Born: Hostun (Drôme), France, on September 20, 1821
Took the habit: N.-D. de l’Osier, September 13, 1843
Vows: N.-D. de l’Osier, September 14, 1844 (No. 130)
Priestly ordination: Walla Walla, Oregon, January 2, 1848
Died: New Westminster, British Colombia, May 28, 1892.
Eugène Casimir Chirouse was born on September 20, 1821, in Hostun, diocese of Valence, France. His parents were Joseph Chirouse, a farmer, and Marie Barbier. He studied in the college of Crozite, Valence, and in the juniorate of Notre-Dame de Lumières. On September 13, 1843, he entered the novitiate in Notre-Dame de l’Osier and there he took vows on September 14, 1844. After two years and some months of theological studies in the major seminary of Marseilles he received his obedience for Oregon. On January 22, 1847 he left with Father Pascal Ricard and the scholastics Charles Pandosy and Georges Blanchet. When he announced the departure of these first missionaries for Oregon, Bishop de Mazenod had special words of praise for their virtue. Writing to Bishop Guigues on January 8 and 24 he said: “As for the Oblates (scholastics) I have chosen the most holy among them (Chirouse) young, a solid man, sufficiently talented, full of common sense and judgement, gracious, good, an angel according to everybody … he is a charming character, always laughing and likeable …” To Bishop Magloire Blanchet of Walla Walla, on January 22, he sent an extract from the notes of the novice master and superior of the novitiate: “always very wise, a good religious, an ardent missionary, a young man who inspires hope.”
In the course of his life, Casimir Chirouse proved that the opinion expressed about him in novitiate was justified. He was, above all, a good missionary, ardent and courageous. On January 2, 1848, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Magloire Blanchet in Walla Walla, the first priest to be ordained in the state of Washington. During that first year, Bishop de Mazenod did not receive many letters and he began to worry. The first news he received was not very good. He replied to Father Ricard on February 10, 1849: “I find it difficult to understand why the two young priests do not agree among themselves as they should and as would be becoming for two good brothers, especially since they are so far away from their common father. Oh! That is not tolerable. What matters the difference in character when people are of one heart and one mind.”
At the beginning Fathers Pandosy and Chirouse lived together, close to the Yakima Amerindians, and they ministered in the missions of Saint Rose and Immaculate Conception. In 1851, Father Chirouse went to stay in the mission of Saint Anne, among the Cayuses. In 1853, Bishop de Mazenod became concerned that these two priests were isolated. He wrote to Father Louis D’Herbomez on November 11: “Neither am I unconcerned about the nomadic and isolated life of our young Fathers Pandosy and Chirouse. It was never my intention that our Fathers should remain separated for long periods; essentially it is my wish that our missionaries march two by two, isolation can only be tolerated rarely and for short periods.”
In 1854 Bishop de Mazenod sent more missionaries. Father Pierre Louis Richard went to help Father Chirouse at Saint Anne. During the war between Americans and Amerindians, in 1855-1858, all these missions were destroyed. The Fathers sought refuge for a while with the Jesuits in Colvillle. On November 15, 1856, Bishop de Mazenod advised the superior, Father Ricard, not to rebuild immediately and to bring the missionaries together in the mission at Olympia, south of Puget Sound “so that they could benefit from community life at least for a while, and be refreshed in the spirit of the interior life and the practice of their duties as religious. We know how much Father Chirouse needs all of that.”
After these events Father Chirouse went to found the mission of Saint Joachim of Snohomish in Tulalip, to the north of Puget Sound. He ministered zealously and with success in this mission from 1857 to 1878 and there he opened a Catholic school for the Amerindians. From 1879 until his death he lived sometimes in New Westminster and sometimes in Sainte Marie in British Colombia. He was one of the counsellors to the vicar of missions and master of novices. He died in New Westminster on May 28, 1892.
What was it that somebody wrote to the Founder in 1858? Why should he have written confidentially to Father Casimir Aubert: “Father Chirouse seems to have no religious virtue whatever. He is a shady operator and nothing else.” A more positive opinion is expressed in the Personnel of 1862: Chirouse, deeply attached to the Congregation; prefers to act independently, nevertheless he is submissive to obedience. He is very jealous of his influence on the native peoples…” Joseph C. Dakin, in his book, Commemorating the centenary of the erection of Saint Joachim’s Mission Church, 1861-1961, wrote (on page 13) that Father Chirouse was small but well built. The blood of mountaineers flowed in his veins. He was known as a very strong man but a very kind one. He loved the Amerindians and they loved him.
In a long letter addressed to Father Fabre, in 1892 (Missions OMI, 1893, pp. 129-161, Father Émile Bunoz gave an account of the funeral of Father Chirouse which took place on May 31, during a mission being preached to several hundred Amerindians in the mission of Sainte Marie. Among other things he wrote (pp. 144-145): “A humble apostle of the poor and the unlettered, he well deserved to be accompanied to his last resting place by the disinherited ones of the earth. Our valiant missionary was one of our first pioneers in those early days on the Pacific coast. Having arrived in Oregon in1846 (1847) he carried his tent to all the native encampments of that vast province. In the end he settled for many long years in Tulalip. He endured all the privations of those early days. He suffered from hunger and thirst, lived for a long time without bread, and was content to eat the most vulgar food. More than once, to protect himself against the rigours of the cold, his priestly hands had to take up the axe to cut down the trees of the forest and build himself a hut. He could truly say with Saint Paul: these hands have been used to answer my needs and those of the people around me. Certainly his kindheartedness was never at fault but his body must have suffered and he developed illnesses that accompanied him until his death, sad and glorious memories like those of a war veteran… He cooperated in the conversion of the Lamys and the Snohomish; he visited the Yougoultas, baptized a great number of pagans everywhere and, finally, he founded a school in Tulalip which today is under the direction of the United States government. Therefore he has passed through doing good; his work lives on and his name is blessed everywhere.”
Yvon Beaudoin
and Gaston Carrière, o.m.i.
