Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1855

pg 239            The need of having a resident priest in an establishment 
             which already contained nearly one hundred persons under the 
             charge of religious was soon felt.  Hence letters were sent to the 
             asking for one of the Fathers of the Society.
                  There was then at Notre Dame, a young professed priest of a 
             fickle and turbulent character, whose judgment was not very sound.  
             He had been sent here by Ste. Croix, and during the few years that 
             he spent here, he was successively tried in almost all the 
             employments of the community; but he soon tired of everything, and 
             took advantage of the small number of priests in the mission, 
             which could not afford to deprive itself of the services of a 
             missioner unless he showed himself notoriously unworthy.  This 
             young priest had been once dismissed before his ordination; but 
             far from stirring any gratitude in him, the favor done him in 
             taking him back only provoked resentment whose effects were 
             destined to be deplorable.
                  If the house were inclined to severe measures, he would have 
             been dismissed a second time and for good; but he had become 
             dangerous, and the question for the administration of the Lake 
             was not so much whether he should at last be got rid of, as how to 
             get rid of him.  On the other hand, he was constantly telling all 
             that would listen to him that it was the fault of his two 
             confreres, F. Granger and F. Cointet, if he caused so much 
             embarrassment.  He could not bear either of them:  generally, the 
             superior himself fared no better with him.
                  However, this constantly repeated excuse suggested the idea 
             to offer him a chance to prove its truth by sending him to a 
             distance where neither of them could trouble him.  He gladly 
             consented to go to New Orleans; but when the day fixed for his 
             departure arrived, he declared positively that he would not go to 
             this new post except with the title and all the powers of local 
             superior.  Disgusting as was this conduct, it was only the 
             beginning of a cancer of six long years of similar proceedings.  
             Not only did he declare his resolution, but he held to it.  Next 
             day the Fathers' chapter sent the Mother House a formal petition 
             to have this member dismissed.
                  In the interim it was thought that if he were sent as Visitor 
             he would be satisfied, because this obedience would really give 
             him all the powers of a superior de facto.  And he was in reality 
             content with the title, and he went off, removing from the 
             shoulders of those that knew him best an enormous load; but it 
             soon became apparent that he had only withdrawn from the Lake the 
             better to study his revenge.  The first chapter held by him at the 
             asylum was signalized by a veritable diatribe against Notre Dame 
             du Lac, of which he would not long permit the asylum to be a 
             dependency, etc.  He thus showed how full of gall and lacking in 
             judgment he was.  In a few days he involved himself in 
             difficulties with his best subjects, and kept the others by 
             flattering their evil inclinations of vanity, ambition, and 
             independence.
                  Heaven could not bless a house in which God did not reign.  
             There was neither peace nor happiness for anybody.  One of the 
             first Brothers (Basil) escaped in disguise and went to die 
             miserably some hundreds of miles away.  Soon miseries kept 
             accumulating to an alarming degree.  Letters followed letters to 
             the Lake urging F. Sorin to come and visit the asylum.  Finally he 
             went there by the decision of the chapter, gave a retreat to the