1. Jean-Baptiste Salpointe was born in Saint-Maurice-pres-Pionsat, Puy-de-Dome, France, to Jean and Jeanne Jean-Baptiste Salpointe.
12 Facts About Jean-Baptiste Salpointe
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Jean-Baptiste Salpointe received his preparatory education in a school in Agen and studied the classics at the College of Clermont in present-day Clermont-Ferrand, France.
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Jean-Baptiste Salpointe subsequently studied philosophy and theology in the Grand Seminary of Montferrand in Montferrand, France.
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Jean-Baptiste Salpointe was ordained a priest on December 20,1851, and in 1859 he volunteered to come to the New Mexico Territory in the United States as a missionary.
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In 1860, Jean-Baptiste Salpointe was assigned to the parish in Mora, New Mexico, where he served for six years.
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On February 7,1866, Jean-Baptiste Salpointe arrived in Tucson, Arizona, along with two priests from Santa Fe.
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Jean-Baptiste Salpointe set about building churches, organizing new congregations, and founding schools and hospitals in the territory.
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In 1868 Arizona was given the status of a Vicariate Apostolic by the Church and Jean-Baptiste Salpointe was appointed its first bishop.
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On February 19,1885, Bishop Jean-Baptiste Salpointe was appointed coadjutor to Archbishop Lamy of Santa Fe, but remained as administrator of the Vicariate of Arizona until the appointment of his successor, Bishop Peter Bourgade, in early 1885.
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Jean-Baptiste Salpointe then succeeded Lamy as Archbishop of Santa Fe on July 18,1885.
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Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Salpointe retired on January 7,1894, and moved to Tucson, where he wrote a history of the Catholic Church in the Southwestern United States.
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Jean-Baptiste Salpointe died on July 15,1898, and is buried under the altar of St Augustine Cathedral in Tucson.