Stephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson, S.J. (1786–1864) and the Reform of the American Jesuits by Buckley Cornelius Michael;

Author:Buckley, Cornelius Michael;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1524046
Publisher: UPA

A Doctor of Souls

“I have known sorrow and

learned to aid the wretched.”

(Virgil, Aeneid, I, 1,650).

He began his next letter to Roothaan on November 10 and finished it eight days later when the François I was but five hundred miles from New York, its final destination. This long, detailed report is divided into two sections, the first of which is a meticulous account of the donations he received and the debits and credits that he and his companions incurred since leaving Italy. After subtracting all expenses, including alms given to the poor, he calculated that in addition to the books and objects of virtu, he would hand over 3,276.04 francs (approximately $635) to the treasurer at Georgetown. Some details in the second part of the letter open a window on the luxuries of travel for Jesuits in the early half of the nineteenth century, and at the same time they give insights into the religious culture of the day. After allowing that he had spent too much on freight for books he was given in Paris for the college library, he confessed that he and his companions may also have been prodigal in buying clothes before debarking. “Each of us had only one change of clothes, one pair of underwear. With what we bought in Le Havre, we had two sets of each and we came to realize the need for both.” That was especially the case for himself because measles broke out among the deckhands, one of whom, an East Indian, had never been baptized. The captain gave Stephen permission to visit the poor man, but only on one condition, which in Stephen’s mind tended to absolve him from his last-minute shopping spree. “I had to leave one change of clothes in a suitcase between decks each time I visited him and I had to change from top to toe.” On the 13th, he continued his report:

Our Indian died the day before yesterday, well disposed and having retained the use of his faculties almost to the very last moment. He was a man, so it would appear, formed by the hand of God: no one ever heard him swear; he only needed a few words of exhortation [for baptism]. For me [he] was an example of invincible ignorance to which the Lord often grants aid that is altogether providentially divine. I gave a thousand thanks to heaven for having been an instrument. I must have contributed a bit, a very little bit; however, because of the nature of the illness and of the awful state the Indian was in, as well as the infection and the small place where he was confined along with other patients, our passengers, both Protestants and Catholic, seemed to be very edified by my visits, and particularly by the visit—about six hours—that I made on the last day. See the extraordinary goodness of the Lord: I suffered more from seasickness on this trip than on any of my previous crossings. Nothing excites this sickness more

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