CHAPELLE, PLACIDE-LOUIS. - Archbishop of New Orleans (U.S.A.), b. at Runes (France) 28 Aug. 1842, d. at New Orleans 9 Aug. 1905. Parish priest at Rockville, Baltimore and Washington, he was consecrated Bishop of Arabissus (1891) as coadjutor to the Archbishop of Santa Fé (New Mexico) with right of succession. He took possession of his new diocese in January 1897.
When in Paris (Dec. 1898) the peace negotiations between the United States and Spain were in progress, Mgr. Chapelle succeeded in having all those rights of property enjoyed by the Catholic Church under the Spanish government recognized and inserted in the final treaty. In 1899 he was sent to the Philippine Islands, then in rebellion, to restore religious order in the country. The XIIIth encyclical acknowledged the full success of his mission, and by a brief he was confirmed as Apostolic Delegate to Cuba and Puerto Rico and was named Assistant at the Pontifical Throne and Roman Count. On 30 May 1905, while returning from Havana, he received news of the yellow fever epidemic striking New Orleans. Returning to the city, the inexorable disease overtook him.