John Baptist Mary David


John Baptist Mary David, S.S., was a French-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Bardstown in Kentucky from 1832-33.

Biography

David was born in Couëron, in the Province of Brittany in pre-revolutionary France. At age 7 he was placed under the care of his uncle, a priest, who instructed the boy in Latin, French, and music.
He entered the nearby college of the Oratorians at age 14, and later the seminary of the Diocese of Nantes, receiving the tonsure in 1778. Ordained a priest on September 24, 1785, he joined the Society of Saint-Sulpice and taught philosophy, theology, and Scripture at the Sulpician seminary in Angers from 1786 until 1790, when the French Revolution forced him to seek shelter in the private home of a Catholic family.
In January 1792, seeking safety, David was part of a small group of Sulpicians who left France for the United States, under the leadership of the Abbé Benedict Joseph Flaget, S.S., landing in Baltimore, Maryland in March. He was first sent by Bp. John Carroll to serve the Catholics of southern Maryland in Bryantown and missions in Charles County. While professor of philosophy at Georgetown College, he continued to serve as a missionary to southern Maryland. He was the professor of theology at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, where he was also acting president during 1810-11.
In 1810 he moved west to serve under his colleague, Flaget, now the bishop of the Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, where he established St. Thomas Seminary. In 1812 he founded the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, whose Superior General he remained almost to the end of his life.
On July 4, 1817, David was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Bardstown and Titular Bishop of Maurocastrum by Pope Pius VII. He received his episcopal consecration on August 15, 1819 from Bishop Flaget. Following his consecration, he continued to serve as a missionary, superior of St. Thomas' Seminary, and pastor of St. Joseph's Cathedral. David succeeded Flaget as the second Bishop of Bardstown on August 25, 1832. However, he resigned as Bishop less than a year later, on March 17, 1833. His poor health compelled him to retire to the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity he had founded in Nazareth, where he later died at age 80 and was buried.

Episcopal succession