de la Croix, Charles
DE LA CROIX, CHARLES
Missionary; b. Hoorebeke-Saint-Corneille, Flanders, Oct. 28, 1792; d. Ghent, Belgium, Aug. 20, 1869. As a seminarian in Ghent, he met Charles Nerinckx, already a missionary in Kentucky, who influenced him to serve in America. Ordained a priest in 1817 by Bp. Louis W. Dubourg, of Louisiana, he and other clerical recruits sailed that year for America with the prelate. By May 1818, De la Croix was acting as architect and supervisor for the first seminary building at "The Barrens," Perry County, Mo. He later superintended the "Bishop's Farm" at Florissant, ministered to the pioneer group of Religious of the Sacred Heart headed by (Bl.) Philippine Duchesne, served as missionary among the natives on the Gasconade and Osage Rivers, and collaborated with the early Jesuits, Vincentians, and Brothers of the Christian Schools in Missouri. In 1823 he became pastor of St. Michael's, Convent, La., where he built a new church in 1832. He also temporarily administered the neighboring church of St. James, Cabahanoce, and laid the groundwork for the future St. John the Evangelist Cathedral parish in Vermilionville, now Lafayette, La. In 1834 he returned to Belgium, and in 1849 became a canon of the Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent.
Bibliography: American Catholic Historical Researches 24 (1907) 59–61.
[h. c. bezou]