Levadoux, Michael
LEVADOUX, MICHAEL
Missionary; b. Clermont in Auvergne, France, April 1, 1746; d. Puy, France, Jan. 13, 1815. He entered the Society of Saint-Sulpice at Paris in 1774 and taught at the seminary in Limoges until 1791. When John carroll decided to establish the first American seminary in Baltimore, Md. (1791), under Sulpician direction, Levadoux sailed from Saint Malo with the first group of Sulpicians sent by their superior general, Jacques André Emery. As treasurer, Levadoux assisted in the administration of St. Mary's Seminary for one year. In June of 1792 Carroll assigned Levadoux to do missionary work in Illinois. For four years with the help of another Sulpician, Gabriel richard, Levadoux ministered to the French settlements at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Prairie du Rocher. When the Catholic Church in Michigan became part of the Baltimore jurisdiction, Carroll transferred Levadoux to Detroit (1796) as pastor of St. Anne's parish. Ill health forced Levadoux to leave Detroit in the spring of 1802, and after a year's residence at St. Mary's in Baltimore, he returned to France.
Bibliography: g. w. parÉ, The Catholic Church in Detroit, 1701–1888 (Detroit 1951). p. k. guilday, The Life and Times of John Carroll, 2 v. (New York 1927).
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