René Vilatte

Joseph René Vilatte (January 24, 1854 – July 8, 1929), also known religiously as Mar Timotheus I, was a French–American Christian leader active in France and the United States. He was associated with several Christian denominations before his ordination as a priest by a Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland (CKS) bishop at the request of an Episcopal Church (USA) bishop for service in an Episcopal diocese. Eventually, he was reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church and voluntarily entered under a solemn vow of abjuration.

Vilatte was later consecrated as a bishop by Malankara Church bishops, with the knowledge and permission of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. After being expelled from multiple denominations, he was considered an example of an ', or "wandering bishop".

Although never a bishop within an Old Catholic denomination or sect and denounced by the Union of Utrecht Old Catholic churches, Vilatte became known as the "first Old Catholic bishop of the United States".

Early life and conversion to Roman Catholicism

Vilatte was born in Paris, France, on January 24, 1855. He was raised by his paternal grandparents, who were members of the Petite Église (PÉ), an independent church separated from the Roman Catholic Church after the Concordat of 1801. Vincent Gourdon wrote that this independent church had about 4,000 adherents Peter Anson, in ''Bishops at large'', says that Vilatte's parents were members of the independent church and that he was probably baptized by a layman. Boyd, however, claims that Vilatte was validly baptized and educated by parents who held Gallican beliefs. Some accounts say that Vilatte was born Roman Catholic.

Vilatte lost his parents at a "tender age". Raised in a Parisian orphanage operated by the Brothers of the Christian Schools where he was conditionally baptized, he received the sacrament of confirmation in Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. His sister became an Augustinian nun, and was evicted from Montrouge, Paris, convent during the enforcement of the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State.

Not yet sixteen, Vilatte served during the Franco-Prussian War in the battalion of the National Guard militia commanded by Jules-Henri-Marius Bergeret, a future member of the Comité de vigilance de Montmartre. He intended to become a Roman Catholic priest but, after the war and the Paris Commune, Vilatte emigrated to Canada. There he became a member of the Protestant Methodist Church in Montreal. He worked for two years as a teacher and lay assistant to a French mission priest. He worked as a catechist in a small school near Ottawa and led services.

After returning to France in 1873, according to Bernard Vignot in ', Vilatte was called up for military service but refused to obey. He took refuge in Belgium. He spent one year in the House of the Christian Brothers at Namur. Vilatte emigrated to Canada again in 1876.

Vilatte spent a second year devoted to private preparation for the priesthood before entering, in 1878, the Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers' College of St. Laurent, Montreal, Canada. Marx and Blied wrote that he spent three years at the College of St. Laurent and left voluntarily. In the interval between his third and fourth seminary years, Vilatte attended several anti-Catholic lectures by Charles Chiniquy, a priest who left Roman Catholicism and became a Presbyterian pastor. Vilatte began to have doctrinal doubts.

Chiniquy, a French Canadian, was known as a gifted public speaker. Yves Roby, in the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', compared Chiniquy to French Bishop Charles Auguste Marie Joseph, Count of Forbin-Janson, of Nancy and Toul, in his "spectacular preaching methods", and wrote that Chiniquy's preaching produced "genuine religious transformation". Chiniquy was dubbed the apostle of temperance. Anthony Cross wrote, in ''Père Hyacinthe Loyson, the (1879–1893) and the Anglican Reform Mission'', that "some made a living by attacking the Roman Church and the Society of Jesus in particular"; he included Chiniquy among a number of excommunicated Roman Catholic priests, such as former Barnabite friar Alessandro Gavazzi, who "became anti-Catholic 'no popery' propagandists" and "received ready support from Protestants." "Even some Protestants became indignant", according to Roby, at how for five years "Chiniquy conducted an unremitting campaign" of "unrestrained attacks on the Catholic Church, its dogmas, sacraments, moral doctrine, and devotional practices".

Nicholas Weber, in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', wrote that Vilatte became an apostate chiefly due to the influence of Chiniquy.

According to Ernest Margrander, in the ''Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'', Vilatte was unable to continue his seminary studies and transferred to The Presbyterian College, Montreal. Two years' study convinced him of both papal additions to a primitive Catholic faith and defective Protestant interpretation of its traditional teachings. By contrast, Anson says there is "no record of Vilatte as a student" at Presbyterian College.

In an 1889 article, John Shea wrote in ''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'' that Vilatte was unwilling to leave Roman Catholicism. He entered a house of the Alexian Brothers, and became a cook among the Clerics of Saint Viator at Bourbonnais Township, Kankakee County, Illinois. But he stayed only six months.

Vilatte became reacquainted with Chiniquy, who lived in nearby St. Anne, Illinois. Chiniquy advised him to begin missionary work among a group of French and Belgians in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who had abandoned the Catholic Church in Rome. In April 1884, he was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) Board of Home Missions as pastor of a French-language mission in Green Bay. He preached against the and distributed Chiniquy's tracts there and in nearby Fort Howard, Marinette, and other parts of Wisconsin. Although Vilatte did not succeed to any extent, according to Shea, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in August. When he made an addition to his chapel, he invited Chiniquy to come and dedicate it. This seemed to close his career as a Presbyterian.

Chiniquy introduced Vilatte to Hyacinthe Loyson, a former Carmelite priest who had been excommunicated in 1869. Loyson married in London in 1872. According to Cross, "Loyson was too profoundly Catholic to associate with such extremists." Marx and Blied identified Loyson as the source of Vilatte's interest in the Old Catholics' schism.

