Michael Portier

Michael Porter ( born September 7, 1795 in Montbrison, France, † May 14, 1859 in Mobile, Alabama, United States ) was a Roman Catholic priest and the first bishop of the Diocese of Mobile.

Porter was in 1817 immigrated to the United States. He studied at St. Mary 's Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland and was ordained for the Diocese of Saint Louis on May 16, in 1818 the Bishop Louis William Valentine Dubourg priest. Eight years later, on 26 August 1825 he was appointed by Joseph Rosati titular bishop of Olena and was the only Vicar Apostolic of the newly created Vicariate of Alabama and Florida.

As a porter took up his duties, he was the only priest in the Vicariate, which included only three parishes: Mobile, Alabama, as well as St. Augustine and Pensacola in Florida. Porter rode on horseback through its consular district, where he held the Holy Mass and the Sacraments issued.

Looking for helpers in 1829 he sailed to Europe and returned with some seminarians and the priest Mathias Loras. On May 15, 1829 Vicariate was elevated to a diocese and a porter became its first bishop. Its cathedral was a small church, which was about six feet wide and sixteen feet long, his residential and official residence was built in timber frame construction building with two rooms. The construction of a new cathedral was begun in 1837 and Bishop Portier could consecrate the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1850. In that year, the eastern part of Florida was separated from the Diocese of Mobile and assigned to the diocese of Savannah.

Bishop Portier founded in 1830 the Spring Hill College and appointed Mathias Loras to his principal. Loras remained in that post until he was ordained by Bishop Portier on December 10, 1837 Bishop of Dubuque; this consecrated in 1847 another rector of the College Bishop John Stephen Bazin was born on October 24, 1847, the third Bishop of Vincennes.

In 1833 he received the Order of the Visitation of Georgetown some nuns who built the Visitation Convent and a girls' school in Mobile. From France he brought about 1847 members of the Frères du Sacré -Coeur from France and the Association of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul from Emmitsburg, Maryland to Mobile to build orphanages for boys and girls. One of his last actions was the establishment of a hospital, today's Providence Hospital, which is then as now operated by the Charity.

Bishop Portier died on 14 May 1859 aged 63 and was buried in the crypt of the cathedral in Mobile.

Swell

  • Entry on catholic - hierarchy.org
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Roman Catholic Bishop (19th Century )
  • Frenchman
  • Americans
  • Born in 1795
  • Died in 1859
  • Man
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis St. Augustine (Florida) Pensacola (Florida) Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)
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