The Reverend Antonio de Sedella OFM | |
|---|---|
 Père Antoine (Padre Antonio de Sedella) at Age Seventy-Four, by Edmund Brewster, New Orleans, 1822 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Francisco Ildefonso Mareno 1748 |
| Died | 19 January 1829 (aged 80-81) |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Catholicism |
Antonio de Sedella,OFM Cap. (bornFrancisco Ildefonso Mareno; 1748 – 19 January 1829) was a SpanishCapuchin friar who served as the leading religious authority of theCatholic Church inNew Orleans, Louisiana, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Commonly called "Père Antoine", he is a noted figure in the culture of the city. A street and a restaurant in the city's historicFrench Quarter are named for him.[1]
He was bornFrancisco Ildefonso Mareno in the town ofSedella located in theProvince of Málaga and, as a teenager, entered theOrder of Friars Minor Capuchin by which he was given thereligious nameAntonio.[2] Presumably a short time after hisordination as a priest, he arrived in New Orleans in 1774 as an official of theSpanish Inquisition after the transfer of thecolony of Louisiana to Spain by France a decade earlier. Namedpastor of theChurch of St. Louis in the city, after gaining a reputation for rigidity in his early dealings with the people of New Orleans, he later became known to them for his dedication to the prisoners of the city, as well as to its large slave population. He baptized the famousMarie Laveau[3] (1801–1881), who later gained a large following as avoodoo priestess, and presided over her wedding in 1819.
In his depiction of Friar Antonio in the novelPère Antoine (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1956), the writer Edward F. Murphy portrayed him as a rigid ideologue, who was responsible for the destruction of the city due to his refusal to allow the church bells to ring in warning, out of the religious prohibition of this onGood Friday, which was observed that year on the day the fire occurred. With the establishment of a diocese by theHoly See for the colony in 1793, the new church was designated as its cathedral, and Friar Antonio was appointed as itsrector by theSpanish Crown.[citation needed]
After thesale of the colony to the United States in 1803, theHoly See appointedthe Rev.Louis Dobourg,SS, as theApostolic Administrator of the diocese. Sedella did not fully accept his authority until Dubourg traveled toRome and word was sent in support of his decisions toArchbishopJohn Carroll, the leading authority of the Catholic Church in the country.
Friar Antonio continued as Rector of the cathedral until his death on 19 January 1829. He was buried in the church three days later.[4]
Two sharply differing assessments of the man:
