Charles Felix Van Quickenborne

Father 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 and six African-American slaves, led by Father Quickenborne, left a struggling Jesuit plantation near White Marsh, Maryland and made their way west, first by flatboat down the Ohio River, and then on foot across Illinois.

In 1823 Father Quikenborne and his group moved west to Missouri’s Florissant Valley, about twenty miles northwest of St. Louis, where Bishop Du Bourg had given the Jesuits a tract of land. With a subsidy from the government of President James Monroe, Van Quickenborne began a school for Native Americans.

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.^{[4] [5]}

First recorded Kansas Baptism

The following is the first certified baptism:

• "A neosho chez Mr. Ligueste Chouteau," 27 August 1827, Father Charles F. 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) ^[6]
• In 1837, Father van Quickenborne baptized 14 Indian children in a Potawatomi camp just outside Fort Leavenworth.

Saint Raphaels Cathedral

The parish of St. Raphael's Cathedral (Dubuque, Iowa) traces its origin to 1833, when the first group of settlers gathered for Mass services. Father Van Quickenborne began organizing them into a parish and began planning for a church building. However, he began his final journey west before the materials were even assembled. ^[7]

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

References