Upon his return that same year, he was appointed president of the college. Two years later, he returned to Emmitsburg, where he lectured on Sacred Scripture and taught Theology and Moral Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's College.[13]
In 1826, Mount St. Mary's College was no longer dependent upon the Fathers of Saint-Sulpice, its founders, so Bruté ceased to belong to that society.

Bishop

Simon William Gabriel Brute from History of the Diocese of Vincennes, 1883

French missionaries sent from

diocese of Baltimore until the creation of the diocese of Bardstown. Missionaries such as Bruté and the more experienced Fr. Stephen Badin traveled by horse, foot, flatboat, and canoe between widely scattered settlements. The neighboring Indians
, called Bruté chief of the black robes and man of the true prayer.

American colonists had begun streaming over the

Buffalo Trace crossed the Wabash River and its subsidiary. Thousands emigrated from the East as well as the South to settle central Indiana. This caused conflict with the Native Americans, who had lost the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812. The sheer numbers of emigrants, many Catholic, helped qualify Indiana for admission as a separate state, with Corydon[15] as its first capital. However, the capital was soon moved north, ultimately to Indianapolis on the National Road. The state line at the Wabash River little affected missionaries such as Bruté and Badin. However, Bardstown was across the falls of the Ohio River
, and Kentucky, unlike Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was a slave state. Slavery had become a significant spiritual as well as an economic issue in the new nation.

Rome split the diocese of Bardstown and created the

metis. In 1834, despite his protest of ill health, melancholy, and some difficulty with conversation in English ("I lose the half of it and I am not understood"),[16] Bruté accepted the position of Bishop of Vincennes and crossed the Appalachian Mountains to serve in the newly created diocese, which encompassed all of modern-day Indiana plus eastern Illinois.[12] He became the new diocese's first bishop and was consecrated in the same year at the Cathedral of St. Louis. On March 7, 1835, Bruté became a U.S. citizen, partly because of land ownership requirements.[17]

The entire diocese had but three priests, including the Bishop as well as Simon Lalumiere

Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais, whom he tried to reconcile with the Church both by his letters from this country and conferring with him during one of his visits to France, but without success.[19] In 1836, Bruté returned from a trip to France with several clerical recruits, among them Benjamin Petit, who became a missionary to the Potawatomi. Bruté also drafted old acquaintances such as Anthony Deydier
who arrived on the same boat as Bruté in 1810.

By the time Bruté died, the number of clergymen had grown. Bruté knew, however, that much work remained to be done. He had sought a coadjutor bishop for several years before his death, including Nicholas Petit S.J.

Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière
was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Vincennes.

Bruté knew the great assistance a religious order could provide, having worked with Mother Seton and her Sisters of Charity during the founding and early years of Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg.[21] Bruté sent Hailandière as a representative to their native France in search of a religious congregation to come to the diocese and teach, provide spiritual instruction, and assist the sick. The Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir sent Théodore Guérin and five others.

Death and legacy

Bruté died in Vincennes, Indiana, on June 26, 1839, and was buried under the sanctuary of the cathedral there.[22] His tremendous influence on the entire church, his success in planning, financing, and carrying out necessary ecclesiastical reforms, and the constructive and executive ability he displayed in his diocese made him one of the foremost Catholic emigrants to the United States. He wrote Brief Notes on his experiences in France in 1793, in which he described state persecution of Catholic priests.