The ' (ECG), founded by Loyson in 1879, was "the Paris mission established under the auspices of the Anglo-Continental Society thinsp;(ACS) with oversight of a bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church" and "a bridgehead in a culture war which had been waged by Anglicans". The endeavor "was one of a number of Anglican reform mission interventions in Roman Catholic heartlands" among the culture wars that were being fought in Germany, Haiti, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. William Ewart Gladstone, "played an important part in encouraging the foundation" of the . Loyson collaborated with the "in his effort to recall Frenchmen to the principles and practices of the ancient Galilean Church before it was corrupted by Papal innovations." The was an ecumenical organization which saw the "hope of Christian Europe appears to rest on the progress of a de-Vaticanised Catholicism and a de-rationalised Protestantism." "It was", Cross emphasizes, the "which master-minded the extraordinary venture in Paris which resulted in the founding" of the . Robert Nevin, the Episcopal Church (USA) rector in Rome, "seems to have been present at every juncture in the planning" and "appears to have been, with rederickMeyrick, the principal strategist in winning Anglican Episcopal backing." Although official Anglican support and "regular substantial financial subsidy" was withdrawn from the at the end of 1881, it remained unofficially supported. According to Peter-Ben Smit, in ''Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History'', Loyson "was a source of concern" for the Union of Utrecht's (UU) International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference (IBC) because "the Dutch did not want to have anything to do with him and others could not." It was ceded to the archdiocese of Utrecht in 1893, although most parishioners were Gallican Catholics.

Shea wrote that, the Old Catholics' schism in the United States, originated with and was managed by the Episcopal Church (USA). Loyson directed Vilatte, , to apply to Episcopal bishop John H. Brown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the nearest Anglo-Catholic bishop. Marx and Blied wrote that Loyson was a proponent of the branch theory within Anglicanism when "Vilatte met Loyson", and Margrander wrote that Loyson wanted to personally talk with Vilatte regarding Catholic reform in America, and proposed that Vilatte travel to Europe for ordination as priest by a Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland (CKS) bishop, Eduard Herzog of Bern, Switzerland. In 1890, Loyson denied personally knowing Vilatte. Marx and Blied did not known if the two also met during Loyson's second, 1893–1894, American tour.

Episcopal and Old Catholic

There were two notable missions in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, one to the Germans under the leadership of Karl Oppen, formerly a Lutheran minister, the other to the French and Belgians on the Door Peninsula along the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, known as the Old Catholic Mission under the leadership of Vilatte. The Belgian settlement was spread out over parts of Brown, Door, Kewaunee counties. It stretched from the city of Green Bay, the county seat of Brown County, to the city of Sturgeon Bay, the county seat of Door County.
Brown's successor, Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton wrote:

A feature of area was the number of nationalities represented; Shea described the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay as one where the faithful were poor, scattered, and spoke too many languages. The bishop had to find priests able to give instructions and hear confessions in English, French, German, Dutch, Walloon, Bohemian, Polish, and Menominee, a nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. In a small congregation of a hundred families, a priest might find three languages necessary for the exercise of the ministry. It was not easy to obtain priests able to take charge of these missions, or to prevent their becoming discouraged when they found even the scanty allowance expected by a priest almost impossible. Grafton wrote that it had been said that nearly 70% of the population were foreigners or descendants of foreigners. Grafton also listed Swedes, Belgians, Norwegians, Danes, Icelanders, Bulgarians, Italians, Greeks, and Armenians. Grafton wrote that if the Episcopal Church was Catholic in its doctrine and worship it certainly could reach members of those several nationalities and supply their spiritual needs. The Episcopal Church planted in localities where most of the people were Swedes or Bulgarians or Belgians had found a footing and congregations had developed.

Brown had no use for Vilatte as an Episcopal priest, having no French Episcopalians for Vilatte to minister to.

A number of Roman Catholics situated in Door County, who were mostly Belgian, had broken away from the Holy See and had taken the position of Old Catholics.

Brown laid the situation before the Episcopal bishops in council. They agreed to let Brown take charge of the work as bishop and permitted the use there of the Old Catholic liturgy as used in Switzerland. The intention was to form a type of separate rite within the Episcopal Church. Brown informed Grafton of these facts and Bishop John Williams, the Presiding Bishop, also, when Grafton became bishop, he confirmed this intention.

A pamphlet published in connection with Vilatte's mission admitted to what Shea considered as fraud and dishonesty; Shea quoted:

Hjalmar Holand wrote, in ''History of Door County, Wisconsin, the County Beautiful'', that "the term Episcopalian was not familiar to the Belgians ohe represented himself as Old Catholic, a term which is sometimes used synonymously", according to Holand, "and has a more commendable sound to Catholic ears."

Vilatte followed Loyson's alternative advice to consult with Brown. Vilatte "had joined the Protestant Episcopal Church in America."

Priest

Vilatte became, according to their official record, a candidate for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac. Vilatte entered the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee's Nashotah House seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin. According to the ''Journal of the eleventh annual council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fond du Lac'', he was recommended as candidate for ordination as a priest in April 1885; and in May, he was recommended for ordination as a deacon; but, the journal does not note that during the annual council, June 2–3, 1885, he was in Europe and would be ordained within days. An unorganized mission called ''Good Shepherd'', located in Fond du Lac, is mentioned but not associated with a missionary by name.

