John Dubois

Background

John Dubois was born on August 24, 1764 in Paris, France.

Education

Dubois' early education was received at home, whence he passed to the Collège Louis-le-Grand. On the completion of his secular studies he entered the Seminary of St. Magloire, conducted by the Fathers of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and was ordained priest on September 22, 1787.

Career

Dubois served on the staff of the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris and also acted as chaplain to a community of nuns; but these activities were cut short in less than four years by the French Revolution, and in the spring of 1791 he was obliged to make his escape from France. In August of that year he landed at Norfolk, Virginia, and through letters of introduction from Lafayette he soon became acquainted with some of the most prominent men in the United States, such as Patrick Henry and James Monroe. The former taught him English; the latter received him into his house in New York; while it was doubtless owing to the influence of Lafayette that Dubois was permitted to celebrate Mass in the State Capitol at Richmond, a courtesy the more remarkable because of the state of feeling toward Catholics in the Virginia of that day. At the earliest opportunity he became an American citizen.

For a while he supported himself by teaching French; then, as soon as he was fitted for active work in his adopted country, he was sent by Bishop Carroll to parochial work in Virginia, first at Norfolk and then at Richmond.

In 1794 he was transferred to Frederick, Maryland, where he built the first Catholic church in western Maryland and ministered to the Catholics of that section and much of the region now comprising West Virginia.

During most of this time he was the only priest between Baltimore and St. Louis, and his labors were such as would have broken a man not endowed with splendid health and vigor.

In 1807 he withdrew to devote himself to a work that had always attracted him, the education of aspirants to the priesthood, and established a preparatory seminary at Emmitsburg, Maryland. The following year he joined the Society of St. Sulpice, a community of secular priests whose purpose was to conduct ecclesiastical seminaries, some members of which had left France during the Revolution and founded St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. The curriculum at Emmitsburg was altered in a short time so as to include instruction for laymen as well as for clerics. By 1821, accommodations more substantial than the log structures which had housed the institution became necessary, and Dubois began the erection of a new stone building, but when on the point of completion it was destroyed by fire. Immediately he recommenced, and in a few years a better building rose on the ruins. The result of this attempt was that he severed his connection with the Sulpicians (1826) and was busy with plans for the reorganization of Mount St. Mary’s at Emmitsburg when he was appointed to the diocese of New York to succeed Bishop John Connolly.

He was chosen by Propaganda on April 24, 1826, and the choice was confirmed by Pope Leo XII the following April 30; he was consecrated by Archbishop Maréchal in the Cathedral of Baltimore on October 29, 1826, Charles Carroll of Carrollton presenting the ring and the pectoral cross. In his new post he was faced with trying difficulties. The diocese was much larger than it is now; the system of lay trustees, under which church finances were administered by laymen, had given rise to dissensions; and the spirit of nationalism threatened to disrupt the Catholic body. So antagonistic to the new bishop were some of the elements among the New York Catholics that one of his first acts on reaching his see was perforce the issuance of a pastoral lettei refuting the charge that his appointment had been brought about by undue French influence. To meet the urgent need for priests he went to Paris and Rome in 1829 and secured financial assistance from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Congregation of Propaganda.

On his return he took up the task of building another seminary, but in New York he had not the success that had been his in Maryland. He completed a seminary at Nyack, New York, that was burned down before it could be occupied; the project of one in Brooklyn was never realized; and the one he opened in La Fargeville, New York, had to be given up because of its remoteness. Then he had to encounter the problem of trusteeism. At one time the trustees of his own cathedral withheld his salary and appointed in charge of the school attached to the cathedral a priest whom he had suspended. He struggled bravely and successfully, but the labor wore him down and in 1837 he accepted as coadjutor John Hughes, a former pupil under him at Mount St. Mary’s and later fourth bishop and first archbishop of New York. Two years later he retired from active government, leaving the diocese in the hands of Bishop Hughes, and spent the remaining years of his life in private devotion.

Achievements

• Dubois was simultaneously president, treasurer and professor; and in addition to these cares he had to meet the opposition of some among Catholics who sought to have him discontinue the courses in theology and thus give up the training of priests.

Views

Quotations: “I am an old man and do not need much. I can live in a basement or in a garret. But whether I come up from the basement or down from the garret, if I have to preach from the top of a barrel on the street corner, I am still your bishop. ”

References

• John Dubois: Founding Father: The Life and Times of the Founder of Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg; Superior of the Sisters of Charity; and Third Bishop of the Diocese of New York