Mississippi’s First Bishop

Today marks the death of Bishop John J. Chanche, first Bishop in the state of Mississippi. The following is taken from Wikipedia:

Bishop John Joseph Mary Benedict Chanche, S.S. (October 4, 1795 – July 22, 1852) was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Natchez from 1841 to 1852. John Mary Joseph Chanche was born October 4, 1795, in Baltimore, Maryland. Chanche was of French lineage, having been born to parents who had fled to Baltimore from the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), presumably during the Haitian revolution (which itself occurred at about the same time as the French Revolution). Chanche joined the Sulpicians, and was ordained a priest on June 5, 1819 and was appointed professor at St. Mary’s. In 1833, he was chosen as master of ceremonies to the second provincial council of Baltimore. Chance was named vice-president of Saint Mary’s, and in 1834 succeeded Samuel Eccleston as president. Chanche was offered the place of coadjutor to the archbishop of Baltimore and to the bishop of Boston successively, but declined. Father Chanche was president of St. Mary’s when he was appointed Bishop of Natchez in 1841. The Diocese of Natchez was created on 28 July 1837, and although it encompassed the entire state of Mississippi, a large geographic region, nearly three years passed before Father Chanche was appointed as its first bishop on 15 December 1840. Chanche was consecrated March 14, 1841 by Archbishop Eccleston at the Baltimore Basilica. Arriving at Natchez in May 1841, he met there the only priest in the state, Father Brogard, who was only there temporarily. Taking up the role of a simple missionary, Bishop Chanche began to collect the Catholics and organize a diocese. Chanche set to work building a diocesan infrastructure, and became reasonably well-known in the church hierarchy in North America. In 1842 Bishop Chanche laid the corner stone of Saint Mary Cathedral, and opened an academy for girls. In 1818 he invited the Sisters of Charity to Natchez. At the First Plenary Council, in 1852, Bishop Chanche served the role of “chief promoter.” He died shortly after the sessions of the Council, at Frederick, Maryland, leaving his diocese with 11 priests, 11 churches erected, and 13 attendant missions.
In 2007 the body of Bishop Chance was exhumed and returned Natchez to be reinterred in St. Mary Basilica .