Brown sent Vilatte to Herzog. Shortly after the synod in Bern, Vilatte arrived with dimissorial letters from Brown. Herzog was advised by Charles Reuben Hale to proceed. Herzog, acting for Brown and at his request "with a generosity which should never be forgotten in the annals of the American Church", ordained Vilatte within three days of his arrival. This was done "under peculiar circumstances" "to advance the candidate to the priesthood more speedily than the canons of the American Church permit." He was presented for ordination by Hale, "whose share in this transaction ought also gratefully to be remembered." His ordination took place in Bern's Old Catholic cathedral in the following order: minor orders and subdiaconate, June 5, 1885; diaconate, June 6, 1885; and, priesthood, June 7, 1885. Vilatte took his canonical oath of obedience to the Bishop of Fond du Lac. It was not until the next year, 1886, that his ordination, "at the request of the Bishop of Fond du Lac", is noted in the ''Journal of the twelfth annual council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fond du Lac''. Without mentioning any dates, Brown said that Herzog, at Vilatte's ordination, "had pledged him to canonical obedience to the Bishop of Fond du Lac" and sent him "not as a missionary responsible to himself ..but as a priest under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of this diocese." Brown then added Vilatte to the diocesan clerical list, as a missionary priest, and made "this public statement of the peculiar circumstances of the case." Grafton revealed years later, in the ''Journal of the fourteenth annual council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fond du Lac'', that sending Vilatte to Bern "seemed ..more expedient, as the Canons ..would have compelled at least a year's delay in ..Vilatte's ordination ..

Herzog ordained others in a similar way. Alexander Robertson described the case of Ugo Janni, in ''Campello and Catholic Reform in Italy''. After failing to establish a self-sustaining mission in Rome, which was supported by the through "a committee of direction and aid" led by Nevin, Count Enrico di Campello, a canon of St. Peter's Basilica who resigned and left the , turned to Arrone, in Umbria's Nera river valley, which seemed suited for re-establishing his reformation efforts. In 1889, Campello visited San Remo, on the Italian Riviera, as Robertson's guest where he was introduced to the syndic and "to many other persons of influence in the town" on his first visit. He visited a second time. "To secure as influential and representative an audience as possible, admission was made by tickets" to Campello's discourses held, with permission of the syndic, in the town theater. "All were, evidently, earnest students and followers of Mazzini", according to Robertson. Therefore, Campello argued that Giuseppe Mazzini's idea was realised in his sect, the ', although, according to Campello, Mazzini's philosophy was defective. Those supporters, in San Remo, decided to establish an exclusive church in San Remo. Robertson wrote that a "fact in connection with the San Remo church is this. All its members gave evidence of their Christian knowledge and character before they were admitted; and their admission was only given in answer to their own written application." It included "men of education, position, and influence." Robertson added that "the English visitors, who reside there during the winter, have, as a whole, taken a lively interest in Campello's movement, and have extended to it their support." Although Janni was only trained by Campello and evangelized in Arrone, "the time had come for him to receive ordination" so he "would then be in a position to organize a congregation at San Remo and administer the sacraments." Campello communicated on this matter with John Wordsworth, the Church of England's Bishop of Salisbury, "who, after fully satisfying himself as to the candidate's fitness by examination and by other ways", recommended Janni to Herzog, who then ordained him.

As a newly ordained priest, Vilatte went to the tiny settlement of Little Sturgeon, Wisconsin, and secured a log cabin about south, fronting on Green Bay. He divided the log cabin into a dwelling section and a chapel section. This was called the ' mission, Little Sturgeon. Classified as an "unorganized mission" in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, ' was established in 1885 with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest taking charge on July 16, 1885. He received a missionary stipend. Grafton wrote that Vilatte was given charge of an Old Catholic mission, the property of the church and buildings belonging to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac. He was partly supported by funds from the Episcopal diocese, sat in council along with the other priests belonging to the diocese, and was visited by the bishop, who confirmed his candidates and was, like any other clergy, under the bishop's jurisdiction. It was listed as a rectory without a church or chapel or other property. ' was reclassified for one fiscal year as a "non-reporting unorganized mission" and did not report financial data. Grafton wrote that Vilatte gave exaggerated reports about his work.

Cornelius Kirkfleet wrote, in ''The White Canons of St. Norbert'', that after he was ordained, Vilatte erected a church and parsonage midway between two Roman Catholic parishes in Door County. In 1888, ' was reclassified again as an "unorganized mission" with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest; that year, 1888, the Old Catholic Mission supported one married priest with his wife and child, two single priests, and two students. This was called the ''Precious Blood'' mission, Little Sturgeon (Gardner).

A spiritualist church was also built in 1888 and became a frequently visited stop on a traveling mediums circuit. It is located within of the ''Precious Blood'' mission. Although it was admitted in 1888 as an "unorganized mission", the ''Precious Blood'' mission was reclassified for the first time as an "organized mission" in 1889, with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest taking charge, years earlier, on July 4, 1885; that year, 1889, the Old Catholic Mission supported two priests, one brother and two students.

Kirkfleet wrote that Vilatte's "'revised' religion spread rapidly in the peninsula" and obtained a foothold even in Green Bay. But Marx and Blied though "it never attained virility" among the Belgians.

According to Jean Ducat, in ', Vilatte tried to discredit Adele Brise and her work in Robinsonville (Champion), but the Belgian colonists and priests continued to trust in the "providential work" such as the first free school in the area. Ducat wrote that the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help became a place of Christian pilgrimage the importance of which grew steadily and contributed to maintaining the Catholic religion in a region plagued by heresy. Brise's reputed mystical visions became, over 150 years later, the first and only Marian apparition in the United States approved by a Roman Catholic diocesan bishop.

