BLANC, Anthony, R. C. archbishop, born in Sury, France. 11 October 1792; died in New Orleans, 20 June 1860. He was ordained in 1816, and in the following year sailed from Bordeaux in company with twenty young missionaries who had volunteered for duty under Bishop Dubourg in the southwestern states. He landed at Annapolis and was for some months the guest of Charles Carroll at Carrollton. In 1818 he was appointed pastor at Vincennes under Bishop Flaget, and succeeded in erecting two log chapels, the first seen in that country. Bishop Dubourg recalled him to New Orleans in 1820, and he was created bishop of New Orleans in 1835. In 1838 Texas was added to his diocese, which originally consisted of Louisiana and Mississippi. To remedy the evils caused by the size of his bishopric, he obtained from the pope the erection of two new sees within his jurisdiction, and opened a theological seminary for the training of a native clergy. He introduced the Lazarists and Jesuits, and entrusted the schools of higher education to their control. A controversy between the lay trustees of the cathedral of New Orleans and Bishop Blanc at one time assumed an alarming aspect. The trustees refused to receive the rector whom the bishop had appointed, and an interdict was laid on the Church. With the co-operation of other bishops, however, a reconciliation was effected in 1844. As Bishop Blanc had more than doubled the number of Churches in his diocese in a few years after his consecration, and as the number of Catholics had largely increased, the council of Baltimore, which met in 1849, advised the pope to erect it into an archbishopric. In 1850, therefore, Bishop Blanc was made archbishop of New Orleans with four suffragan dioceses. In 1855 he visited Rome to take part in the council then sitting, and on his return he introduced the Christian Brothers and several other educational orders, male and female, into his diocese. Before his death the Churches had increased through his efforts from twenty-six to seventy-three, and the number of clergy from twenty-seven to seventy-three. He erected three Colleges, eight academies for young ladies, nine free schools, thirteen orphan asylums, and three convents.