VAN DE VELDE, James Oliver, R. C. bishop, born near Termonde, Belgium, 3 April, 1795; died in Natchez, Mississippi, 13 November, 1855. He received his early training from a refugee French priest who had been sheltered by his family, was afterward placed in a boarding-school near Ghent, and was professor of French and Flemish in Purrs when he was eighteen years old. He afterward entered the Seminary of Mechlin, where lie taught Latin, while studying logic and theology. In 1817 he came to the United States and became a student in the Jesuit novitiate at Georgetown. After two years he was appointed professor of belles-lettres in St. Mary's college, and he was ordained a priest in 1827. He was chaplain of the Convent of the Visitation till 1829, when he was given charge of the missions of Rockville and Rock Creek, Maryland In 1831 he was sent to St. Louis, and named professor of rhetoric in the Jesuit college. In 1833, when this college was made a university, he was appointed vice-president and procurator. He was vice-provincial of Missouri in 1837, and in 1840 became president of St. Louis university. He set out for Rome the same year, to attend the congregation of procurators, as representative of his province. On his return he resumed the presidency of his college, and he was named vice-provincial again in 1843. Under his administration the Jesuit institutions in the west became very prosperous. He built several churches and novitiates, and created new Indian missions. In 1848 he became socius of the provincial, and in this capacity attended the council of Baltimore. He was nominated for the see of Chicago, and was consecrated bishop on 11 February, 1849. He at once made a thorough visitation of his diocese, and founded two orphan asylums; but his health soon gave way, and this, added to the opposition he encountered from part of his diocese, induced him to implore the pope to accept his resignation. Not succeeding, he set out for Rome in 1852, bearing the decrees of the plenary council that was held in that year in Baltimore. He was well received by Pius IX., who decided to transfer him to a milder climate. While making a circuit of his diocese after his return, he received his brief of nomination to the vacant see of Natchez on 29 July, 1853. During his administration of the diocese of Chicago seventy churches had been begun and the greater number of them were completed, and he erected several other religious and charitable institutions. On arriving in the state of Mississippi, he visited the different congregations, made efforts to procure additional priests, founded schools, and took measures for completing the cathedral and erecting a college. On 13 October, 1855, he sustained an injury from a fall which eventually led to his death.