Page 54 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

34 TO AMERICA AGAIN
Congregation will undertake the spiritual direction of
this foundation."
A comparatively young man, Father Prost had come
to the United Staiei in i833 as Visitor and Superior of
the pioneer Redemptorists. It was he who had with-
drawn these men from the Diocese of Detroit and the
episcopal supervision of Bishop Rese. His presence in
Rocheiter frid its inception in a break in the Erie Canal
which had delayed him on his way to Norwalk, Ohio,
in 1835. At the request of the Pastor o[ St. Patrick's,
he had remained over Sunday to preach to the Germans
of the parish. He had returned in July, 1836, and inau-
gurated St. Joseph's parish. When Ryken visited him,
he was living in-the basement of his church, the former
Methodist meeting-house. Evidently the saintly, amiable
Prost was very much impressed by his visitor.
The energetic Ryken, who had obtained a letter of
recommendition in New York City on November 8th
and another in Rochester, hundreds of miles away in
mid-New York State, five days later, did not move so
rapidly to his next objective, Cincinnati, Ohio. There
is the possibility that he made the journey via Detroit
where Father Vincent Badin and Father John De Bruyne,
as vicars-general in the absence of Bishop Rese were
handling the affairs of the diocese. Father De Bruyne
was now the president of St. Philip's College; Father
Van den Poel had died on January 28, 1837.
By December 15th, Mr. Ryken had interviewed and
obtained a letter from Bishop Purcell of Cincinnati.
llhree days later, Father Stephen Badin, who was living
in retirement in the Bishop's house, completed a four'
page outline oJ what he considered the essentials in
setting up a mission among the Indians. The old man
had not grasped the Ryken idea. He recommended the
acquisition of 400 acres of fertile land in Missouri close