Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Jun 30, 2018 9:49:51 GMT -5
As the story goes, the College of the Holy Cross was named by Benedict Fenwick after his cathedral church in Boston, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Father Cheverus, a French priest, had built the first Catholic church in Boston at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, and this first church was named the Church of the Holy Cross, and when Cheverus became a bishop, the church became a cathedral. So far so good.
I was dotting the 'i's' and crossing the 't's on my elaborate hypothesis that Cheverus had named the Boston church after the L'eglise Sainte-Croix de la Cite in Paris, which was seized in 1790 by the French Revolution and subsequently demolished, when I discovered, to my great analytical dismay, that Cheverus' Holy Cross was not the first Holy Cross.
In 1788, a French priest named Claude Florent Bouchard de la Poterie, supposedly deserted from his position as a chaplain aboard a French naval fleet visiting Boston. Soon thereafter, Father Bouchard is able to secure the use of a very small, closed French Huguenot church, and offers the first public mass in Boston.
Father Bouchard names his little church Holy Cross, because when fleeing the French fleet, he had the great good sense to bring with him a relic of the 'True Cross' . This relic is still venerated at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. But it is no more a relic of the "True Cross' then is the title on my living room wall stating that I own the Brooklyn Bridge.
As for Father Bouchard, he wrote excellent English. He was a promoter extraordinaire, pamphletting the city with various announcements and pronouncements. See an example of such in the archives of the Library of Congress.
www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.0430210a/?sp=1
Father Bouchard presented himself as an apostolic delegate, and a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher (which explained how he obtained a relic of the 'True Cross'). To those interested in his bona fides, he provides a letter of introduction signed by the King, Louis XVI.
Bishop John Carroll became wary of this French priest, and sent a fellow Jesuit, Father O'Brien, to investigate. To shorten the tale, this investigation led Fr. Bouchard to publish and print a vitriolic 32 page diatribe against the Jesuits. This pamphlet is titled "The Resurrection of Laurent Ricci, or a true and exact history of the Jesuits." The pamphlet is dedicated to "Revered Father John Carroll, Superior of the Jesuits in the United States, [and] also to the Friar-Monk-Inquisitor William O'Brien." Bouchard then explains that Ricci had died in jail in Rome. Ricci was Lorenzo Ricci, the last Superior General, before the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773.
The only available on-line text that I found is here.
www.scribd.com/document/370468832/The-Resurrection-of-Laurent-Ricci-Or-A-True-and-Exact-History-of-the-Jesuits-Abbe-de-La-Poterie
I am still researching the life of Father Bouchard. At this point, I believe he was either a priest acting as a French government agent, or a government agent masquerading as a priest.
In one of life's coincidences, I discovered that Father Bouchard was, several years before arriving in Boston, the priest for the parish of Saint-Pardoul in the commune of La Breviere in Normandy. (In 1793, the population of La Breviere was 160.) Then, as now, most of the land in La Breviere was the property of Chateau de Neuville. Chateau de Neuville is yet another of my ancestral family's castles. I suspect that when families like the de Nevilles made their fortunes In England after the Conquest, they still retained the old fiefs in France.
I sense there is much still to be learned about Fr. Bouchard As for Bishop Fenwick, he was either ignorant of or obtuse about Father Bouchard.
________________________
As for old parishes, such as Saint Pardoul, mass is still offered.
messes.info/lieu/14/la-breviere/saint-pardoul
Even though this was the church's situation at the beginning of the 19th Century. (Another casualty of the Revolution?)
I was dotting the 'i's' and crossing the 't's on my elaborate hypothesis that Cheverus had named the Boston church after the L'eglise Sainte-Croix de la Cite in Paris, which was seized in 1790 by the French Revolution and subsequently demolished, when I discovered, to my great analytical dismay, that Cheverus' Holy Cross was not the first Holy Cross.
In 1788, a French priest named Claude Florent Bouchard de la Poterie, supposedly deserted from his position as a chaplain aboard a French naval fleet visiting Boston. Soon thereafter, Father Bouchard is able to secure the use of a very small, closed French Huguenot church, and offers the first public mass in Boston.
Father Bouchard names his little church Holy Cross, because when fleeing the French fleet, he had the great good sense to bring with him a relic of the 'True Cross' . This relic is still venerated at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. But it is no more a relic of the "True Cross' then is the title on my living room wall stating that I own the Brooklyn Bridge.
As for Father Bouchard, he wrote excellent English. He was a promoter extraordinaire, pamphletting the city with various announcements and pronouncements. See an example of such in the archives of the Library of Congress.
www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.0430210a/?sp=1
Father Bouchard presented himself as an apostolic delegate, and a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher (which explained how he obtained a relic of the 'True Cross'). To those interested in his bona fides, he provides a letter of introduction signed by the King, Louis XVI.
Bishop John Carroll became wary of this French priest, and sent a fellow Jesuit, Father O'Brien, to investigate. To shorten the tale, this investigation led Fr. Bouchard to publish and print a vitriolic 32 page diatribe against the Jesuits. This pamphlet is titled "The Resurrection of Laurent Ricci, or a true and exact history of the Jesuits." The pamphlet is dedicated to "Revered Father John Carroll, Superior of the Jesuits in the United States, [and] also to the Friar-Monk-Inquisitor William O'Brien." Bouchard then explains that Ricci had died in jail in Rome. Ricci was Lorenzo Ricci, the last Superior General, before the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773.
The only available on-line text that I found is here.
www.scribd.com/document/370468832/The-Resurrection-of-Laurent-Ricci-Or-A-True-and-Exact-History-of-the-Jesuits-Abbe-de-La-Poterie
I am still researching the life of Father Bouchard. At this point, I believe he was either a priest acting as a French government agent, or a government agent masquerading as a priest.
In one of life's coincidences, I discovered that Father Bouchard was, several years before arriving in Boston, the priest for the parish of Saint-Pardoul in the commune of La Breviere in Normandy. (In 1793, the population of La Breviere was 160.) Then, as now, most of the land in La Breviere was the property of Chateau de Neuville. Chateau de Neuville is yet another of my ancestral family's castles. I suspect that when families like the de Nevilles made their fortunes In England after the Conquest, they still retained the old fiefs in France.
I sense there is much still to be learned about Fr. Bouchard As for Bishop Fenwick, he was either ignorant of or obtuse about Father Bouchard.
________________________
As for old parishes, such as Saint Pardoul, mass is still offered.
messes.info/lieu/14/la-breviere/saint-pardoul
Even though this was the church's situation at the beginning of the 19th Century. (Another casualty of the Revolution?)
