BASTILLE DAY- AN AMERICAN SAINT

Perhaps I should have posted this closer to the 4th of July, since our saint-to-be was born just 3 days after the independence of our nation, but as it happens today is actually better as it is Bastille Day, celebrated annually in France on July 14.

 It is the national holiday commemorating the storming of the Bastille in 1789. This violent uprising at a notorious Paris prison symbolized the downfall of the absolute monarchy and marked the explosive beginning of the French Revolution and the ultimate triumph of liberty over autocracy. This period in French history would effect the life of the following man.

SERVANT OF GOD SIMON WILLIAM GABRIEL BRUTE de REMUR was born in Rennes, France in 1779 to an ancient and wealthy family.  At the age of seven, his father, a parliamentary lawyer and steward of the Crown properties in Brittany, died.  He was raised by his mother, a woman of rare worth, who gave her children a deep love of their faith.

This was the day of the great persecutions of the French Revolution, when the prisons of Rennes were choked with victims and when blood was pouring down from the scaffolds.

 Not wanting her child to participate in the Reign of Terror, his mother taught him the printing trade, which was his late father’s trade. He witnessed trials and executions of priests as well as visited imprisoned priests, smuggling in the Blessed Sacrament disguised as a bakers assistant.. 

In 1796 he studied medicine, yet upon graduation in 1803 he entered the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris. Ordained in 1808, he refused the post of assistant chaplain to Napoleon I, instead joining the Society of Saint-Sulpice (Sulpicians).

He taught theology for two years before emigrating to the United States. At St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, he taught philosophy for two years then transferred to Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland and taught while serving as pastor to local Catholics. 

He struggled with mastery of English, becoming able to write but never fluent in conversational English. He also served as the spiritual director of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity in the United States.

In 1834, he was assigned as Bishop to the diocese of Vincennes, modern day Indiana and eastern Illinois. A week after his installation as bishop of Vincennes, Bishop Bruté decided to visit his entire diocese. Clearly, two priests to assist in the ministry of the diocese would not do  so he wrote to the bishop of his native Diocese of Rennes in France to see if he could find help. He also wrote to his younger brother, Augustine, seeking everything from cruets, vestments, altar cards, missals, a ring and a pectoral cross (“in case I lose mine”), a miter, a crosier (“the one I have is gilded wood”), to a very light chasuble for carrying on horseback. He drew a map of the diocese for his brother, a copy of which is still extant.

The majority of the people encountered in the diocese were not Catholic. But for the most part, suspicions were laid aside, and the bishop and his two priests were received kindly. Bishop Bruté wrote: “The Bishop left every place well pleased, fondly believing that the people would easily be reconciled to ‘the man of sin’ of Vincennes, and more easily to the other sinners, his successors.”

The bishop’s lot was like that of any other missionary at the time.He had to inquire where a Catholic family might be found and go in search of them. Most Catholics didn’t even know that Indiana had its own bishop until he arrived.

Their bishop rode hundreds of miles on horseback. He wrote to a friend in May 1835 that he had made his rounds “with an ease that I could express, if to be believed, by saying that I felt no more tired every evening than if I had not left my room—I can’t conceive it—one day it was a full 60 miles, till eleven o’clock at night mostly through the wet prairies.” But there wasn’t much the bishop could do for his scattered people until he found more priests. He knew that he could only find them in France.

Visiting France, he wa able to secure priests and funds to build Churches throughout his diocese. At the time of his death in 1839, there were 25 diocesan priests and 20 seminarians serving throughout the diocese. 

 He was buried under the sanctuary of the cathedra of Vincennes, Indiana, wher he died. His tremendous influence on the entire church, his success in planning, financing, and carrying out necessary ecclesiastical reforms, and the constructive and executive ability he displayed in his diocese made him one of the foremost Catholic emigrants to the United States. He wrote Brief Notes on his experiences in France in 1793, in which he described state persecution of Catholic priests.

He became known for his unselfishness, his austerity, and his spirituality, as well as for his immense erudition.