CHAPELLE, PLACIDE-LOUIS. - Archbishop of New Orleans (U.S.A.), b. at Runes (France) on 28 Aug. 1842, d. at New Orleans on 9 Aug. 1905. Parish priest at Rockville, Baltimore, and Washington, he was consecrated bishop of Arabissus (1891) as coadjutor to the archbishop of S. Fé (New Mexico), with right of succession. He took possession of the new diocese in Jan. 1897.
When the peace negotiations between the United States and Spain were taking place in Paris (Dec. 1898), Ch. succeeded in having recognized and inserted into the final treaty all those property rights which the Catholic Church had enjoyed under Spanish rule. In 1899 he was sent to the Philippines, then in rebellion, to restore religious order in the country. Leo XIII acknowledged the complete success of his mission and, by a brief, confirmed him as apostolic delegate to Cuba and Puerto Rico and appointed him assistant to the Throne and Roman count. On 30 May 1905, while returning from Havana, he received news of the yellow-fever epidemic affecting New Orleans. Having returned to the city, he was struck by the inexorable disease.