In 1890, Vilatte proposed to Grafton to be consecrated as a "bishop-abbot" to the American Old Catholics and as a suffragan bishop to Grafton; but the canons did not allow for that and, as Grafton had no authority to do so, he refused Vilatte's request. Grafton thought Vilatte was neither "morally or intellectually fit for the office" of bishop.

Being ambitious to become a bishop, after Brown's death in 1888, Vilatte applied to the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands (OKKN). He claimed that he was elected to the episcopate by the Old Catholic families themselves, at a synod held at the ''St. Mary's'' mission.

The first time Vilatte sought to reconcile with the is recorded in an August 12, 1890, letter from Bishop Frederick Katzer, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, to Vilatte, in which, Katzer wrote that Vilatte would have to publicly retract and make a retreat in a religious community. Marx and Blied wrote that "Vilatte wanted to function as a priest", so, "Katzer added that the Holy See would judge his orders and prescribe what theological studies he should make." Vilatte thanked Katzer for the letter and "remarked that he would prefer to see his flock Catholic rather than Protestant." Anson wrote that nothing further developed.

Grafton suspended Vilatte for six months after his council declared on March 31, 1891, that, in their opinion, "Vilatte abandoned the Communion of this Church and renounced its ministry."

Grafton consulted with Williams as to what he should do. Acting under Williams' advice, Grafton wrote to the Archbishop Johannes Heykamp of Utrecht that he would transfer Vilatte, if Heykamp so wished, from his jurisdiction to that of Heykamp. In this way the would be relieved of Vilatte and not responsible for having any connection with him. Grafton pointed out to Heykamp that all the property of the mission belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac and was legally held by it. In case of his accepting Vilatte, Vilatte would be obliged to leave this work and Grafton would appoint a replacement. Heykamp wrote to Grafton that after he understood the situation between Vilatte and Grafton, he "had declined having any further correspondence" with Vilatte. The declined accepting Vilatte. Subsequently, Vilatte repudiated Grafton's jurisdiction and left the , whereupon, according to canons, Grafton deposed him. Vilatte witnessed the complete abandonment by his first congregation. The congregation of the ''Precious Blood'' mission was "unfaltering in its allegiance" to Grafton, as was Gauthier, and declared "the unity existing among themselves and their loyalty to the Diocese of Fond du Lac." When he left, Grafton wrote that Vilatte had lost the confidence of all their clergy and people.

An alternative narrative also can be found:

Brown seized on this as a means of building a bridge with the Old Catholics in Europe and agreed to support Vilatte.

In 1888 Brown, who had supported Vilatte morally and financially, died and was succeeded by Grafton. Grafton, unlike Brown, did not favor Vilatte and conflicts soon arose. In order to correct the canonical situation created by Brown, Grafton demanded that Vilatte surrender ownership of his missions to the diocese which had paid for them in the first place; Vilatte complied in August 1890. Despite this, however, the relationship between the two deteriorated fast.

At the heart of the dispute was the conflicting vision for Vilatte's missions held by Vilatte and Grafton. Vilatte hoped that Grafton would continue Brown's policy of financing these missions in the hope of converting Roman Catholics to non-papal Old Catholicism and of using these missions as a springboard to founding the Old Catholic Church in North America. Grafton, on the contrary, wished to integrate these missions into his Episcopal diocese.

Adding to the dispute was Vilatte's refusal to break with the Franco-Belgians' adamant rejection of Anglican orders as invalid, while accepting the validity of Old Catholic orders; an attitude carried from Roman Catholicism.

In the meantime Heykamp, hearing of Vilatte's difficulties with Grafton, wrote to him to disassociate himself from Episcopalians. In reply, Vilatte asked whether the would consecrate him as the Old Catholic bishop for North America.

As the and the Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany and the delayed answering Vilatte until they had met in the First International Old Catholic Congress in Cologne, Vilatte next sought to affiliate himself with the Russian Orthodox Church. He began correspondence with the Russian Orthodox bishop Vladimir Sokolovsky of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

When Grafton learned of these developments he published warnings to Episcopalians to stop supporting Vilatte. He also demanded that Vilatte cease operating from the Old Catholic missions owned by the Episcopal diocese. In response Vilatte announced in September 1890 that he was severing relations with the Episcopal Church (USA) and founded a new independent mission near Green Bay.

St. Anne Colony

Society of the Precious Blood

The Society of the Precious Blood (SPB) was founded in 1887 in Wisconsin by Vilatte, under the name '. There were French Canadians in the northern part of Door Peninsula who worked as laborers and foresters. It was an environment similar to Gatineau in Quebec, where Vilatte had worked as a teacher.

Others joined the church, including John B. Gauthier. He had been a teacher in Ottawa and in Illinois. After his ordination for the ''Precious Blood'' mission in 1889, he became master of novices and gave a great impulse. He was a spiritual man and a good pedagogue. The children liked him and several became religious under his influence. Certain came with him to Quebec, to minister in the Berthier and Maskinongé counties and in Montreal. One of them was Stephen Côté, who was at the origin of the parish of Greater Montreal.

The Christian Catholic Church would not have developed as it did without the missionary activity of the religious of the Precious Blood. They preached Christ according to Scripture. Their goal is always to do pastoral work under this impulse. The first nuns, Sister Mary Ashmun and Sister Anne Schoen, joined the in 1894. They were teachers and worked in Wisconsin.

Marx and Blied wrote that a letter "indicates that two self-styled sisters who operated among the Belgians were induced to join Vilatte for temporal benefits" and there was extremely little evidence that the women may have belonged to a Jansenist sisterhood of St Martha.

