BLANDINA
594
BLANE
Catholicity in Oregon) in a series of papers published
in the "Catholic Sentinel" of that city. In 1880 he
resigned and was appointed titular Archbishop of
Amida. He consecrated tliree bishops — Demers,
D'Herbomez, and Seghers. He found on the Pacific
coast a wilderness, spiritual as well as material; he
left, after forty-six years of heroic work, a well-pro-
vided ecclesiastical province. His name will be for-
ever illustrious in the history of the Church in America,
as the first archbishop of the North-west and the
Apostle of Oregon.
Bl.\nchet, Augustin M.^gloire, brother of pre- ceding, first Bishop of Walla Walla-Nesciually, State of Washington, U. S. A., b. 22 August, 1797, on his father's farm near the village of Saint-Pierre, Riviere du Sud, Canada; d. 25 February, 1887, at Fort Van- couver, Washington. After attending the village school for three years, he was sent to Quebec, with his brother Frani^ois Noi oert, to study for the priest- hood. He was ordained 3 June, 1821. After a twelve- month as assistant pastor at St. Gervais, he was sent as missionary to the Isles de la Madeleine and later to Cape Breton Island. He gave four years of min- istry to the Gulf provinces. Then he was recalled to the vicariate Apostolic of Montreal and was suc- cessively pastor of four parishes, in one of which he was the successor of his elder brother. In 1846 while a canon of the Montreal cathedral, he was ap- pointed Bishop of the new Diocese of Walla Walla in what is now the State of Washington. He was consecrated 27 September, 1846. In the following spring he set out overland for his distant see with one priest, Rev. J. A. B. Brouillet, and two students. At Pittsburgh he declared his intention to become a citi- zen of the United States. At St. Louis the party was increased by Father Richard, two deacons and Brother Blanchet, all members of the Order of Mary Immaculate. Fort Walla Walla was reached on 5 September, 1847 The Bishop located at The Dalles and thence multiplied his apostolic laboiu's through- out the vast territory under his care. He endured the many hardships of a pioneer country and braved all the perils of a region infested with wild beasts and still more savage men. He was full of zeal. He established missions; he built churches; he founded academies and colleges; he started schools for the Indians; he begged for priests in Canada and abroad; he obtained sisters to open hospitals and other in- stitutions.
In 1850 the See of Walla Walla was suppressed and that of Nesqually was erected in its stead, with head- quarters at Fort Vancouver. The bishop built there a cathedral of logs, and a house for himself out of the same material. In 1852 he attended the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, but, on account of infirmities, he was unable to go to Rome for the Vatican Council. In 1879, after thirty-two years of arduous service in Washington, he resigned his see and was named titular Bishop of Ibora. Worn out with labours, he spent his last eight years in prayer and suffering. His peaceful death was a fitting close for his life of sacrifice. He is revered as the Apostle of Washington.
De Smet, Oregon Mhsions and Travels in the Rocky Moun- tains; MuRR.iY, Popular Hist, of the Calh. Church in the U. S. (New York, 1876); O'Gorman, Hist, of the R. C. Church in the United StaUs (New York, 1895). 421, 464; Chittenden and Richardson, Life, Letters, and Travels of Fr. Pierre Jean De Smet (New York, 1905); Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1889-92); Reusr, Biog. Cycl. of the Cath. Hierarchy of the U. S. (Milwaukee, 1898); Clarke, Lives of Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1888).
L. W. Reilly.
Blandina, Saint, virgin and martyr. — She be- longs to the band of martyrs of Lyons who, after some of their number had endured the most fright- ful tortures, suffered a glorious martyrdom in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (177) and concerning whose
death we have the touching report sent by the Church
of Lyons to the Churches of Asia Minor (Eusebius,
Hist, ecel,, V, 2). The fanaticism of the heathen
populace in Lyons had been excited against the
Clu-istians so that the latter, when they ventured
to show themselves publicly, were harassed and ill-
treated. While the imperial legate was away the
chiliarch, a military commander, and the duumvir,
a civil magistrate, threw a number of Christians,
who confessed their faith, into prison. When the
legate returned, the imprisoned believers were
brought to trial. Amono; these Clu-istians was Blan-
dina, a slave, who had been taken into custody
along with her master, also a Cliristian. Her com-
panions greatly feared that on account of her bodily
frailty she might not remain steadfast under tor-
ture. But although the legate caused her to be
tortured in a horrible manner, so that even the
executioners became exhausted "as they did not
know what more they could do to her", still she re-
mained faithful and repeated to every question "I
am a Christian and we commit no WTongdoing. "
Through fear of torture heathen slaves had testified
against their masters that the Christians when as-
sembled committed those scandalous acts of which
they were accused by the heathen mob, and the legate
desired to wring confession of this misconduct from
the Clu-istian prisoners. In his report to the emperor
the legate stated that those who held to their Chris-
tian belief were to be executed and those who de-
nied their faith were to be released; Blandina was,
therefore, with a number of companions subjected
to new tortures in the amphitheatre at the time of
the public games. She was bound to a stake and
wild beasts were set on her. They did not, however,
touch her. After this for a number of days she was
led into the arena to see the sufferings of her com-
panions. Finally, as the last of the martyrs, she
was scourged, placed on a red-hot grate, enclosed
in a net and tlirowni before a wild steer who tossed
her into the air with his horns, and at last killed with
a dagger. Her feast is celebrated 2 June.
Acta SS.. .Tune, I, 161 sqq.; Allard, Histoire des persecu- tions (Pans, 1892), I, 397 sqq.
J. P. KiRSCH.
Blane (or Blaan), Saint, Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, b. on the island of Bute, date un- known; d. 590. His feast is kept on 10 August. He was a nephew of St. Cathan, and was educated in Ireland under Sts. Comgall and Kenneth; he be- came a monk, went to Scotland, and eventually was bishop among the Picts. Several miracles are related of liim, among them the restoration of a daad boy to life. The Aberdeen Breviary gives these and other details of the saint's life, which are rejected, however, by the Bollandists. There can be no doubt that devotion to St. Blane was, from early times, popular in Scotland. His monastery became the site of the Cathedral of Dunblane. There was a church of St. Blane in Dumfries and another at Kil blane. The year of the saint's death is variously gi\'en as 446, 590, and 1000; 446 (Butler, Lives of the Saints) is evidently incorrect; the date 1000, found in Adam King, "Kalendar of Scottish Saints" (Paris, 1588), in Dempster, "Menologium Scotorum" (Bonn, 1622). and in the "Acta SS. ", seems to have crept in by confusing St. Kenneth, whose disciple Blane was, with a Kenneth who was King of Scotland about A. D. 1000. The highest authorities say the saint died 590. The ruins of his church at Kingarth, Bute, where his remains were buried, are still standing and form an object of great interest to antiquarians; the bell of his monastery is preserved at Dunblane,
P'oRBES, Kalendars of Scottish Saints (Edinburgh, 1872)^ Barrett, .4 Calendar of Scottish Saints (Fort Augustus. 1904); .icta SS., 10 August, XXXVI, 560.
M. J O'Malia.
