The Vicariate, r84r-r847
Jesuits, Sulpicians, and Augustinians. Ever since November, 1842, the matter had been on the mind of Odin, who, entirely in accord with Timon, wrote to Archbishop Eccleston. An invitation was finally ex- tended Odin by Eccleston, and both Blanc and Timon encouraged him to avail himself of the opportunity. He intended to set out early in March, but there were so many persons who had to make their Easter duty that he "was obliged," as he wrote Blanc, "to postpone" his departure." When at last he set out, he was dogged almost constantly by chronic headaches and recurrent attacks of biliousness and malaria. The first day out from Galveston he suffered an attack of the fever. Weakened by his incessant labor, the zealous Bishop-Vicar was sick during most of the time of the Provincial Council and his five thousand-mile trip netted him small returns in comparison with the suffering he endured and the sacrifices he made. Accompanied by Father John Boullier, his Council theologian, he visited New York before going back to the West. Sickness compelled him to stop in Louisville temporarily for hospital care. As soon as he was able to travel, he continued his journey through Kentucky, where he met Timon again at Portland, and took leave of the Visitor on June 19, before the latter set out for the Vincentian General Assembly soon to convene in Paris.u Odin then proceeded to the College of the Barrens, where he wrote to Blanc on July 24 that he had intended to set out for Louisiana long before but that headaches and a fever that tortured him again for five or six days had compelled him to defer his departure once more. He had confirmed two hundred and seventeen persons at the Barrens the day before. Before leaving, he thanked Blanc for having taken care of the recently arrived Padres who were going to Texas." "Illness has made me stay much longer in Missouri than I had antici- pated," he wrote Blanc on September 26, as he made his way down the river to Donaldsonville, where he paused for a few weeks more. Not until late in October did he finally reach New Orleans, and thence, went on to Galveston, where he arrived on December 16, after an absence of more than six months.' 7 Securing pers<mnel fur the Texas Vicaria_te. Ever since the estab- 44 0din to Blanc, November 16, 1842, and March 16, 1843. See also Bayard, o,p. cit., 306-307. 4SBayard, o,P. cit., 307-308. "Odin to Blanc, July 24, 1843, C. A. T. ' 7 0din to Blanc, December 1 6, 1843, C. A. T.
I I
-
Powered by FlippingBook