John Dubois

His Excellency John Dubois, S.S.
Bishop of New York
Third Bishop of New York
See	Diocese of New York
Term ended	20 December 1842
Predecessor	John Connolly, O.P.
Successor	John Hughes
Orders
Ordination	September 28, 1787 by Antoine-Eléonore-Léon Le Clerc de Juigné
Consecration	October 29, 1826 by Ambrose Maréchal, S.S.
Personal details
Born	(1764-08-24)August 24, 1764 Paris, Kingdom of France
Died	December 20, 1842(1842-12-20) (aged 78) New York, New York, United States
Buried	Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, New York, United States
Signature

John Dubois, S.S. (French: Jean Dubois), served as the third bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York. He was the first Ordinary to reside in the diocese and was the first non-Irish Bishop of New York to date.

Dubois was born in Paris, France, on August 24, 1764. After theological studies at the Oratorian Seminary of Saint-Magloire in Paris, Dubois was ordained a priest on September 22, 1787, by Antoine-Eléonore-Léon Le Clerc de Juigné, the Archbishop of Paris. In Paris, Father Dubois served as an assistant to the curé of St. Sulpice as well as chaplain to a community of Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

The French Revolution placed many clergy in a dilemma, for the new regime required an oath renouncing loyalty to Rome and accepting the French government's authority over the church. Many Sulpicians fled to England, and in early 1791 Charles Nagot led a group which sailed to Baltimore, Maryland, where they opened a seminary, Saint Mary's, which is still in operation today. Dubois had attended the Collège Louis LeGrand with Maximilian Robespierre, who helped the disguised 27-year-old priest escape in June 1791 from what became the massacre of the non-oathtaking clergy, before his own fall from power and execution.

Father Dubois landed at Norfolk, Virginia in August, 1791, bearing commendatory letters from the Marquis de Lafayette (whose wife was devout) to James Monroe, Patrick Henry, and members of other distinguished families including the Lees, Randolphs and Beverleys. All received him cordially, even ardent supporters of revolutionary principles like Mr. Monroe, who served as his host until Father Dubois rented a house in Richmond near a major bridge and opened a school to teach French, classics and arithmetic. Virginia had disestablished the Episcopal Church by statute in 1786, and that law also guaranteed freedom of religion, releasing the Commonwealth's small Catholic population from civil restrictions. Patrick Henry helped the priest learn English, and the two priests who alternated holding religious services in the capitol, the Episcopalian John Buchanan and the Presbyterian John Blair, became his friends. At the General Assembly's invitation, Rev. Dubois even once celebrated Mass in the courtroom of the new State House, but for two years mostly celebrated mass in rented rooms or at the homes of the town's few Catholic families.