Louis Guillaume Valentin Du Bourg was born on February 13, 1766 at Cap Français, Santo Domingo, Haiti. He was the son of Chevalier Pierre Du Bourg de la Loubère et St. Christaut, Sieur de Rochemont, and his wife, Marguerite Armand de Vogluzan.
At the age of two Dubourg was placed in the care of his grandparents at Bordeaux, France. After completing his classical studies in the Collège de Guyenne, in 1784 he commenced to study theology at the “Petite Communauté des Robertins, ” an annex to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris, whence, on October 12, 1786, he entered the Seminary proper.
Dubourg was ordained, probably about the end of 1788, and in the fall of that year he was sent to Issy, near Paris, as rector of a preparatory school. Forced by events of the French Revolution to send home his charges and seek refuge in Paris, in September 1792, he fled to Orense, in Spain, and later sailed for America.
Landing at Baltimore on December 14, 1794, he entered at once into relations with the Sulpicians of St. Mary’s, petitioned admittance into their Society, and was received on March 9, 1795. Records of the time relate that in Baltimore he gave Sunday religious instruction to the negroes of both sexes. On September 20, 1796, Bishop John Carroll appointed him to the presidency of the newly founded Georgetown College, an office which he resigned at the end of 1798.
On January 24, 1799 he sailed for Cuba to assist in the direction of the Sulpician college lately founded there. When opposition brought about the closing of the institution, he returned to Baltimore, accompanied by a number of his pupils. An academy for West Indian boys, in charge of Du Bourg, was opened at St. Mary’s with the sanction of Bishop Carroll; in 1803 this institution was sueceeded by St. Mary’s College for American boys, Du Bourg remaining its head until 1812.
About this time he became acquainted in New York with Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Selon, foundress of the Sisters of Charity, prevailed upon her to move to Baltimore, and fostered her incipient Community. In 1812 he was nominated to the bishopric of New Orleans, but because of the captivity of Pius VII, the Pontifical Bulls were never issued. Accordingly, Archbishop Carroll appointed Du Bourg Administrator Apostolic of that diocese. The task confronting him was exceptionally difficult: for fifty thousand souls he had only fourteen priests, half a dozen of them crippled by old age, and others, led by the Capuchin friar, Anthony de Sedella Père Antoine, in open opposition to the new order of things created by the Louisiana Purchase. Later, these difficulties were increased when in January 1815 British army stood at the gates of New Orleans. Du Bourg at once gauged the situation, and impressed upon all the patriotic duty of supporting the American general. He was tireless in his efforts to assist the people of the threatened city, animating them by his eloquence, giving them material aid, and making the Ursuline Convent a place of refuge. After the battle, in the public celebration of the victory, it is said that Du Bourg, assisted by a college of priests, received Gen. Jackson at the cathedral door and placed a crown of laurel on his head. By this time he had won the affection of many of the citizens but the local clergy continued to oppose him, and in the spring of 1815 he journeyed to Rome to plead for help for his distracted diocese. As a result, the Lazarists were prevailed upon to go to Louisiana ; three priests and one lay brother were at once enlisted for the expedition; some secular priests and ecclesiastical students joined them, and other recruits were promised for future needs. On these assurances the Administrator consented to receive Episcopal consecration in the church of S. Luigi de’ Francesi on September 24, 1815. Early in 1816, he visited northern Italy, France, and Belgium, recruiting for his diocese five priests, twenty-six seminarians, nine Ursuline nuns, and a few religious of the Sacred Heart. In Lyons he interested charitable persons in his extensive mission (though he cannot be regarded as founder at Lyons of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith), and even enlisted the aid of the King, Louis XVIII, who gave orders for the transportation of his company on the flute La Caravane of the French navy. Meanwhile, at home, Sedella, leader of the opposition, was denying the Bishop’s vicar-general access to the cathedral. For the prelate to go to New Orleans in such circumstances was to invite riot; accordingly, after landing at Annapolis, September 4, 1817, he settled, temporarily, at St. Louis. When he left for New Orleans, on November 20, 1820, he had almost completed a large brick church and had founded an academy for boys; the religious of the Sacred Heart, under Mother Duchesne, were carrying out at Florissant their work of female education; St. Mary’s Seminary at “the Barrens” was providing for the training of the future clergy of the diocese; a number of parishes in Upper Louisiana had been supplied with pastors; and ways and means were being devised for sending missionaries to the Indians of Missouri. Du Bourg’s arrival in New Orleans opened for a while an era of peace; Sedella himself paid him honor and swore allegiance. The Bishop’s first foundations were a college for hoys in New Orleans and an academy for girls under the sisters of the Sacred Heart at Grand Coteau (1821).
In 1822 he went to Washington to obtain government support for an Indian mission. Again success rewarded his efforts : besides obtaining from Secretary Calhoun encouraging promises, by a remarkable coincidence he rescued from disbandment and transferred to Missouri for the work they had contemplated a colony of Jesuits, one of whom was Pierre-Jean De Smet, the famous Indian missionary of later years. For some time Du Bourg had petitioned for a coadjutor, and on July 14, 1823, Joseph Rosati was appointed to that office. Previously, however, Du Bourg had recommended the nomination of his whilom arch-opponent Anthony De Sedella; and at another time one Angelo Inglesi, whom through sheer infatuation he had rushed to the priesthood. Rumors of these requests caused disaffection among his clergy, and keenly sensitive of their loss of confidence in him, he tendered his resignation to Leo XII on February 1, 1825. For a time he received no reply, but continued to insist upon his release. After Easter 1826 he returned to Europe, and shortly after landing at Havre (July 3), was advised that his resignation was accepted. A few weeks later he was appointed to the See of Montauban; after seven years he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Besançon; and there he died.