The tried different formulas, including the Benedictine Abbey of St. Dunstan in Wisconsin (1908) under Dom Bernard Harding, and Vilatteville in Mexico,

Sturgeon Bay seminary

In March 1887, Vilatte, pastor of the ''Precious Blood'' mission, visited ''The Independent'' newspaper office, in Sturgeon Bay, and informed the newspaper that: he had solicited funds for building a seminary and "secured several thousand dollars for commencing the work", plans were being made in Chicago, furnishings were secured, and "construction will be commenced in June". He was asked about his order and responded that the "order has a large number of adherents" in Europe and "is doubling every three years" in some of those countries. Curiously, the article did not mention the name of the order. In April, the ''Door County Advocate'' reported Vilatte visited Sturgeon Bay on April 25, 1887, to obtain a suitable location for the establishment of a college of his order. Although months earlier Vilatte said "construction will be commenced in June", by the end of May, the ''Door County Advocate'' reported, only that, he had "signified his willingness to establish a seminary in this city provided our people see fit to donate the required real estate", and that, a benefactor, who "will give the society other material aid if it is necessary to secure the institution for this city", donated of land. In July, land "which has been purchased by the donations of our citizens" for the college, was transferred and work was to start on buildings in September. The next day the city council permitted "himself and family" to reside in a vacant school building; he was to operate a school in that building until his seminary was completed. In October, he began visiting cities along the East Coast of the United States "in quest of funds with which to erect the proposed seminary." He was away for several months. But a week after his return from touring the East Coast of the United States, Vilatte shocked Sturgeon Bay. His "contemplated seminary" would not be established there but elsewhere, wrote ''The Independent'', in an article titled "Can this be true?" which exasperated that, " e reasons given for this change are so extraordinary that we are not prepared to accept the statements made without further testimony." Vilatte wrote to Chris Leonhardt, President of the Business Men's Association, the group which facilitated the land purchase and aided him, that,

His letter was seen as a deleterious depiction of their community. ''The Independent'' editorialized:

Brown died within weeks of Vilatte's announcement, on May 2, 1888.

By 1889, his scheme was apparent and he was seen as a scoundrel; building a monastery or college, the ''Door County Advocate'' wrote, "at any rate is the talk" nevertheless "without ever accomplishing anything" substantial.

Emma de Beaumont, wife of Father Ernest, the Episcopal priest who assisted Vilatte since 1887, wrote to the ''Door County Advocate'' that, regardless whatever Vilatte had said, nothing had been done "toward building a college elsewhere" since Brown's death "upset whatever may have been the plan".

This project was never carried out and the land was returned to the donors.

Dyckesville

A second congregation, classified as an "unorganized mission" in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, was established in 1888 with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest taking charge on June 1, 1888. This was called the ''St. Mary's'' mission, Dykesville ( Duvall). By October 11, 1889, less than two years after his Sturgeon Bay seminary scandal, a church, ×, and a parsonage, ×, was completed, located on of land including a cemetery. ''The Independent'' reported that Gauthier sailed to Europe where he would be ordained and that Vilatte received a letter from Heykamp "informing him that an d tholic bishop will in a short time be selected to take charge of the urch in this country." He later received a gift of over 100 antique theology books, "many of them are more than two centuries old", from Heykamp and Jacobus Johannes van Thiel, of the Old Catholic seminary in Amersfoort.

Grafton attempted to remove Vilatte from the ''St. Mary's'' mission in 1891.

Herzog and Reinken's investigation concluded that Vilatte was an Episcopalian, according to Marx and Blied, Herzog wrote to Vilatte on March 24, 1891, and "ended his letter bluntly: 'I want to have nothing more to do with you'."

An anthology of correspondence excerpts was published, , as ''Ecclesiastical Relations between the Old Catholics of America and Foreign Churches'' in response to an 1892 Second International Old Catholic Congress resolution. In Marx and Blied's opinion, this compilation was probably edited by Vilatte.

Russian Orthodox

Isolated from both the Episcopalians and the Old Catholics, Vilatte turned once again to another denomination. The text of a widely republished and translated 1891 document, purportedly from the Russian Orthodox Church through Bishop Vladimir Sokolovsky of San Francisco and Alaska, announced Vilatte's conversion from an ''Old Catholic'' confession of faith to an ''Old Catholic Orthodox'' confession of faith under Russian Orthodox Church patronage. It also declared that only the Holy Synod of the Russian Church or Sokolovsky can prohibit or suspend Vilatte's religious functions; and, states that any action contrary to the declaration is null and invalid, based on the liberty of conscience and unspecified United States law but without mention of Russian Orthodox Church canon law. Sokolovsky "appears to have granted him some form of recognition", according to Brandreth. In 1891, Sokolovsky visited Vilatte at the ''St. Mary's'' mission. Margrander wrote that Sokolovsky intervened, approved Vilatte's confession of faith and his official acts, and referred him to the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He "found himself unable to accept these communities and permit the continued use of the Roman Catholic rites and customs." Sokolovsky was removed, soon after, in the wake of a series of scandals. Harding also corresponded with Russian General Alexander Kireev. However, "owing to the constitution of the Russian Church, Vilatte could not hope to obtain the episcopate from that source, or at least not without great difficulties."

While waiting for the Russian Holy Synod's decision, Vilatte also consulted with Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Bishop Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvares. Alvares offered to come to America and consecrate him bishop; Vilatte responded that he would travel to Ceylon. Anson believed that Vilatte did not want Alvares to realize the diminutive size of the schism. After months of waiting for a decision from the Russian Holy Synod, Vilatte sailed to Ceylon to receive the offered episcopate.

