Letter XLIII.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRECIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
Death of the Right Rev. Dr. Van de Velde, bishop of Natchez.
ST. LOUIS, December 1, 1855.
REVEREND FATHER:
It is with the deepest sorrow, which will be shared by all our brethren in Belgium, and by the numerous friends of the prelate, that we announce the demise of Dr. Van de Velde, bishop of Natchez. .
Although the venerable prelate was far advanced in age, and notwithstanding the length of an apostolical career, the uninterrupted labors of which had excited the admiration of the United States, every thing induced the hope that he would, during a long period to come, bear the burden of the episcopate. His unexpected death was a severe blow to all who knew him. It is an immense, we had almost said an irreparable, loss to the city of Natchez.
James Oliver Van de Velde was born on the 3d of April, 1795, in the environs of Termonde, Belgium. At this epoch, the country was strongly agitated by the partisans of the French revolution. While yet very young, he was confided to the care of a pious aunty in the village of St. Amand, in Flanders. A confessor of the faith, a worthy priest from France, escaped from the persecution which afflicted his native country, had found a retreat in the same family. It was he who formed the mind and heart of the youthful James, and directed his education with assiduous care and unwearied toil. James soon became the favorite child of the clergy of St. Amand. He manifested from his tender infancy a lively desire to embrace, at a future day, the ecclesiastical state. In 1810, he was placed in a boarding-school near Ghent, where his talents distinguished him among his school-mates. At the age of eighteen, he taught French and Flemish, at Puers, for two or three years.
While he was engaged in teaching, the religious and political situation of the country changed. In consequence of the battle of Waterloo, the congress of Vienna reunited Belgium to Holland, under William I, of Orange, a Calvinist, violent against the Catholic religion. Like many others, the youthful professor, impatient of the oppressive yoke under which his native land was bowed, formed the project of
retiring into England, or into Italy. With this intention, he studied the languages of these two countries. But his former benefactor and confessor, the Very Rev. M. Verlooy, director of the seminary of Mechlin, encouraged him, and proposed to him to accept, in his new institution, a class of Latin, of French, and of Flemish, and to enter his name at the same time on the list of the pupils of the great archiepiscopal
seminary. It was there that he perfected himself in the direction of the Latin classes, and that he studied the elements of logic, and of speculative theology.
However, as the intention of quitting his country ever remained present in his mind, his pious and zealous director counselled him to devote himself to foreign missions. To this effect, he was presented to the Rev, Charles Nerinckx, the celebrated
missionary of Kentucky, who, on his return from Rome, and some time before leaving for the United States, came to Mechlin. After he had informed himself concerning the state of the missions, and they had deliberated on the continuation of his theological studies, it was agreed that he should accompany Mr. Nerinckx, and that, after terminating his theological course in the seminary of Bishop Flaget, he should devote himself to the exercises of the sacred ministry. But Providence disposed otherwise. Mr. Nerinckx quitted Europe on the 16th of May, 1817, accompanied by several young Belgians, destined to the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Georgetown, and among them was young Van de Velde. But this last named, before the arrival of the ship in the port of Baltimore, fell, during a tempest, and burst a blood-vessel. Having lost a great deal of blood, he was obliged to be transported to St. Mary's ; even after his convalescence, he was incapable of continuing his voyage as far as Kentucky. The Rev. Mr. Bruté, who was then president of the seminary, tried to induce him to remain in Baltimore; the Rev. Mr. Nerinckx, on the contrary, counselled him strongly to follow his travelling companions to Georgetown, and remain with them in the novi-
tiate of the Society of Jesus. He was received with great kindness and charity by the Rev. Anthony Kohlmann, then superior of the missions of the Society of Jesus in America.
After two years of novitiate, he was admitted to the simple vows, according to the custom of the society, and named prefect of classes. At, the same time he applied assiduously to the study of poetry, of rhetoric, and philosophy. Such was his progress, that he was named professor of belles-lettres.
