John Baptist Mary David

Background

John Baptist Mary David was born on June 4, 1761 in Couëron, Brittany (now France). He was the son of Jean and Jeanne (Audrain) David, humble tillers of the soil.

Education

Intended for the church, he was trained by an uncle, a nearby pastor, and entered the College of Nantes conducted by the Oratorians.

On receiving his master’s degree, he enrolled in the Seminary of Nantes where the notorious Fouché was a fellow student.

Career

Serving as a tutor on completion of his training, John joined the Sulpicians and was ordained in 1785. Thereupon, he was appointed lecturer in theology and Scripture in the petit seminary of Angers under Father Benedict Joseph Flaget. His quiet, studious life ended when the seminary was seized by the French Revolutionists. The faculty and students escaped with their lives, David finding a refuge with a courageous family of his acquaintance. Father David besought Superior-General Emery to send him with the heroiSulpicians who were embarking for the United States, and Emery gave his consent. David, Flaget, Stephen Badin, and Guy Chabrat arrived in Philadelphia (1792) after a stormy voyage of three months.

Proceeding to Baltimore, David was assigned to the missions of Charles County, Maryland, where his spirituality and untiring labors won the recognition of his charges and also episcopal favor. Within four months, he was preaching in acceptable English.

In 1804, he was called to teach philosophy at Georgetown College.

Soon he was transferred to the Sulpician Seminary at Baltimore, from which he attended Charles Carroll’s chapel on Doughoregan Manor.

In 1806, the bishop wished to send this tried servant to take charge of ecclesiastical affairs in schismtorn New Orleans, but David was without episcopal ambitions and declined the doubtful honor.

For a short interval he acted as superior of the spiritual and temporal affairs of Mother Seton’s Sisters of Charity who had recently commenced their mother house and St. Joseph’s College for girls at Emmitsburg, Maryland.

In 1811 he accompanied the recently appointed Bishop Flaget to his primitive See of Bardstown, Kentucky. It was a tortuous journey across the mountains to Pittsburgh and thence by flat-boat to Louisville and over the trail to Bardstown, especially as the missionaries were burdened by vestments, religious articles, a library, and a slave-boy. Only men of Gallic blood could visualize a bishop’s palace and cathedral in the two-room log cabin.

In Kentucky, there were only ten log-chapels, eight priests, and a few hundred communicants of doubtful practise.

Growth was relatively rapid as Maryland colonists appeared and as public works brought Irish laborers. David proved a tower of strength to Flaget, as the business head of the diocese.

On a donated farm near Bardstown, he and his Sulpician associates erected with their own hands a frame building which served as his seminary.

In time this little Seminary of St. Thomas prospered and David’s students became ardent frontier missionaries and in several instances renowned bishops.

The older students were soon removed to the major seminary at Bardstown where in 1816 the corner stone of the cathedral was laid.

A primitive school, nurtured by David, became the College of St. Joseph.

He also aided in the foundation of St. Mary’s College in Marion County.

In the meantime, seeing the need of a teaching order of women he founded the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth with Mother Catherine Spalding as superioress.

To the end of his life, he was their guide and benefactor, and it was with pride that he saw their mother house at Nazareth grow strong enough to establish several academies and send out hundreds of nuns as teachers and nurses.

For the diocese of Bardstown, it is well that Father David had successfully plead to Rome and Archbishop Carroll against an appointment to the See of Philadelphia.

In 1819, lest he be removed, Flaget had him named coadjutor-bishop.

David still continued as an active missionary braving all hardships, even heated religious debates with challenging exhorters.

For them the spirited French scholar was a dangerous opponent, since the untutored auditors had a mysterious respect for his erudition and linguistic powers.

He won the countryside and the town of Louisville by his sacrifices during the cholera days of 1831 when his priests and nurses aided the stricken, and cared for their orphans in the newly established St. Vincent’s Asylum in Louisville. Some of the writings of Bellarmine and St. Alphonsus Liguori are said to have been first rendered into English by his pen.

His True Piety (1814) was long used as a prayer book; his compiled Catechism of Christian Doctrine (1825) served for a generation; his Spiritual Retreat for Eight Days was edited (1864) by his scholarly student Bishop M. J. Spalding; and his Manual of the Religious Life outlined the guide of conduct for the Sisters of Nazareth.

In addition, he wrote several respectable brochures of a purely controversial and tractarian character. He humbly resigned his bishopric in 1833, a year after he had succeeded Flaget, and thereafter had more time for study and missionary visitations. He was named representative to the Second Provincial Council of Baltimore (1833) where his views on church administration won general attention.

Achievements

• John Baptist Mary David founded the College of St. Joseph, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and St. Vincent’s Asylum.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Papist Misrepresented and Represented

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • A spiritual retreat of eight days

    (A spiritual retreat of eight days is an unchanged, high-q...)

  • True piety, or, The day well spent: A manual of fervent prayers, pious reflections, and solid instructions, adapted to all ranks and conditions
  • A thought for every day: From the writings of the Rt. Rev. J.B.M. David (1761-1841) ; with a calendar of the saints
  • Method of mental prayer

Personality

A strongly built man of middle height, full of vigor, active of mind, John made an ideal missionary, able to stand fatigue and buffeting.

Connections

Father:

Jean David

Mother:

Jeanne (Audrain) David