Malankara Orthodox Syrian

Susan Bayly wrote, in ''Saints, Goddesses and Kings'', the St. Thomas Christians were by the 1880s fragmented and included a "bewildering array", based mostly on Christian evangelicalism, of "wildfire sects, breakaway churches and messianic Christian guru figures"; and, unlike in the past, they were then shunned as ritually polluting by caste Hindus. There was, and still is, a caste system among Indian Christians. To gain group status, they engaged in mass conversion campaigns, with a goal of increased adherents with maintained caste affiliation of the converts. For example, according to Bayly, baptized low caste Christians were "hived off into separate churches of their own" and not permitted to worship together. According to Robert Frykenberg, in ''Missions and Empire'', there are at least six identified communities which claim apostolic tradition that are the historic Saint Thomas Christians.

Writing about the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church prior to its regaining Catholicity, William Richards wrote, in ''The Indian Christians of St. Thomas'', that their history shows a constant effort to obtain bishops, of Syrian descent, in communion with the Holy See. Finally, in 1896, three Roman-Syrian priests were consecrated as titular bishops, and sent to Travancore and Cochin as vicars apostolic. All the Roman-Syrians are under these Metrans and they use the Syriac language in their churches. This is not the denomination that consecrated Vilatte.

Goanese schism in British Ceylon

The denomination that consecrated Vilatte was a part of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church that had a Latin Rite patrimony. V. Nagam Aiya wrote, in '' Travancore State Manual'', that Alvares "describe his Church as the Latin branch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch." Here, the surname Alvares is spelled Alvarez.

The Holy See sought to consolidate two co-existing jurisdictions, the Padroado jurisdiction and the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith jurisdiction. As part of the transition, churches served by Goan Catholic priests remained under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of the East Indies until 1843. Later, this transition was delayed and extended until December 31, 1883. In British Ceylon, it ended in 1887 with the appearance of a papal decree that placed all Catholics in the country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the bishops of the island. That measure met resistance. Alvares and Dr. Pedro Manoel Lisboa Pinto founded in Goa, Portuguese India, an association for the defense of the Padroado. Then, according to G. Bartas, in ', they complained that the new diocese and vicariates, were headed, almost exclusively, by European prelates and missionaries, and petitioned the Holy See for the creation of a purely native hierarchy. Bartas did not state if there was a response, but wrote that Alvares settled the difficulty by reinventing himself as the head of his schism, appearing on Ceylon, and settling into the main old Goan Portuguese churches in the village of Parapancandel. Here, the surname Alvares is spelled Alvarez. Alvares was a Roman Catholic Brahmin. Aiya wrote that Alvares, an educated man and the editor of a Catholic journal, was a priest in the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa. Failing to maintain amicable relations with the Patriarch of the East Indies, Alvares left the and joined Mar Dionysius the Metropolitan in Kottayam who consecrated Alvares as bishop. Later, he returned with title of Alvares Mar Julius ''Archbishop of Ceylon, Goa and the Indies'', and involved about 20 parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo on the island in his schism.

Consecration

According to Marx and Blied, "several shady characters claim to have given him the information" about Alvares but Brandreth and others attribute Harding as the source. Vilatte "never had a sizable income" according to Marx and Blied but could accumulate money for travel. For example, the people of Dykesville donated $225 for his journey, and being elected bishop by his small flock (according to the records of the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, Vilatte had about 500 adherents), Vilatte sailed to Ceylon. There Alvares and two other Jacobite bishops consecrated him with the permission of the Patriarch of Antioch as Timotheos I, Jacobite Old Catholic Bishop of North America on 29 May 1892;
attested to the consecration. When news of this reached North America the excommunicated Vilatte.

Archbishop

After an investigation forced him to wait nine months on the island, Bishop Alvares, Bishop Athanasius Paulos of Kottayam and Bishop St. Gregorius Gewargis of Niranam consecrated Vilatte to the episcopate in 1892 and named him "Mar Timotheos, Metropolitan of North America", probably with the blessings of Syriac Orthodox Church Patriarch Ignatius Peter IV. Grafton thought they were deceived by Vilatte statements as to his relation to Grafton and the extent of his work. There are claims that nobody has ever seen the original Syriac language form of this document. According to Brandreth, no Syraic authority had authenticated the signatures depicted in a photostatic copy of a purported translation of the Syraic document.

Émile Appolis wrote, in ', that Vilatte was titled " Old Catholic Archbishop of Babylon" (') and his cachet was an archiepiscopal cross, with the motto '—from the east, light. Likewise, Vignot included an excerpt, of Georges Aubault de la Haulte-Chambre description of Vilatte, from ''La Connaissance'', in which Vilatte was also called the "Old Catholic Archbishop of Babylon".

For its part, the Episcopal Church, on March 21, 1892, having already degraded from the priesthood and excommunicated Vilatte, stated in its General Convention of the same year that it did not recognize his consecration as it took place in a Miaphysite church which does not accept the dogmas of the Council of Chalcedon. The Episcopal Church in the United States bishops declared Vilatte's episcopal orders to be void. The work in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac has gone on, Grafton had three parishes under three priests, where the Old Catholic services were continued. In all this difficult matter, Grafton consulted his Presiding Bishop and followed his counsel; they did not wish to further a scheme which would make Vilatte a bishop, nor did they wish to offend the Old Catholics of the Netherlands. Williams believed they had saved the Episcopal Church (USA) from what might have become a great scandal.

Returning to the United States and to his work in Door County, he ultimately moved to Green Bay, where he erected his '.During this time, Vilatte used two church buildings: St. Joseph's church in Walhain, and St. Mary's mission in Dykesville. He no longer used the ''Precious Blood'' mission which belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.

