Page:Acadiensis Q2.djvu/238
This is all upon that subject in the volume, but it seemed enough! "Eureka!" (or a scientific equivalent) I cried, "the Monks of St. André-au-Bois came to Acadia, some of them founded a mission at St. Andrews and named it in honor of the house of their order in France. This explains, too, the Indian tradition that it was founded by a priest by the name of St. André." But later my joy was tempered by the reflection that 'twas a goodly guess, but where was the proof? So I set to work to find it. I asked a priest of the Roman Church whether the Order of Prémontrés is still in existence, and if so, to whom I could apply for information about the order and its early missions. He told me the order is still active and gave me the address of the Superior of St. Norbert's College of Du Pere, Wis., who in turn referred me to the Bishop of the Order, the Bishop of Namur, in Belgium, to whom I wrote. A prompt and very courteous reply was received from Father Waltman Van Spilbeeck, Sub-Prior of the Abbey of Tougerloo, Belgium, to whom his Lordship had referred my letter, enclosing an extract from a history of the Abbey of St. André-au-Bois, of which the following is a translation:
André Thomas, XXXVe abbe de St. André-au-Bois (1688–1731).
In one of his frequent voyages to Paris, admitted to present to the Cardinal de Noailles his plans of reform, he met the Bishop of Quebec, who persuaded him to take part in the apostolic work in Canada, and proposed to him to attach himself to his person. The imagination of the Abbé Thomas was immediately fired by the thought of consecrating himself to missions, and of leading beyond the seas his disciples of the Mount-Saint-Martin. The reformer straightway became the apostle.
He sought immediately from the court the authority to devote himself to the propagation of the faith, and through the mediation of the intendant Bignon, asked from the abbey of St. André a subsidy of three thousand livres.
The brother Boubert (proctor) and the prior, unwilling to share with the new world resources hardly sufficient for the abbey itself, granted, not without difficulty, a sum of 1,200 livres; Thomas