“From the Archives” Father Stephen L. Dubuisson

Father Stephen L. Dubuisson, SJ, served as pastor of Saint Mary from 1837 to 1841. Born Eitenne de la Rigaudelle du Buisson in 1736, he anglicized his name to Stephen Dubuisson when he arrived in New York in 1815 to serve as a Jesuit missionary in the United States.

He was a native of Santo Domingo, Hispaniola, and was educated in France. He had prepared for a military career, was a talented musician, and at one time was a member of the court of Napoleon I. While serving in Paris, Dubuisson felt an overwhelming call to religious life and wanted to become a Trappist monk. But family obligations forced him to postpone his vocation. After Napoleon attacked the Papal States and was exiled to Elba, Dubuisson resigned his commission and came to the United States. He was accompanied by Father James Ryder, SJ, of Georgetown who recruited talented Europeans for the Jesuit order in America. Dubuisson joined the Jesuits and was ordained in 1822.

Highly sensitive and somewhat neurotic, Father Dubuisson struggled to fit into religious life in egalitarian America.  His students at Georgetown considered him too strict and authoritarian. A saintly man, he found his true vocation in the pastoral ministry of the Jesuits in the Washington area.

During his years here at Saint Mary, Father Dubuisson was respected for his excellence in teaching catechism. His style was interesting. Teaching from the pulpit, he would tell the children Bible stories and have the older children bring pencil and paper to take notes. The students would then write an essay on the lesson and return it to him. The next Sunday, Father would read the best paper for public comment. He also corrected the children’s spelling and grammar!

The Woodstock Letters, a record of Jesuit churches in the 1800s, contains a curious entry concerning Father Dubuisson’s pastorate here. A Catholic couple was married outside the Church by a Protestant minister. When the penitent couple came to Father Dubuisson to be married in the Church, the priest was unsure whether they should be punished. He wrote to Archbishop James Whitfield in Baltimore for guidance. Apparently, Father Dubuisson believed the two should make a public apology during Sunday Mass, kneeling before the altar throughout the entire service. The bishop said he could not recall any public penances in such cases. Father Francis Dzierozynski of Georgetown, another priest who served Saint Mary, offered a wise solution: Father Dubuisson should simply tell the congregation the couple had apologized without naming them or making them rise in public. Despite his perfectionism, the parish recognized his saintliness and Father Dubuisson was well liked. He eventually returned to Rome and died in 1864.

 —  Kitty Guy, Parish Historian

In 2020, to commemorate the 225th anniversary of our parish, we started “From the Archives” as a weekly feature online and in our bulletin to spotlight the history of Saint Mary’s. Due to its popularity, we are continuing the series in 2021. An archive of the features is located here.