Overview

Cornelius Michael Buckley, S.J. delves into Stephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson’s life, using him as the point of departure to describe the tensions among Jesuits in Maryland after the restoration of the order in 1814. A refugee of the violent slave rebellions in Haiti, where he was born, and the Terror in France, Dubuisson became a clerk in Napoleon’s personal treasury and a resident in the Tuileries. He was a member of Marie Louise’s flight in 1814 and later differed with Napoleon’s account of the fate of the lost treasury during this momentous event. The following year, giving up a promising career in the Restoration government, he entered the slave-owning Jesuits in Maryland. Ten years later, he was the priest involved in the Mattingly Miracle. After a brief tenure as Georgetown’s fourteenth president, Dubuisson spent three years in Europe advising the Jesuit general how to keep his American troops in step along the Ignatian “long black line.” During this time, he began his career as a fundraiser and propagandist for the American Church and as an unofficial, and sometimes vexing, diplomat of the general in the courts of Europe. After his return, Dubuisson served as a parish priest in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Elected a second time to represent the Maryland Jesuits at a meeting in Rome, he never returned to the United States and eventually became chaplain to the dashing Duke and Duchess de Montmorency Laval. Recognized as “the chief pillar of the Jesuit mission in the United States,” he died in Pau, France, during the height of the American Civil War.

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In this deeply research and engaging biography, Cornelius Michael Buckley offers a richly contextualized portrait of Stephen Dubuisson (1786-1864). . . .Buckley's research is rich and deep; his bibliography alone, detailing archival and secondary sources in several languages, is an education. In addition to offering a remarkably complete portrait of an individual, the biography also adds significantly to our knowledge of subjects ranging from conflict among clergy and faculty in the early national church, to the tragic causes and consequences of Jesuit slaveholding, to controversy over mesmerism. . . .[Readers will] find that Buckley's research and writing also offers the rigor and rewards of secular scholarship. Over the course of this delightful and impressive book, the reader is left with the feeling of having spent time in the company of fascinating Jesuits of both the past and the present. * Journal of Jesuit Studies * Fr. Buckley's book . . . is much more than a mere recounting of the life of a little-known Jesuit. It is, in fact, a consideration of what it means to be a Jesuit in America. . . .Buckley gives a detailed account of Dubuisson's life, telling his colorful and unpredictable story with care, insight, and more than occasional dry humor. . . .Buckley has done the Church, the Society of Jesus, his country, and his friends a great service by writing this book and revealing the character of this until now obscure Jesuit. * Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly * Buckley's deeply researched biography of Dubuisson provides a fascinating perspective on the international reach of the Catholic Church and the Jesuits in a period marked by revolution, rapid social change, and religious renewal. Buckley draws on Dubuisson's correspondence and writings to reveal a sensitive, observant, and critical mind. . . . This book illuminates a compelling chapter in the history of Catholicism. -- Thomas Kselman, University of Notre Dame An informative and readable biography of a transnational Jesuit priest who helped shape the role of the Society of Jesus in the early US Catholic Church. -- Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Salem State University Father Buckley has shed much light on nineteenth-century Catholicism through his insightful investigation of the career of a strategically placed Jesuit of the time. -- James Hitchcock

In this deeply research and engaging biography, Cornelius Michael Buckley offers a richly contextualized portrait of Stephen Dubuisson (1786–1864). . . .Buckley’s research is rich and deep; his bibliography alone, detailing archival and secondary sources in several languages, is an education. In addition to offering a remarkably complete portrait of an individual, the biography also adds significantly to our knowledge of subjects ranging from conflict among clergy and faculty in the early national church, to the tragic causes and consequences of Jesuit slaveholding, to controversy over mesmerism. . . .[Readers will] find that Buckley’s research and writing also offers the rigor and rewards of secular scholarship. Over the course of this delightful and impressive book, the reader is left with the feeling of having spent time in the company of fascinating Jesuits of both the past and the present. * Journal of Jesuit Studies * Fr. Buckley's book . . . is much more than a mere recounting of the life of a little-known Jesuit. It is, in fact, a consideration of what it means to be a Jesuit in America. . . .Buckley gives a detailed account of Dubuisson's life, telling his colorful and unpredictable story with care, insight, and more than occasional dry humor. . . .Buckley has done the Church, the Society of Jesus, his country, and his friends a great service by writing this book and revealing the character of this until now obscure Jesuit. * Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly * Buckley’s deeply researched biography of Dubuisson provides a fascinating perspective on the international reach of the Catholic Church and the Jesuits in a period marked by revolution, rapid social change, and religious renewal. Buckley draws on Dubuisson’s correspondence and writings to reveal a sensitive, observant, and critical mind. . . . This book illuminates a compelling chapter in the history of Catholicism. -- Thomas Kselman, University of Notre Dame An informative and readable biography of a transnational Jesuit priest who helped shape the role of the Society of Jesus in the early US Catholic Church. -- Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Salem State University Father Buckley has shed much light on nineteenth-century Catholicism through his insightful investigation of the career of a strategically placed Jesuit of the time. -- James Hitchcock

In this deeply research and engaging biography, Cornelius Michael Buckley offers a richly contextualized portrait of Stephen Dubuisson (1786-1864)...Buckley's research is rich and deep; his bibliography alone, detailing archival and secondary sources in several languages, is an education. In addition to offering a remarkably complete portrait of an individual, the biography also adds significantly to our knowledge of subjects ranging from conflict among clergy and faculty in the early national church, to the tragic causes and consequences of Jesuit slaveholding, to controversy over mesmerism...[Readers will] find that Buckley's research and writing also offers the rigor and rewards of secular scholarship. Over the course of this delightful and impressive book, the reader is left with the feeling of having spent time in the company of fascinating Jesuits of both the past and the present. Journal of Jesuit Studies Buckley's deeply researched biography of Dubuisson provides a fascinating perspective on the international reach of the Catholic Church and the Jesuits in a period marked by revolution, rapid social change, and religious renewal. Buckley draws on Dubuisson's correspondence and writings to reveal a sensitive, observant, and critical mind... This book illuminates a compelling chapter in the history of Catholicism. -- Thomas Kselman, University of Notre Dame An informative and readable biography of a transnational Jesuit priest who helped shape the role of the Society of Jesus in the early US Catholic Church. -- Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Salem State University Father Buckley has shed much light on nineteenth-century Catholicism through his insightful investigation of the career of a strategically placed Jesuit of the time. -- James Hitchcock

Buckley's deeply researched biography of Dubuisson provides a fascinating perspective on the international reach of the Catholic Church and the Jesuits in a period marked by revolution, rapid social change, and religious renewal. Buckley draws on Dubuisson's correspondence and writings to reveal a sensitive, observant, and critical mind... This book illuminates a compelling chapter in the history of Catholicism. -- Thomas Kselman, University of Notre Dame An informative and readable biography of a transnational Jesuit priest who helped shape the role of the Society of Jesus in the early US Catholic Church. -- Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Salem State University Father Buckley has shed much light on nineteenth-century Catholicism through his insightful investigation of the career of a strategically placed Jesuit of the time. -- James Hitchcock

Author Information

Cornelius Michael Buckley, S.J. graduated from Santa Clara University in 1950, the year he entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). He received a doctorate from Sorbonne University, Paris, in nineteenth-century French history. A professor emeritus of the University of San Francisco, he is currently chaplain at Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California.

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