In 1827, at thirty-three years of age, he was ordained priest, in Baltimore, by Archbishop Maréchal. During the two years that he was applying to the study of moral and polemical theology, he exercised the functions of chaplain of the Convent and Academy of the Visitation, at Georgetown. In 1829, he was charged with the missions of Rockville and of Rock Creek, Montgomery county, Maryland. During the autumn of 1831, his superiors sent him to St. Louis, where a college had lately been erected and was in full activity, under the direction of the Society of Jesus, and the patronage of Bishop Rosati. He was welcomed by his brethren there with sincere and joyful cordiality, Soon after, he was named professor of rhetoric and of mathematics. In 1833, he filled the office of vice-president and of procurator of the college, which had just been elevated to the rank of university. He retained this post until 1837, the epoch of his admission to the solemn vows. He was named procurator of the vice-province of Missouri, without ceasing to be vice-president of the university. In 1840, he became president of the university of St. Louis.* The year after, being chosen representative of the vice-province, in the congregation of Procurators, he set out for Rome, where he had several audiences with the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory XVI. On his return to St. Louis, he continued his functions as president of the university, until the month of September, 1843, when he was named vice-provincial of Missouri. Under his administration, several churches were built, as well as a more spacious house of novitiate; the colleges and the missions continued to flourish. In 1848, he had, anew, the office of procurator of the vice-province and of socius of the provincial, and accompanied his superior to the council of Baltimore.
Many prelates bad been acquainted with him for years. His talents, his zeal, and his piety, induced them to propose him to the Pope for the see of Chicago. In the month of November of the same year, he received his bulls. It was
(* An oration, delivered by him on the 4th of July, 1841, was printed at the time)
only on the opinion of the archbishop of St. Louis and of three theologians, who decided that the documents from Rome contained a formal command on the part of the Sovereign Pontiff, that he would accept the nomination. He was consecrated bishop, on Sexagesima Sunday, February 11, 1849, by the Archbishop of St. Louis, the Most Rev. Peter R. Kenrick, assisted by Bishops Loras and Miles. The Right Rev. Dr. Spalding pronounced a discourse adapted to the consecration. This ceremony took place in the church of St. Francis Xavier, attached to the university.
Bishop Van de Velde first visited the country contained in his extensive diocese, which is in the vicinity of St. Louis. He only reached Chicago on Palm Sunday, the day on which he took possession of his episcopal see.
Bishop Van de Velde had suffered during many years with rheumatic pains ; he soon perceived that the cold and damp climate of Chicago was extremely injurious to him. The Roman revolution hindered the prelate from addressing himself to the Sovereign Pontiff; as soon as order was re-established, he wrote to the Holy Father, requesting him to accept his resignation, and permit him to return to his former companions of the Society of Jesus. He received a reply from Cardinal Fransoni, which encouraged him to bear the burden of the episcopate with patience and resignation. Some time after, on the occasion of troubles and difficulties which arose in the diocese, and which had an unhappy influence on his corporal ailments, Bishop Van de Velde wrote anew to Rome, imploring the Holy See to accept his resignation. The affair was submitted to the decision of the first national council which was to be held in Baltimore, in the spring of the year 1852. This council resolved to create a new diocese of Quincy, for the southern portion of Illinois ; but it decided that for the advantage of Chicago, Bishop Van de Velde, should not be transferred to it.
The bishop intended visiting France and Belgium after the council; he resolved to extend his voyage as far as Rome, and to bear in person his petitions to the throne of St. Peter. Having been selected to bear the decrees of the council, he reached Rome on the 22d of June. Pius IX received Bishop Van de Velde with the greatest affability. After two audiences, Dr. Van de Velde received the desired response, viz., that he should be restored to the Society of Jesus, even in quality of titular bishop, and that he should be transferred to a milder and more favorable climate. Bishop Van de Velde quitted Rome on the 16th of September. After visiting some parts of France, Germany, and Belgium, he assisted at Liege at the consecration of Mgr. de Montpellier. He embarked at Liverpool on the 17th of November, and arrived at New York on the 28th of the same month.
