Name: CHAMPOMIER Jean Leo
Born: Date Unknown
Where Born: Born in the Diocese of Clermont, France
Ordained: 03/20/1823
Where Ordained: Bardstown, Kentucky
Served From-To: 1823-1831
Died: Unknown – Reportedly returned to France in 1831
Where Died: Unknown
Buried: Unknown
Notes: Father Gorman’s History has the following:
Father John Leo Champomier, the protegee of Father Chabrat. Unfortunately, very’ little is known of the early life of Champomier. A native of the diocese of Clermont, he had, like his predecessor, Father Dahmen, been in the French army of 1815, serving as a Captain of the Hussars. After his military experience he entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice where he had remained for some time hefore coming with Chabrat to Bardstown in July, 1821. He completed his studies in St. Thomas Seminary, under the direction of Bishop David, where he was ordained March 20, 1823
Three months later he was pastor of St. Francis Xavier, a post for which he had evidently been destined by his predecessor, as the first priest of the diocese of Bardstown to be stationed permanently in Indiana.
He was a man of courage, of vision and of zeal and he faced difficulties and disasters which would have caused a less sturdy figure to falter. He evidently considered himself attached only temporarily to the diocese of Bardstown and he called himself a “Missionary Apostolic”, a title which was peculiarly appropriate Since he was the only priest of the Bardstowm diocese resident in Indiana,
While he concentrated most of his efforts on Vincennes he visited the chapels on Cat River and at Black Oak Ridge and the Catholics settled along the White River.
In the year follovdng the appointment of Lalumiere, Champomier left Vincennes. His last record was signed March 17, 1831. Possibly the difficulties he had experienced in regard to the trustees and the nightmare of debt influenced his decision, but he had completed the ten-year term of service to which the missionaries usually bound themselves. He went to New York where he gave Havrede Grace as his future address.