The name of the Latin School of Indianapolis, now closed, was changed to Bishop Bruté Latin School in his honor. The Archdiocese of Indianapolis runs a college seminary named after Bruté.[23] Students attend classes at the nearby Marian University, which offers the Bishop Simon Bruté Scholarship.[24]

In 2005, one of Bruté's successors,

Congregation for the Causes of Saints judged that Bruté led a life of heroic virtue, according him the title "Venerable" and preparing the way for beatification.[25] Ambrosi had an existing relationship with the archdiocese as postulator of the cause of St. Theodora Guérin, who would be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, and therefore had a strong prior knowledge of the early history of the Diocese of Vincennes.[26] The cause was officially opened on September 12, 2005.[27]

As of 2023, Bruté's cause was progressing slowly, with the historical commission still completing its work of gathering all of Bruté's extant writings (amounting to some 2,000 pages), after which the theological commission could begin its work of assessing the Catholic orthodoxy of those writings.[28] Father Guillaume Bruté de Rémur, a descendant of Bruté's brother Augustine who grew up in France and has followed in his great-great-great-great-uncle's footsteps as a priest, missionary, and seminary rector, has expressed interest in helping to further the cause, and reports that he and his family are praying for their ancestor's canonization.[29]

References

  1. ^ History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume 1 p. 412 By George E. Greene
  2. ^ The Old Vincennes Cathedral and Its Environs p. 12 by Curtis Grover Shake
  3. ^ Godecker 1931, pp. 5–6
  4. ^ a b "Simon, Guillaume, Gabriel BRUTÉ de RÉMUR 1728-1786". Portraits de Familles. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  5. ^ Bayley 1860, pp. 9–11
  6. ^ Godecker 1931, p. 5
  7. ^ Godecker 1931, p. 4
  8. ^ Bayley 1860, p. 9
  9. ^ Godecker 1931, p. 6
  10. ^ Bayley 1860, pp. 11–12
  11. ^ Godecker 1931, p. 12
  12. ^ a b c Buechlein, OSB, Daniel. "Reflections on the life and times of Simon Guillaume Gabriel Bruté de Rémur: Pioneer Scholar – Bishop of Vincennes”
  13. ^ Clarke 1888, pp. 23–24
  14. ^ Clarke 1888, pp. 32–3
  15. ^ IHB (2020-12-07). "First State Capital". IHB. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  16. ^ Coleman, Christopher B., Review of Sister Mary Salesia Godecker's "Simon Bruté de Rémur, First Bishop of Vincennes," Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 27, Issue 2, pp 170-173, 1931
  17. ^ Albert Henri Ledoux, "The Life and Thought of Simon Brute: Seminary Professor and Frontier Bishop" (Ph.D. diss., Catholic University of America, 2005), p. 392
  18. ^ "Indiana Catholic History » The Birth of Simon Petit Lalumiere". indianacatholic.mwweb.org. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  19. ^ Dinneen, Michael. "Simon William Gabriel Bruté de Rémur." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 31 January 2018
  20. ^ C. M. Widman, 'Father Nicholas Petit, S.J., and the Coadjutorship of Vincennes, ' Woodstock Letters, XXXI (1902), 43.
  21. ^ Brown, Mary Borromeo (1949). History of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Volume I. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana: Benziger Brothers Inc.
  22. ^ Clarke 1888, pp. 42–3
  23. ^ "Bishop Simon Brute College Seminary". Archindy.org. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  24. ^ "Bishop Simon Bruté Scholarship", Marian University
  25. ^ Evans, Brandon A. (April 22, 2005). "Cause for canonization of Bishop Bruté closer to official opening". The Criterion Online Edition. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  26. ^ Buechlein, Daniel M. (September 2, 2005). "Seeking the Face of the Lord". The Criterion. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  27. ^ Evans, Brandon A. (September 16, 2005). "The Cause of Canonization of Bishop Simon Bruté is opened". The Criterion Online Edition. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  28. ^ Gallagher, Sean (June 20, 2008). "Bishop Bruté's beatification cause progresses slowly". The Criterion Online Edition. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  29. ^ Wyand, Mary Ann (December 3, 2010). "Family ties: Priest who is descendant of the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté to help with his canonization Cause". The Criterion Online Edition. Retrieved July 23, 2023.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Simon William Gabriel Bruté de Rémur". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Sources

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Bruté, Simon William Gabriel".

External links

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