"A Character of Extravagance": Establishment of the Second Archdiocese in the United States

On January 5, 1846, Francis Norbert Blanchet, Vicar Apostolic of Oregon and Bishop of Drasa, arrived in the Eternal City. His road to Rome had been a long one indeed.

Born on September 3, 1795, in Quebec Province, Canada, Blanchet studied at the Quebec seminary and was ordained July 19, 1819. He served for seven years as pastor in a vast remote mission in New Brunswick and then for eleven years at Cedres, in the Diocese of Montreal. ¹ During that time, he overwhelmed his bishop with letters requesting assistance with the many problems he faced, problems which left him feeling inept, while petty complaints further eroded his self-confidence. ² Therefore, he was astonished to discover that he was under consideration for a mission planned for the wilds of the Oregon Country on the Columbia River. "It amazed me that you could consider me for the Columbia when you have in the diocese of Quebec and Montreal so many holy priests, much more capable than I.... I have not the knowledge, the virtue or the piety necessary for a missionary on the Columbia." ³

However, as soon as transportation was arranged with the Hudson's Bay Company, Blanchet, now appointed a vicar general of the Quebec Diocese, set off on a cross-Canada journey with the Company's brigade in May, 1838. At Red River (now St. Boniface) Father Modeste Demers waited, hoping he would be selected to accompany Blanchet to the Columbia. ⁴

From Red River the two priests set off together on the long and arduous trip west, which was deadly for twelve members of the group who drowned in a canoe upset; but most of the express reached Fort Vancouver on the Columbia on November 24, 1838. ⁵ Because Oregon was under a treaty of joint occupancy by Great Britain and the United States, political considerations restrained the early work of the two missionaries to the north bank of the Columbia. However, Father Blanchet was able to visit the French Canadian colony in the Willamette Valley, which had provided the impetus for the Columbia Mission with their letters sent to Bishop Joseph Provencher of Red River requesting priests. Blanchet celebrated the first Mass in what is now the State of Oregon on January 6, 1839. Within a year permission was granted to expand the mission south of the river, and Father Blanchet set up his headquarters at what became the town of St. Paul. ⁶ Both priests worked tirelessly with the French Canadians and the native tribes, attempting to cover an area encompassing the current Northwest states and British Columbia, an utterly impossible task for only two men.

In June, 1842, Father Peter De Smet, S.J., who had been founding missions in the Rocky Mountains, came west for supplies, and he organized a conference with the two resident priests. Blanchet reported that it was Father De Smet's idea to request a vicariate apostolic, the general ecclesiastical category for such a wild and undeveloped area. ⁷ Almost from the start of the Columbia mission, however, Blanchet had encouraged Bishop Provencher to relocate to the Columbia, and he had asked for a bishop many times. ⁸

The three men unilaterally decided that Oregon should become a vicariate apostolic. De Smet set off for the east to secure approval, money, and personnel in Europe, while Father Demers went off to New Caledonia (British Columbia) to work with the native tribes. Father Blanchet remained alone to care for the missions along the Columbia and Willamette, writing to Canada and St. Louis to promote support. He was not alone for long, because two priests from Canada, Fathers J. B. Bolduc and Anthony Langlois, arrived on September 15, 1842, after a year's travel by ship from Quebec to Oregon, via Hawaii. ⁹

Although Blanchet had been begging for priests, when they arrived he had...