Louis Amadeus Rappe

Louis Amadeus Rappe (February 2, 1801 – August 9, 1877) was a French-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the new Diocese of Cleveland in Ohio from 1847 to 1870.

Biography

Early life Louis Rappe was born on February 2, 1801, in Audrehem, Pas-de-Calais, in France to Eloi and Marie Antoinette (née Noël) Rappe, a farm family. He was one of ten children and labored in the fields until October 1820, when he entered the Haffreingue-Chanclaire College in Boulogne, France, under the instruction of Reverend Benoit Haffreingue. After graduating in 1826, Rappe attended the seminary in Arras, France.

Priesthood Rappe was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Arras in France by then Bishop Hugues de la Tour 'Auvergne-Lauragais on March 14, 1829. After his ordination, Rappe served as a pastor in a parish in Wismes, France. In 1834, he was appointed chaplain to the Ursuline monastery in Boulogne.

In 1839, Bishop John Purcell escorted three young women from England to the monastery in Boulogne. Already interested in going to the United States, Rappe offered his service to Purcell. Although concerned about Rappe's inability to speak English, Purcell recruited him to be incardinated, or transferred into the Diocese of Cincinnati in Ohio. After arriving in Ohio in October 1840,

For his first pastoral assignment, Purcell appointed Rappe as pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish, based in Toledo, Ohio. However, the unofficial parish limits extended from Toledo west to the Indiana border and as far south as Allen County, Ohio. Rappe ministered to the Catholic laborers on the Miami and Erie Canal and the settlers along the Maumee River, both in Ohio. Concerned about the high degree of alcohol dependency among the laborers and its effects on families, Rappe frequently preached to them about the benefits of temperance. He soon established the city's first parochial school, which doubled as a chapel. He also introduced into the diocese the Grey Nuns in 1856.

In 1865, Rappe established St. Vincent Charity Hospital, the first public hospital in Cleveland. He brought in the Good Shepherd Sisters (1869), the Little Sisters of the Poor (1870), the Friars Minor (1867) and the Jesuits (1869),

Retirement and legacy With his eyesight failing, Rappe submitted his resignation as bishop of Cleveland after returning to Ohio from First Vatican Council in 1870. Pope Pius IX accepted his resignation on August 22, 1870. Rappe left the diocese with more than 100,000 Catholics, 107 priests, 160 churches, and 90 schools.

After his resignation, Rappe moved to St. Albans, Vermont, where he supervised missions in Vermont and Canada for the Diocese of Burlington. The pope later offered him another diocese, but Rappe declined it. Louis Rapp died at St. Albans on September 8, 1877, at the age of 76. He was interred in St. John's Cathedral in Cleveland.