Ottr C atl1olic Heritage in Texas
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of Texas no end. "It is impossible for you to imagine the consternation in which I find myself," he wrote Rousselon five days after he received the papal bulls from the Archbishop of Baltimore. "I have neither eaten nor slept. For three days I have vainly tried to submit and resign myself; impossible." The idea of assuming new responsibilities and his reluctance to abandon his beloved Texas filled him with indecision. He immediately wrote Archbishop Francis P. Kenrick of Baltimore expressing his dil- emma and asking if it would not be best for him to resign the honor. On May I 5 Odin again wrote Rousselon that he could not say definitely when he would be in New Orleans until he had heard from the Metro- politan of Baltimore. 21 Odin was never one to indulge in his personal inclinations. With resig- nation, he accepted the heavy cross of duty and departed for New Orleans at the end of May, 1861. In his farewell pastoral letter to the clergy in Texas he repeated the sentiments privately expressed to Father Querat, epitomizing his affections for Texas and his sorrow: "How painful it has been to us, to separate ourselves from a people to whom we had consecrated all our affections! What a heart-rendering sacrifice ... to leave the land of Texas to which we had devoted our life, and in which we hoped our ashes would find a resting place !" 29 Dubttis atppoi.nted second Bisliop of Galveston. Before departing for New Orleans, Odin appointed Louis Chamboudut administrator of the Diocese until the vacancy was filled. 30 Shortly after his installation in New Orleans as Archbishop, Odin suggested as candidates to fill the vacancy in Texas Fathers Claude Marie Dubuis, P. Parisot, and Louis Chabodut. "The mission of Texas," he noted, "needs a man acquainted with the English and Spanish languages, who is ready to lead a life of privation and hardship." He pointed out that with few exceptions all the Catholics lived in scattered settlements, "the Mexican portion . . . on ranches or in small villages of five, ten, or twenty families," but that it 21 The feelings experienced by Odin during these days are vividly portrayed in his letters to Father Rousselon, administrator of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. See Odin to Rousselon, Galveston, April 4, and May 15, 1861, C. A. T. :,Clarke, op. cit., 226-227. In a fitting tribute to Odin the author of this work truthfully says his is a name "worthy of being inscribed in our annals of the Church in America, a name to be associated with the recital of heroic deeds of missionary life and labor.... Instances are rare of such humility, united with such exalted services." Ibid., 203. His remains, contrary to his expressed desire, rest in Ambierle, France, where he died on May 26, 1870. s 0 odln to J, Querat, May 14, 1861.
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