Old Missoula

Father Ravalli’s Long Service in Rockies Ends in 1884

Father Anthony Ravalli, who arrived at St. Mary’s Mission in October of 1845 and was buried there in October of 1884, spent nearly 40 years as a missionary in the Rocky Mountains. He was a Jesuit for 57.

Father Ravalli was born in Ferrara, Italy, May 16, 1812, and entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 15. He studied philosophy, mathematics and natural science, teaching the later in Turin, Piedemont and other colleges. Later he completed his course in theology. He studied three years at the University of Rome, attending classes in the Department of Medicine.

Meets Father DeSmet

It was in 1844 that he met Father P. J. DeSmet who was in Europe after three years in western Montana administering to the Indians. Father DeSmet went to Europe to interest recruits in serving Christianity in the U. S. wilderness.

The two left Italy together and arrived in Oregon in July of 1844 by way of the Isthmus of Panama. They spent the winter among the Kalispels where Father Ravalli learned the secret of living without any of the so-called necessities of life. The next year he went to Colville to build a chapel, then replaced Father Zerbinati at St. Mary’s Mission among the Flathead Indians in October of 1845.

Constructs First Mills

It was during the next five years, before St. Mary’s was closed because of the hostility of the Blackfeet Indians, that Father Ravalli constructed the first flour mill and saw mill in the region. He instructed the natives in simple lessons of cleanliness, blaming much of the infection prevalent among the Indians on their own carelessness.

He kept extremely busy with his triple duties as priest, doctor and builder for the residents of the area. When the mission was closed in 1850, Father Ravalli went to Coeur d’Alene where he erected a church of which he became superior. He was there only a short time before returning to Colville, where, in 1857, he earned the reputation of being the greatest of all “medicine men.”

News was received by Father Ravalli that an Indian woman had hanged herself. He quickly cut the rope and loosened the windings around her neck, finding her neck was not broken. But he breathed into her mouth and within 45 minutes the woman was breathing again. She lived to be an old woman.

From Colville Mission, which closed in 1860, he went to Santa Clara Calif., to serve as master of novices at Santa Clara College, but he returned to what is now Montana in 1863 to St. Ignatius Mission, then in 1864 was transferred to St. Peter’s Mission among the Blackfeet. During the Sun River stampede, he threw the mission open to the suffering stampeders and gave such help to the freezing miners that his name was the only thing sacred in the wild orgies of the camp.

St. Mary’s Reopened

When St. Mary’s Mission was reopened in 1866 only the site and remnants of the original church remained. Almost single-handedly he restored the mission, building furniture and the altar, and other small articles.

He was assigned to attend the mission at Hell Gate in 1866. His services as a physician and surgeon were in more demand than ever, and his little log cabin near St. Michael’s Church was made a hospital to which Indians and whites from far around came to be treated.

Went Great Distances

Father Ravalli often traveled great distances to aid anyone needing assistance. He went by horseback to Deer Lodge, having to ford the river 20 times in those days, and also to Fort Owen. He never saw patients in a vicinity where a doctor resided unless he was asked by the doctor to see them.

It was while on one of his trips to the aid of a patient that he became ill, never to completely recover.

Father Ravalli’s gradual decline in health began in 1879. While returning from a sick call, he fell ill. For about three months he was cared for at the ranch of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Foley near Missoula.*

In 1880 he must have suffered another stroke. From then on he was bed-ridden. On the feast of Holy Angels, Oct. 2, 1884, the pioneer physician-missionary died and was buried at his request among the Flatheads in St. Mary’s Cemetery at Stevensville. The United States flag hung at half-mast at Stevensville for a month.

*Foley’s ranch was in what is now Missoula’s Target Range. See link below:

http://oldmissoula.com/index.php?option=com_weblinks&view=category&id=37%3Atarget-range-irish&Itemid=5