The Reverend Felix-Joseph Barbelin, S.J., (30 May 1808 – 8 June 1869), called the "Apostle of Philadelphia",was a 19th-century Jesuit priest influential in the development of the Catholic community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Life

Barbelin was born at Lunéville, (then in the Province of Meurthe, now Meurthe-et-Moselle), in the Alsatian region of France, the oldest of seven children born to Dominic and Elizabeth Louis Barbelin. His father was the Secretary to the Revenue Department of the district of Luneville. All but one of his siblings chose to enter religious life. His youngest brother, Ignace-Xavier, also became a Jesuit.^[1]

Barbelin received his early training at the home of a reverend grand-uncle, and at the age of nineteen took up his philosophical and theological studies in a seminary in Nancy where another grand-uncle was president,^[2] and received minor orders in 1829. He then Prefect of Studies at the minor seminary at Pont-à-Mousson.^[1]

He sailed from Le Havre on December 21, 1830, just before being conscripted, and landed in Norfolk, Virginia. From there he went to Georgetown, and entered the Society of Jesus on 7 January 1831, at their novitiate in White Marsh, Maryland. Subsequent to that, for some years he was stationed at Georgetown University, where he served as assistant prefect and professor of French.^[2] He was ordained in September 1835.

In 1836 he became assistant pastor of Holy Trinity Church in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., and in 1838 was transferred to St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia. Barbelin immediately set about building a larger church on the site of the old one. It was dedicated on February 9, 1839 by Bishop Francis Kenrick; Bishop John Hughes of New York, former curate at Old St. Joseph’s, was the homilist. Barbelin became pastor of St. Joseph's in 1844.^[3]

For more than a quarter of a century he was pastor of St. Joseph's Church, Willing's Alley, which became, mainly during his term of office, the centre from which radiated Catholic influences throughout the city and diocese. He founded Saint Joseph's Hospital (closed 2015) in his adopted city, and was the first to establish sodalities for men and women and for the young. In 1852 he was appointed the first President of Saint Joseph's College, which is now known as Saint Joseph's University. Barbelin Hall at that university is named in his honor.^[2]

Around 1856, he and Father Thomas Lilly S.J. founded of the first Catholic school in Philadelphia to serve the educational needs of African American students. It later became St. Peter Claver School.^[4]

Barbelin died in Philadelphia on June 8, 1869.