Bishop John Chanche and Catholicism in Mississippi, 1841-1852

After Pope Gregory XVI created the Diocese of Natchez* in 1837, it was four years before a bishop arrived. When Bishop John Chanche came to Natchez in May 1841, his ecclesiastical jurisdiction covered all of Mississippi, which had a total population of 375,000. He found about ten thousand Catholics, concentrated mainly in Vicksburg, Natchez, and along the Gulf Coast. There were no Catholic churches or Catholic institutions of any kind.

There was one priest in the state, but he was only there temporarily. There was no such thing as an episcopal residence; the bishop had to rent a floor of a house. He celebrated his first Mass at Mechanics’ Hall, which one historian notes was “the usual place of worship” for Catholics. Quite literally, Bishop Chanche had to start a diocese from scratch. Over the next decade, however, he would prove up to the challenge, laying the foundation for future growth.

Born in Baltimore to French parents who fled revolutionary Haiti, John Mary Joseph Benedict Chanche grew up in Maryland. At age eleven he began priestly studies at St. Mary’s Seminary, founded in Baltimore in 1791 as America’s first Catholic theologate. Ordained in 1819, he joined the Sulpician Fathers who ran the seminary. Founded in seventeenth century France, the Sulpicians devote themselves entirely to the formation of clergy. Father Chanche joined the faculty at St. Mary’s, and in 1834 he was named President.

A gifted and tactful administrator, Chanche’s name began to be mentioned in connection with dioceses. He was considered as a bishop for New York, Boston and Philadelphia, but in each case he was able to bow out. One historian offers the following description of the priest:

Dr. Chanche was an eloquent preacher, a profound theologian, and a man of fine administrative abilities. He was tall, commanding, and handsome in his appearance, and in the performance of the sublime ceremonies of the altar he was particularly imposing and distinguished… He was urbane and cultivated in his manners, always accessible, courteous, and kind, and there were few clergymen in his day who had more numerous or more ardent friends and admirers among the Bishops, clergy, and laity.

Eventually, however, he could no longer escape a mitre, and he accepted the appointment to Natchez.

Among Bishop Chanche’s first acts were to establish a girls’ academy and to lay the cornerstone for a cathedral in Natchez dedicated to the “Transfixed Heart of the Blessed and Immaculate Mary Ever Virgin” (now known as St. Mary’s Basilica). He also started an outreach to African-American Catholics. So popular did he become that he was even asked to preach at Protestant churches. In 1848, he introduced the Sisters of Charity to the state, and they soon opened a school and orphanage.

Among his fellow bishops, Chanche was a highly respected figure. In May 1852, he attended the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore, a national gathering of the American bishops. However, he died of cholera in Frederick, Maryland, on July 22, 1852, and was buried in Baltimore’s Cathedral Cemetery. In August 2007, his remains were re-interred at the cathedral he had built in Natchez (according to his original wish).

By the time of his death, there were eleven priests in the state, along with eleven parishes and thirty-two missions. Over the course of eleven years, Bishop Chanche created the framework for Catholic life in a state where there had been none. As one historian notes, he “inaugurated a happier day for religion in Mississippi.”

*Now the Diocese of Jackson.