There was something so familiar about the name of the Firefighter Chaplin in Paris – Father Jean-Marc Fournier. I kept thinking I know that name and I know Kentucky has Catholic history with that name and I was bound and determined to find it.
You can read about the chaplin here – https://aleteia.org/2019/04/16/he-made-straight-for-the-relics-firefighter-chaplain-saves-crown-of-thorns/?utm_medium=aleteia_en&utm_campaign=english_page&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Vst4rx5QMKxTN2E0uO40_JyhrKjV2hB8K5sOMM_qtVIBr1-Gtc_vwHEU#Echobox=1555439598
Most of the missionary priests that God blessed the wilderness of Kentucky with in her early days were refugees from the French Revolution. For no matter how romantic you want to make the French Revolution sound the truth of the matter was if you were a Catholic priest you had the choice of taking an oath of allegiance to the government, which meant you left any allegiance to the Catholic faith behind, or to be exiled, jailed, killed or perhaps all three!
The first ordained priest in the United States was one of those refugees Divine Providence sent our way – Father Stephen Theodore Badin and his story in the Kentucky wilderness is definitely worth the read, but right now I want to introduce you to another refugee sent our way.
So much we take for granted and never give a thought to those who came before us who held the faith and passed that faith on to us – unscathed and whole!
This comes from the beginning of Chapter 5 in a very interesting read written by the Right Reverend Bishop Martin J Spalding. Keep in mind, this was written in the 1800s so the style is a bit different. The M. in front of the priests name is for Mister Reverend and many words are spelled the old English way.
SKETCHES OF THE EARLY CATHOLIC MISSIONS OF KENTUCKY; FROM THEIR COMMENCEMENT IN 1787, TO THE JUBILEE OF 1826-7
EMBRACING A SUMMARY OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE STATE; THE ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC EMIGRANTS; BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE EARLY MISSIONARIES; THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL PROTESTANT SECTS IN KENTUCKY; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EPISCOPAL SEE AT BARDSTOWN, OF THE VARIOUS RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, AND OF THE GENERAL STATE OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION IN KENTUCKY.
COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES, WITH THE ASSITANCE OF THE VERY REV. STEPHEN THEODORE BADIN
THE FIRST PREIST ORDAINED IN THE UNITED STATES.
BY M. J. SPALDING, D. D.
CHAPTER V
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Arrival of other Missionaries – From 1797 – 1803
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Rev. M. Fournier – Traits and facts of his early life – His arrival in Kentucky – His stations and labours – His character – His sudden death – Rev. M. Salmon – His zeal and labours – Humorous incident – His tragical death – His Epitaph – Rev. Mr. Thayer – Anecdote of Franklin – Mr. Thayer’s conversion – His labours in Boston – In Kentucky – And in Limerick – His death
For about three years M. Badin had been alone, desolate in heart, and weighed down with labours. At length, Divine Providence took compassion on his loneliness, and sent other labourers into a harvest now become much too extensive to be cultivated by one man. The new missionary recruits were from among those illustrious clerical exiles from France, to whose apostolic zeal America is so greatly indebted, and without whose generous aid our infant missions could scarcely have been sustained.
The first of these who arrived in Kentucky, was the Rev. M. Fournier, in the year 1797. He was a native of the Diocess of Blois in France; and, when driven from his native country, by the French Revolution, he took refuge in England. In London he taught French language for about four years, in order to obtain a subsistence. Weary of this manner of life, and panting for a field of action more congenial to his zeal for the salvation of souls, he sailed for America, which he reached towards the close of the year 1796. He immediately offered his services to Bishop Carroll, who gratefully accepted them, and immediately sent him to Kentucky to the assistance of M. Badin, of whose melancholy condition he had been already well apprised.
Fournier, after a long and painful journey, in the dead of the winter, reached Kentucky in February, 1797. M. Badin received him with open arms, and extended to him for several months the hospitality of his own log cabin of St. Stephen’s. M. Fournier soon purchased one hundred acres of ground, on the Rolling Fork – the site of the present Holy Mary’s – and, after having erected a temporary hut, removed thither in 1798. He then took charge of a portion of M. Badin’s stations. He attended the congregations situated on the Rolling Fork, on Hardin’s Creek, on Cartwright’s Creek, on Rough Creek in Hardin County, with those at Danville, and in Madison county. When we reflect that a distance of at least one hundred and twenty miles intervened between the two extreme points of this circuit, we will probably come to the conclusion, that, like his fellow-labourer in the same field, he was certainly in no lack of employment.
He was an excellent priest; pious, zealous, laborious, and punctual to all his appointments. He was of ordinary size, but had a thin visage, furrowed with care, but still beaming with habitual cheerfulness. His manners were extremely popular; he soon caught the spirit, and adapted himself to the manners of the country; and he had not one personal enemy. He spoke English remarkably well, and preached sermons which had the triple merit of being solid, short, and intelligible to the meanest capacity.
When not engaged in his missions, he was almost constantly laboring on the little farm adjoining his residence. His death was caused by the rupture of a blood-vessel through over exertion in raising large beams of wood, to be sawed into plank. It was so sudden, that his friend, M. Badin, arrived only in time to assist at his funeral. His body was interred at the church of Holy Cross. He had not yet reached his fiftieth year.
So I wonder if both of these priests, one from the 18th century and one from the 21st century, who both have so much zeal for the Catholic faith they profess, confess and preach, are from the same family lineage. No matter what Kentucky and France have both been blessed by Divine Providence with the courageous priests named Fournier!
May God give us all the courage, faith and zeal that both of these priests give us example of. Give us the fire of faith to set the world on fire with You, Lord! For we do not want to be found lukewarm! Inflame our hearts with your Love so all can see it’s you! And only You!
Just a Fat Sassy Grandma 