A request was sent from Bishop Sebastian Gebhard Messmer of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, to the Premonstratensian abbot of Berne Abbey in Heeswijk, Netherlands, for priests needed to minister to the Belgian and Dutch settlers involved in Vilatte's schism; beginning in 1893, priests whose special mission would be to minister to their spiritual needs were sent. Vilatte "did not give up without a struggle" and " merous letters from him are in the archives of St. Norbert Abbey, some of them of a threatening nature, all giving indirect testimony to the fact that the early Norbertines were successful in stemming the tide of ..doctrines and religious practices which were disturbing the peace of the Catholic Belgians on the peninsula." The missionaries succeeded, according to Kirkfleet, by "appealing to the native Catholic instinct of the Belgians rather than by refuting the doctrines of the apostate."

In 1893, Vilatte had a booth at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, although he was not an invited delegate. Carlos Parra wrote, in ''Standing with Unfamiliar Company on Uncommon Ground'', that "Despite the spectrum of religious traditions and theological views displayed at the Parliament, not everyone was welcome as a delegate. John Barrows emphatically stated that 'the Parliament was rigidly purged from cranks. Many minor sects, however, tried earnestly to secure a representation, for which there was neither time nor fitness'." Vilatte was not invited. Barrows wrote, in ''The World's Parliament of Religions'', that people sought unsuccessfully to use the parliament for propaganda. According to Parra, "a character like Vilatte embodied the worst possible nightmare about religious indifferentism for a Catholic mind. As a result, he was kept at the margins of the Parliament." He did not take an official part in it.

At this time, Vilatte began his dalliance with Polish Roman Catholics who, dissatisfied with non-Polish Roman Catholic priests, sought to set up an independent Catholic church at the urgings of the priests and Franciszek Hodur.

Green Bay

On February 23, 1894, Vilatte bought land and built a small frame structure, his cathedral dedicated to St. Louis IX of France, in the city of Green Bay that year. Later that year, the first convention of the American Catholic Church (1894) (ACC1894) appointed Vilatte as its ecclesiastical head "without arbitrary powers".

Constantine Klukowski wrote, in ''History of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1898–1954'', that the 1894 Green Bay city directory lists Vilatte's cathedral "as 'American Catholic and its officials as: Vilatte, archbishop metropolitan and primate; , vicar general; Stephen Kaminski, consultor; and, Brother Nicholas, church manager. In 1895, C. Basil, SPB, was listed as rector of St. Louis's cathedral. During this time, Vilatte used three church buildings: St. Louis's cathedral in the city of Green Bay, St. Joseph's church in Walhain, and St. Mary's mission in Dykesville. He no longer used the Precious Blood mission which belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.

Shortly thereafter, reduced to penury, Vilatte traveled the East Coast offering the sacraments to, and soliciting monetary aid from, Episcopalians and Roman Catholics, but was rebuffed; in some places he was driven away by the Franco-Belgian Catholics.

Vilatte sought a second time, , to reconcile with the . In March 1894 he approached Archbishop Francesco Satolli, Nuncio to the United States, who wrote to Messmer that Vilatte wished to reconcile; the next month, Vilatte wrote to Messmer that he was preparing his people for reconciliation. More correspondence took place between Satolli, Messmer and Vilatte. Later that year, the offered to pay the expense of Vilatte's journey to Rome. His case dragged on for almost four years until, in 1898, Satolli wrote to Messmer that Vilatte was ready to reconcile. But Vilatte remained indecisive. Messmer "realized that there was no hope for a sincere conversion" and wrote to Satolli:

In 1898, the name was changed from St. Louis cathedral to St. John church and A. A. Mueller was listed as rector. On February 10, 1898, Vilatte signed over his cathedral church to the company which foreclosed on him; it sold the church to Messmer on the next day. Messmer's dedication of the church as St. Mary of Częstochowa Church, which took place about two weeks later, included a procession accompanied by a city marching band. Marx and Blied did not state the disposition of ''St. Joseph's'' church but wrote St. Mary's mission was lost at the same time. "Vilatte's cathedral was never known as Blessed Sacrament cathedral, as some claim", wrote Klukowski. Another mission was founded in Green Bay; it became the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in 1908 and a priest ordained by Koslowski was placed in charge.

During this time he consecrated Kaminski and voyaged to Europe where he stop at Llanthony Abbey, to ordain Joseph Leycester Lyne, and "explained that he was in a hurry, on his way to Russia at the special invitation or the Holy Synod of Moscow" but that was improbable.

In early 1899, he was in Rome and most Catholic newspapers reported that he sought reconciliation with the instead of union with the . Messmer disclosed that "Vilatte had admitted to him personally that he had never been in good faith" and both Messmer and Katzer advised the Holy Office to delay passing judgement on his orders to test his sincerity. A Congregation of the Holy Office Consultor, Father David Flemming, issued Vilatte's abjuration statement and a Roman Curia official, Bishop John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti wrote to Messmer that Flemming had the case under control. He made a "solemn recantation of his errors" February 2, 1899, but, according to Weber, he "relapsed within a short time" after he outwardly reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church. Vilatte disagreed with authorities in Rome and as a result did not return to the ; authorities would not recognise him as a licit bishop. He did not take a solemn vow of abjuration and was not reconciled with the for second time.

By early 1900, Vilatte was in the Benedictine Ligugé Abbey, near Poitiers. "He appears to have told" the monks that he wanted to make a careful study of ordinations in the Syro-Malabar Church, so that he could convince the authorities in Rome of the validity of his episcopate. Aubault wrote a picturesque description of when, in the monastery, he met Joris-Karl Huysmans and Vilatte.

