“The Apostle of Oregon”

Last updated on: June 18, 2009 at 6:21 am by Pat McNamara

“The Apostle of Oregon” 2009-06-18T06:21:00-06:00 Pat McNamara

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Archbishop Francis Norbert Blanchet, the founder of the Archdiocese of Oregon City, was born at St. Pierre of the River of the South on September 3, 1795. He entered the Quebec Seminary in 1810, together with his brother Augustine-Magloire, who later became the Bishop of Nesqually, today the Archdiocese of Seattle. Archbishop Blanchet was ordained on July 18, 1819. After serving at the Cathedral for a year, he was sent to the coast of New Brunswick where he served as pastor for seven years. In 1827, he was appointed Pastor of Cedres in the county of Soulange where there was a severe outbreak of cholera. Father Blanchet attended all the stricken. The non-Catholics gave him two silver chalices for his service. In 1834 and 1835, Catholics along the Cowlitz River and the Willamette Valley asked for priests. In 1838, Father Blanchet became the Vicar General for the Missions of Oregon, and left on May 3 for St. Boniface at Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was at 9:30 in the evening when we passed directly across from the Catholic Church and our voyageurs aroused themselves with new courage, chanting with all their force joyous chants about our arrival, as we passed further on our way. At about 900 feet beyond here and on the left bank of the River is Fort Gary, built on a headland formed in conjunction with the Assiniboine River, which discharges at this place into the Red River. I went there, first of all, to pay my respects to Mr. Christie, Governor of the Colony; a half an hour later, I debarked on the right bank, where I met His Grace, Bishop Juliopolis, and the missionary Fathers Thibault and Demers, he wrote. Fathers Blanchet and Modeste Demers left for Fort Vancouver on July 10, 1838, arriving there on November 24. For four years after their arrival at Fort Vancouver, where the first Mass in the Oregon Territory was celebrated on November 25, 1838, the two priests were alone in their work in the wilderness among the scattered faithful and the Indians. Then the Canadians, Father Bolduc and Father Langois, came. Father Blanchet was named Vicar Apostolic and Titular Bishop of Philadelphia on December 1, 1843. He left from Vancouver for Montreal and Quebec on November 28, 1844. Because he traveled on a Hudson Bay vessel, he sailed first to Oahu, reaching there on New Year’s Eve 1844. Leaving there on January 12, 1845, the ship sailed down to Tahiti, then rounded the dread Cape Horn and made its way up the Atlantic, arriving at Deal, England, on May 21, 1845. From England he sailed to Boston, then traveled overland to Quebec and Montreal. He was consecrated on July 25, 1845, at the Montreal Cathedral. Leaving Montreal, he went back to Boston and departed there for England and Europe, arriving at Dieppe, France, on September 7, 1845. He stayed on the continent until February 22, 1847, visiting France, Rome, Belgium, Germany and Austria to raise money and gather a team of missionaries and the assistance of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur. He also requested some assistant bishops to assist him in this vast territory.
For the trip home, passage was found on a French ship. The party left Brest, France, sailed down to Cape Horn, rounded it and went up the Pacific Ocean. While Blanchet was on his journey, Pope Pius IX raised the Vicariate to the Archdiocese of Oregon City on July 24, 1846, as well as establishing the Dioceses of Walla Walla and Vancouver Island. The Archbishop arrived from France at Astoria on August 15, 1847. The Archbishop devised the Catholic Ladder, a system of signs and notations to illustrate the Faith from Adam and Eve until his own day, so the Indians could understand it. There was a succession of troubles. Missionary efforts were crippled by the Whitman massacre and the Indian wars. The California gold rush (1849) caused many of the people to leave. The financial situation became critical. The Archbishop saved the situation by going alone to Chile, Bolivia and Peru and preaching for support. The Archbishop held a provincial Council in St. Paul in 1848; he attended the First Baltimore Council in 1852 and the Second in 1866. He was in Canada in 1859 to gain support, and returned with 31 priests, sisters and servants. He celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 1869. He went to the First Vatican Council and was there on September 26, 1870, when Italian troops overthrew the temporal power of the Papacy. By 1878, the Archdiocese of Oregon City (later Portland in Oregon) had 23 churches, nine academies for girls, one college for boys, two parochial schools for girls, an orphanage and Indian mission schools, with 23 priests and 68 sisters. In 1879, he installed Bishop Seghers as his Coadjutor. He retired in 1880. After sixty-two years of priesthood, after forty-three years of toilsome labor on this coast; after an episcopate of thirty-six years; after thirty-five years spent at the head of this ecclesiastical province, we may say with the Apostle Paul: ‘The time of my dissolution is at hand; I have finished my course,’ he said in his retirement statement. During his retirement he wrote Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon. Archbishop Blanchet died June 18, 1883, at the age of eighty-seven years, nine months and fifteen days. He was buried in the cemetery at St. Paul, Oregon.

(The following is taken from the Archdiocese of Portland’s website)

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