Charles Felix Van Quickenborne

Charles Felix Van Quickenborne (1788–1837)^[1] was born in Petegem, near Deinze, Belgium on 21 January 1788. Van Quickenborne is best known as the founder of St. Louis University.^[2] He became a Jesuit in Ghent, Belgium in 1815, and, at his request, was sent to the American Missions in 1817. He was appointed Superior and Novice Master of the Jesuit novitiate in White Marsh, Maryland, in 1819.^[3]

Westward

In the early 1820s the Bishop of the Louisiana Territory, Louis Du Bourg, invited the Society of Jesus to come to the newly admitted state of Missouri. In 1823, twelve young Belgian Jesuits traveled to Missouri with six African-American slaves: Moses and Nancy, Thomas and Molly, Isaac and Susan, each husband and wife. The Jesuits forced the enslaved couples to leave their children behind; they expected their slaves would produce more children in Missouri.^[4]

Saint Louis University

Father van Quickenbourne had opened St. Regis Seminary, a school for young Indian boys, at Florissant, Mo. in May 1824. In late 1824 he wrote to the Superior General of the Jesuits about opening a college in St. Louis on land he had purchased at auction. The beginnings of Saint Louis University as a Jesuit institution may be dated from the period (second half of 1825) at which white students were first received by Father van Quickenborne at St. Regis Seminary.^[5][6]

First recorded Kansas baptism

The following is the first certified baptism:

• "A neosho chez Mr. Ligueste Chouteau", (at Neosho in the home of Mr. Ligueste Chouteau), 27 August 1827, Father Van Quickenborne baptized Henri Mongrain, "Son of Noel pere and of Tonpapai, age two years, sponsor Mr. Ligueste P. Chouteau" (baptismal register, St. Ferdinand's church, Florissant, Missouri).^[7] Father Van Quickenborne said the first verifiable Mass in Kansas two days earlier at St. Paul in Neosho County.^[7]
• In 1837, Father Van Quickenborne baptized 14 Indian children in a Potawatomi camp just outside Fort Leavenworth.

Cathedral of St. Raphael

Death

Father Charles Felix Van Quickenborne died on 17 August 1837 at age 49 and is buried at Florissant, Missouri.^[8]

His missionary work among the Kickapoos was taken over by the Dutch Jesuit Father Christian Hoecken.^[9]

References

1. Garraghan, Gilbert Joseph (1921). The Catholic Church in Chicago, 1673–1871: An Historical Sketch. Loyola University Press. p. 88. Retrieved 9 August 2013. Charles Felix Van Quickenborne.
2. Belgian American Historical Society of Chicago (December 2008) (PDF). Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Accessed 10 August 2013.
3. Rollings,Willard H. (2004). Unaffected by the Gospel: Osage Resistance to the Christian Invasion 1673 .... ISBN 9780826335579. from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
4. . 29 April 2016. Archived from the original on 20 January 2018. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
5. St. Louis Catholic Historical Review. Vol. 1. Catholic Historical Society of Saint Louis. 1918. p. 85. from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
6. [1] 19 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine
7. . Kansas Historical Quarterly. Kancoll.org. May 1939. Archived from the original on 11 November 2003. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
8. "St. Mary's Academy & College". Smac.edu. from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
9. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Hoecken, Christian" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. p. 226.