Word: flaget
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...Bardstown knew their legendary history: in 1798, while living in Havana, Father Benedict Joseph Flaget, future Bishop of Bardstown, befriended France's exiled Prince Louis Philippe. Years later, when Louis Philippe became King of France, he remembered the kindness, sent the paintings to the bishop for Bardstown's new cathedral...
...confused with 16 Popes of that name) first refused, then accepted, the bishopric of Sasima. Later he took over his father's duties as Bishop of Nazianzus in Asia Minor, but he never accepted formal installation in that see. In 1808 the Pope appointed Benedict Flaget, a refugee from the French Revolution, as Bishop of Bardstown, Ky. Flaget declined, went to Europe for advice, was greeted by a friend with the words: "My lord, you should be in your diocese." Flaget came back to the US., accepted the post...
Shortly after the Cathedral was dedicated (1819), Bishop Flaget sent three young priests to Europe to buy "church furniture." Father Nerinck bought 100 pictures. Father Badin bought 40. There are no records to show whether their purchases reached Kentucky...
Reason for this lavish gift, it is locally explained, is that Louis Philippe was grateful to Bishop Flaget for presenting the Havana purse of 14,000 francs. Most convincing proof of the gift is a bill introduced in Congress in 1824 and again in 1832 asking that Bishop Flaget be exempt from paying duties on "certain paintings and church furniture presented by the then Duke of Orleans, now King of the French, to the Bishop of Bairdstown...
Most prominent doubter of Bardstown's favorite story was the late Young E. Allison of Louisville's historical society, the Filson Club. Historian Allison's points: 1) Louis Philippe was notoriously stingy; it is doubtful whether he would so generously remember Bishop Flaget who presented a purse of other people's money. 2) Bishop Flaget called on Louis Philippe in France between 1835 and 1839, was received coldly. 3) The Congressmen who introduced the tariff-exemption bills may unwittingly have been quoting rumor; besides a report of the Congressmen's speeches there are no governmental...