Early life John Dubois was born in
Paris, France, on August 24, 1764. As a teenager, he attended the
Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Deciding to become a priest, he studied theology at the Oratorian Seminary of Saint-Magloire in Paris.
Priesthood in France Dubois was ordained a
priest for the Archdiocese of Paris on September 22, 1787, by Archbishop
Antoine-Eléonore-Léon Le Clerc de Juigné. After his ordination, Dubois served as an assistant to the curé of the
Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris. He also served chaplain to the
Hôpital des Petites-Maisons (the Hospital of Small Houses), a mental hospital run by the
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. By 1790, the
French Revolution was causing huge upheaval in France. In November 1790, the
National Constituent Assembly decreed that all clergy must swear an oath of loyalty to the government of France, ahead of loyalty to the pope. Failure to sign the oath mean loss of income, military conscription or death. Many priests of the
Order of Sulpice fled to England. In early 1791, Reverend Charles Nagot led a group of Sulpicians to
Baltimore, Maryland. Dubois was able to flee France to America with the assistance
Maximilien Robespierre, a leader of the revolution who had attended the Collège Louis LeGrand with Dubois. Virginia had disestablished the
Episcopal Church as the official church by statute in 1786. That same law also guaranteed
freedom of religion, releasing the Commonwealth's small Catholic population from civil restrictions. Dubois soon became friends with the Episcopalian
John Buchanan and the Presbyterian John Blair two ministers who alternated holding religious services in the
Virginia State Capitol. On one occasion, the
Virginia General Assembly invited Dubois to celebrate mass in the Capitol courtroom. During his time in Richmond, Dubois celebrated masses in rented rooms or at the homes of the city's few Catholic families. In 1808, Dubois founded
Mount St. Mary's College in
Emmitsburg, Maryland and became its first president. Later that same year, in November 1808, he joined the
Sulpician Order. Mount St. Mary's trained many missionaries who were sent out west to build mission churches. In 1809, Dubois invited
Elizabeth Bayley Seton, a recent widow and convert to move to Emmitsburg. That same year, she established the first
religious institute of teaching sisters in the United States. In 1810, Seton established
Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School in Emmitsburg, the first Catholic girls' school in the nation. Seton was
canonized a saint in 1975. Dubois was
consecrated at the
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore by Archbishop
Ambrose Maréchal on October 29, 1826. The primarily Irish clergy in the Diocese of New York did not appreciate the appointment of a French bishop. Although Dubois had acquired an adequate command of English, he spoke with an accent; they viewed him as a "foreigner". Many of the clergy believed that Monsignor
John Power, the Irish-American
vicar general, should have become bishop. There were suspicions that Maréchal, also French-born, had influenced the pope to select Dubois. At one point, the trustees of
St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in Manhattan, tangled in a dispute with Dubois over the ownership of church property, withheld their contributions of food and shelter from him. In 1837, Dubois traveled to
Salina, New York to marry
Silas Titus and Eliza McCarthy. The marriage certificate became the first record of a Catholic service in
Onondaga County. Reverend
John McCloskey, a future archbishop of New York, accompanied Dubois to Salina as a guide. In 1837, Dubois requested that the pope appoint a
coadjutor bishop to assist him. During his tenure as bishop, Dubois erected six new parishes in New York City. He also commissioned Reverend Phillip O’Reilly to serve the "Congregation of the Hudson" north of
Manhattan.
Death and legacy Dubois died on December 20, 1842, in New York City. He is buried under the sidewalk at the entrance to the Old St Patrick's Cathedral. He requested this spot so that people could "walk on me in death, as they wished to in life". A plaque at the church's entrance memorializes Dubois. ==References==