Welcome to the Missouri Bicentennial Minute from the State Historical Society of Missouri.
At the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville is a beautiful marble slab marking the tomb of Father Felix De Andreis. This month we commemorate the bicentennial of his death on October 15, 1820.
Father De Andreis was born in northern Italy, ordained in 1802, and was transferred to Rome to teach and minister to the poor. Some years later, William Du Bourg, bishop of Louisiana, arrived in Rome to recruit church leaders to serve the Missouri Territory. Father De Andreis felt called to do so, and left Rome in 1815, arriving in America in 1816.
After teaching theology in Kentucky at the Seminary of St. Thomas for two years, he was appointed as the first Vicar-General in St. Louis. Upon arrival he saw to construction of a log chapel in south St. Louis, dedicating it to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In St. Louis, he headed two schools, one for religious students and one for seculars. He was the first Superior of Vincentians in the U. S., and also Parish Priest of St. Louis Cathedral.
His greatest legacy, though is establishment of the seminary of St. Marys of The Barrens at Perryville, to which he dispatched Father Joseph Rosati and other Vincentians. The seminary was the first institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi. Father De Andreis remained at his post in St. Louis. Although he missed his home in Italy, he prepared for his dream of ministering to the indigenous peoples west of the Mississippi and up the Missouri River.
Unfortunately, Father De Andreis, who was never physically robust, fell ill in late 1820. When he died at age 42, members of his flock mourned a leader of exceptional humility with a legacy of advancing the Church in territorial Missouri.