After his return to Chicago, he repeated his episcopal visit of the diocese. It was during this circuit that he received his brief of nomination to the vacant see of Natchez, to which he bad himself asked to be transferred. The majority of the clergy and of the faithful in Chicago received with deep regret the news that they were to be deprived of the presence of their excellent and worthy bishop, who had labored with so much zeal and ardor for their well-being, and had done so much for the propagation of our holy religion in Illinois. Under his administration seventy churches had been commenced, and the greater number of them completed. He had constructed two Orphan Asylums, without mentioning other establishments and important works.
Mgr. Van de Velde was obliged to remain some time in the place as administrator of Chicago and Quincy, because the Rev. Mr. Melcher, named bishop of Quincy and administrator of Chicago, had not accepted his nomination. It was only on the 3d of November, 1853, after having purchased a beautiful piece of land as a site for the future cathedral of Quincy, that Bishop Van de Velde quitted his numerous friends in Chicago and set out for Natchez. He arrived there on the 23d of the same month, and was most joyfully received by the clergy and all the people. His great reputation had preceded him. On the 18th of December, after having assisted at the consecration of the Rt. Rev. A. Martin at New Orleans, and after making a spiritual retreat at Spring Hill College, near Mobile, he assumed possession of his new diocese.
The bishop undertook, with fresh zeal, the administration of his new charge, and exerted himself to extend the cause of religion in the, State of Mississippi. He immediately visited the different congregations, in order to become acquainted with all the necessities of his diocese, made efforts to procure apostolical laborers in this section of the Master's vineyard, founded two schools, and took measures for completing the cathedral of Natchez, and of erecting a college in it. For this purpose he purchased a beautiful site in the suburbs of the city. But God, in his impenetrable designs, called the good bishop to himself, before he could realize all the plans he had conceived for the well-being of religion, and the instruction of the flock confided to him.
His death had, in its causes, a most afflicting character; he was so unfortunate on the 23d of last October, as to fall on the stairway and break his leg in two places. This distressing news spread rapidly among the Catholic population. The faithful hastened in crowds to the episcopal residence, in order to express their sorrow to their beloved pastor, and tender him all the consolations and assistance of which they were capable. The inflammation of the leg, excited at first a slight fever, which soon assumed the type of yellow-fever, and provoked agonizing convulsions during several days. During all his illness, the bishop evinced an astonishing patience, a perfect resignation to the will of God, a truly Christian calm, and that amid the severest trials and most painful sufferings. Having received the last consolations of the Church with great devotion, he committed his soul into the hands of his Maker on the 13th of November, the feast of St. Stanislaus, in whose honor he had just finished a novena.
The exposition of the body of the venerable deceased offered a solemn and very imposing spectacle. The corpse, covered with the episcopal vestments, deposited in a rich sarcophagus of metal, was placed in the episcopal abode, on a catafalque in the form of a cross, to which they had given an inclination so as to give the corpse the appearance of being partly erect. He remained thus exposed during the whole night which succeeded his death. A great number of persons of all grades of society and of different religious creeds, visited the mortal remains of the venerable prelate. These visits were prolonged until late in the night. A sweet smile seemed to animate the features of the deceased ; to see his eyes partly opened, one would have supposed that he was attentively listening, and with pleasure to those who surrounded him, and that he was preparing to answer their questions. The spectators could scarcely credit that he was no more. Efforts had to be made, especially by the Catholics, to tear themselves from their respected pastor and father.
The obsequies took place on the 14th, at nine o'clock, in St. Diary's cathedral, in the midst of an immense concourse of people, gathered to pay their last tribute of respect and affection to their venerated bishop.
The solemn mass, was sung by the Most Rev. Anthony Blanc, archbishop of New Orleans, assisted by the Reverend MM. Francis X. Leroy, Grignon, and Pont. The Rev. Father Tchieder, of the society, pronounced the funeral discourse. After the service, the coffin was deposited in a vault prepared expressly under the sanctuary of the cathedral. We commend the soul of Bishop Van de Velde, our venerable brother in Christ, to the sacrifices and prayers of our dear fathers and brothers in Belgium, and to the devout remembrance of the numerous friends of the deceased.
I have the honor to be with the deepest respect,
Reverend Father,
Your most humble
and devoted servant,
P. J. DE SMET, S. J.