Луи-Гийом-Валентин Дюбур: Французский миссионер в Америке

French Catholic archbishop and missionary in the American West

Louis William Valentine DuBourg (; 10 January 1766 – 12 December 1833) was a French Catholic prelate and Sulpician missionary to the United States. He built up the church in the vast new Louisiana Territory as the Bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas and later became the Bishop of Montauban and finally the Archbishop of Besançon in France. Born in the colony of Saint Domingue, DuBourg was sent to France at a young age to be educated and entered the Society of Saint Sulpice. As a cleric and son of a noble family, the French Revolution forced him into exile in Spain. In 1794, DuBourg sailed to the United States and began teaching and ministering in Baltimore, and became the president of Georgetown College in 1795. He significantly improved the quality of the institution, but mounted a substantial debt and was ousted by the Jesuit owners of the college in 1798. DuBourg then founded a lay collegiate counterpart to St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. He also selected the site of Baltimore's first cathedral and became the ecclesiastical superior to Elizabeth Ann Seton's newly founded Sisters of Charity. In 1812, DuBourg was made the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, and three years later, its bishop. Catholic New Orleanians rejected his authority and he was forced to move his episcopal seat to St. Louis, Missouri. There, he built the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and established missions to the American Indians, dozens of churches, and numerous schools, including St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary and Saint Louis University. He also recruited the Sisters of Loretto and Rose Philippine Duchesne's Sisters of the Sacred Heart to found several academies. Never able to establish his seat in New Orleans, DuBourg returned to France in 1826, where he was made the Bishop of Montauban. Just months before his death in 1833, he became the Archbishop of Besançon.

Louis Guillaume Valentin DuBourg was born in the city of Cap Français (known today as Cap Haïtien) in the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue, likely on 10 January 1766. which owned Georgetown, elected new Jesuits to the college's board of directors and empowered the board to remove the president. In October 1797, the board decided to keep DuBourg as president, but stripped him of his power over Georgetown's finances, transferring it to a new vice president, Francis Neale, who implemented strict austerity measures. Motivated in part by anti French sentiment, the Maryland Jesuits eventually took steps to oust DuBourg in 1798, leading to his resignation. He was succeeded by Francis Neale's brother, Leonard Neale, at Christmas. That year, DuBourg founded and became the first president of a college for lay students at St. Mary's Seminary. Though DuBourg initially intended the school to be open for general education, Bishop Carroll required that admission be limited only to West Indian students, so as not to compete with Georgetown College. As a result, many Cubans who had met DuBourg during his time in Havana sent their sons to be educated at St. Mary's College. Carroll then lifted the restriction on enrollment, As a result, enrollment at St. Mary's College grew rapidly, overtaking that of Georgetown. DuBourg played an important role in the construction of Baltimore's first cathedral. Bishop Carroll desired to replace St. Peter's Pro Cathedral with a proper cathedral, and DuBourg convinced him to move it from St. Peter's to a new location. DuBourg identified a site atop a hill, which would become known as Cathedral Hill, and negotiated with the sale with the owner of the land. He then raised the $23,000 necessary to purchase the land, Construction on the cathedral began in 1806.

In 1806, Seton opened her school in June 1808, where women from around the country joined her. DuBourg was influential in the founding of her religious community. and proposed that she adopt the rule of the French Sisters of Charity. Heeding this proposal, she established a community of the Sisters of Charity on 31 July 1809, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. While Seton was the head of the organization, DuBourg functioned as their ecclesiastical superior. Before long, tensions arose between Seton and DuBourg, who forbade her from communicating with her mentor, a Sulpician priest, Pierre Babade. Seton appealed DuBourg's instruction to John Carroll,

With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, a vast new territory became part of the United States. Moreover, the vicar general died in 1804, leaving no one to oversee the diocese. While Carroll and the Holy See corresponded to select a new bishop, Carroll named DuBourg the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas on 18 August 1812. Sedella rejected the jurisdiction of Carroll, an American bishop, to appoint DuBourg as administrator over the French clergy in Louisiana. Due to hostility from the locals, DuBourg was forced to reside outside of the city. In protest of his captivity, Pope Pius refused to issue any papal bulls, including those appointing bishops. While in Rome, he was officially appointed by Pius VII as the Bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. He eventually sailed to the United States from France on 1 July 1817. He returned with five priests—including several Lazarists from Rome, among whom were Felix de Andreis and Joseph Rosati—and 26 other men from Italy and France—including Antoine Blanc—who intended to become priests or brothers.

Upon returning to his diocese, DuBourg decided that it was not safe for him in New Orleans, and he took up residence in St. Louis, Missouri. As such, he became the first bishop to use the city of St. Louis as his episcopal see. The overland journey from Maryland to St. Louis was perilous and took several weeks. He started out in a stagecoach, which at one point overturned on the rough terrain, causing him to nearly fracture his skull. DuBourg also sought to promote education in the diocese. In order to be able to train priests at home, rather than rely on a European missionaries, he established St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary in Perryville in 1818, In August of that year, he also recruited the future saint Rose Philippine Duchesne and her religious order from France, the Society of the Sacred Heart, to open schools for girls on the frontier. In 1818, at DuBourg's instruction, the Saint Louis Academy was founded. Operating out of several rented rooms, its purpose was to educate local laymen. Several years later, he requested that the Maryland Jesuits send several of their members to Missouri to staff the diocese's missions to the American Indians. The Jesuits sent several Belgian members, which became known as Saint Louis College in 1820. The Jesuits accepted this offer in 1827, and Peter Verhaegen became the first Jesuit president of the college, which was chartered as Saint Louis University several years later. The school's first Jesuit treasurer was Pierre Jean De Smet, who became a famous missionary to the Indians. In 1823, DuBourg's time in St. Louis came to an end. DuBourg remained in New Orleans for three years, and once again met local opposition. and on 26 June 1826, he resigned the bishopric. Later that year, the large diocese was split into the Diocese of New Orleans and the new Diocese of St. Louis. he swore an oath of allegiance to the French government before King Charles X on 13 November 1826. During his seven years in Montauban, DuBourg improved education in the diocese and increased the number of scholarships for students.

In February 1833, DuBourg was appointed to succeed Cardinal Louis François de Rohan Chabot as the Archbishop of Besançon. By this time, however, his health had deteriorated, and he visited the thermal baths of Luxeuil les Bains for relief. He was formally installed as bishop of the archdiocese on 10 October 1833, Two months after his installation, he died in Bensançon on 12 December 1833.

Several institutions bear the name of DuBourg. DuBourg Hall at Saint Louis University was dedicated on 10 January 1898.

It is known that Dubourg, like two other early bishops in St. Louis, owned slaves. Discussion are ongoing in the archdiocese about how to address the issue.