Stephen Theodore Badin

Background

Stephen Theodore Badin was born in Orléans, France on July 17, 1768, the eldest son of the family.

Education

He had been destined for the church and educated at Collège Montaigu, Paris, and at the Sulpician Seminary in Orleans. After arrival in America, he continued his studies at Baltimore, where, on May 25, 1793, he received from Bishop Carroll the order of priesthood.

Career

Soon thereafter he was appointed to the new state of Kentucky where he estimated there were about three hundred Catholics, widely scattered. En route to his missionary parish he visited the French settlement at Gallipolis, where he baptized several children. His first mass in Kentucky was celebrated in a private house; and for several years Badin's home was the saddle, as he traveled from one isolated community to another, cheering, comforting, exhorting, advising the members of his scattered flock. He was imperfectly acquainted with the language of his parishioners, knew nothing of backwoods life, and suffered many hardships, often being hungry, cold, and weary. He built for himself a small log shelter in the present Marion County, fifty-seven miles south of Louisville, which he called St. Stephen's; and by the end of the century had founded six or seven small log chapels, and was vicar-general for Kentucky. The first Catholic chapel in Lexington was built in 1800, and a brick Gothic church dedicated there by Father Badin May 19, 1812. At Louisville he built the first chapel, named for St. Louis, in 1811.

Not long afterward, however, Father Badin had a disagreement with the Bishop on land titles, and in 1819 retired to his native land. There he remained for nine years, employed in collecting funds for his American missions, in a visit to Rome, and in serving parishes in France and Belgium. In 1828 the call of America grew so loud that Badin determined to return, all the more that his younger brother, FranÇois Vincent Badin, was a priest on the northern frontier, and his Sulpician colleague, Gabriel Richard, was preaching in Detroit. Arrived at this place Father Stephen Badin accepted a parish of French Canadians at Monroe, on River Raisin, where he officiated about eighteen months.

Then came a call to an Indian mission in western Michigan, where the Potawatomi lived and retained memories of Father Claude Allouez, who a century and a half earlier had lived and died in this locality. The Chief Pokagon received Badin into his own cabin, and the priest labored zealously to reclaim those of the Indians that had listened to Baptist teachings. He was present at the treaty of 1832 and wrote from the treaty grounds letters asking a land grant for his services. He obtained at about this time, either by purchase or grant, the land upon which the University of Notre Dame is built at South Bend, Ind. ; thither his remains were removed in 1904, and a replica of his first log church on this site now stands on the University grounds, containing a memorial tablet to his memory.

While among the Potawatomi Badin visited the village of Chicago, where he performed several baptisms and said mass in private houses. After leaving the Indian mission he became a peripatetic priest, visiting many of his old parishes, serving for a few months here and there throughout the West. He grew somewhat eccentric with age, but for the sake of his services in the past he was everywhere received with loving devotion.

He died at the house of Bishop Purcell in Cincinnati.

Achievements

• Theodore Badin wrent down in history as the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States. A Catholic High School, Father Stephen T. Badin High School, located in Hamilton, Ohio was named in his honor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Origine Et Progrés De La Mission Du Kentucky (French Edition)

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

His wit, learning, and good temper made him popular, and he made friends among the Protestants of his region, notably with Joseph Daviess, after whose death at the battle of Tippecanoe, Father Badin composed a Latin elegy in his honor.

Tall, slender, wiry, and indefatigable in efforts for his people, Badin was a well-known figure in the West for over half a century. A colleague said on seeing his portrait, "I never saw him quiet before. "