While living as a guest of the Benedictines of Poitiers, Vilatte did not cease his subversive, anti-Catholic activities, although conducted secretly. News of this reached Cardinal François-Marie-Benjamin Richard, Archbishop of Paris, who, on 17 April 1900, circulated a warning among his clergy to be on their guard against men who claimed to be ordained or consecrated by Vilatte.

Emery colony

''The Advocate'' in Sturgeon Bay reported August 14, 1897, that Vilatte, living in Green Bay, had bought of land in Price County, Wisconsin, and planned to erect a church and a monastery. "It is his plan to found a colony of his people about the church as a center, the immigrants to come from Germany, Switzerland and portions of this country. ..He expects to begin operations right away and will have fifty families, in the colony before winter." Soon, according to the September 1, 1897 ''Milwaukee Journal'', a Milwaukee German language newspaper printed a letter from Messmer warning people that women were soliciting funds using Messmer's and Katzer's names without authorization. They were seen and reported; when police arrived, "the priest who accompanied the sisters was called before the chief and questioned and cautioned as to obtaining money by any misrepresentations", according to the ''Milwaukee Journal''. Vilatte felt the incident may have "left some wrong impressions" as they solicited funds, for developing the of forest, near Emery, Wisconsin; as Vilatte noted, all within of a logging road.
"These sisters were in Milwaukee last week soliciting aid for the asylum, and in some quarters were denounced as frauds", he said. Then, similar to how the Sturgeon Bay seminary scandal began in 1887, he added, "we shall begin active operations within the next month" although "plans for the buildings have not been entirely completed as yet." He envisioned, " e purpose of the church is to found a monastery" as an "agricultural brotherhood of the Old Catholic Church" with a seminary, and an orphanage to bring children "up to agricultural pursuits". A real estate agent working for the Wisconsin Central Railway added that, during his negotiations with Vilatte he visited his "large and flourishing congregation" in Green Bay. The agent said they purchased "fine agricultural land" covered with hardwood forest. Less than six months later, his diocese lost possession of its foreclosed cathedral.

Chicago

Vilatte acquired U.S. citizenship then returned to the United States. He settled in Chicago in 1902, and used a mission begun by Father Francis Kanski as his next permanent '.

Vilatte used, among other publications, nontrinitarian Jehovah's Witnesses publications for his religious education; in a letter attributed to him, in '' Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence'', he said: "I do certainly believe that the 'little flock' will be an instrument by whom all the families of earth will be blessed; because all the churches are in a very poor situation and the world in great desolation."

Consecrations

Vilatte's "unilateral arrogation of status as an Old Catholic prelate did not, ..reflect objective fact", according to Laurence Orzell, in ''Polish American Studies''. The "European Old Catholics neither sanctioned his consecration nor approved of his attempt to spread Old Catholicism to America." After successive annual conferences of the priests and delegates from parishes, a proposal to elect a Polish suffragan bishop was approved, and in 1897 the convention chose Kaminski from Buffalo, New York.
Kozlowski, a losing candidate from Chicago, called a second convention in Chicago, which elected him as bishop; Vilatte refused to recognise him.
When Vilatte advised the Old Catholics against Kozlowski's consecration, his "ecclesiastical antics" were taken into account and they "probably regarded such advice as all the more reason to proceed with the consecration."
Kozlowski traveled to Europe, and, on November 21, 1897, Herzog, Gul, and Theodor Weber elevated Kozlowski to the episcopate in Bern. Although Vilatte adherents saw a conspiracy, according to Orzell, it remains unclear if Grafton actively promoted Kozlowski's consecration. Herzog, who ordained Vilatte, assured Grafton, in 1898, that "a desire to counter the French 'rouge' served as a major motive behind the Chicago priest's consecration" and asked Grafton to support Kozlowski and "develop friendly relations with him".

Stephen Kaminski

Kaminski was born in West Prussia. According to Wacław Kruszka in ', Kaminski did not attend any college, but learned how to play the organ from a local organist. After leaving the army, he forged official documents for which he received a two-year prison term. Upon his release, he emigrated to the United States where he clung to various priests as an organist. He felt called to the religious life and joined the Franciscan order in Pulaski, Wisconsin, but was expelled and moved to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where he worked in various menial jobs. He was organist at the independent Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in Detroit, Michigan (which Vilatte consecrated in 1893) but later quarreled with and wrote in newspapers against the pastor, , and left.

When Vilatte visited Kolaszewski, his vicar general, in Cleveland, Ohio, to dedicate the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church building and cemetery on August 18, 1894, he ordained Kaminski. The dedication ceremonies were marred by a riot, caused by protesters in the streets, that included a stabbing and shooting.

In 1895, Kaminski and a faction of his adherents occupied the Polish parish church of St. Paul, a Roman Catholic church of the Diocese of Omaha in South Omaha, Nebraska, where he conducted devotion "in his own way". Kaminski wounded a man and then shot at the altar to create the impression that he had also been shot at. Later that month, Kaminski was called "a Polish nationalist who posed as a priest" by Elia W. Peattie, in the ''Omaha World-Herald''. She wrote that he "barricaded himself in the sanctuary and used firearms to retain control, wounding Xavier Dargaczewski and Frank Kraycki." Peattie quoted in her article: "The priest, he say: 'I never leave this town till I see the bare bones of this church!' And he is seein' 'em!" It was rumored he started the fire that burned the church, at the end of that month, to a pile of rubble and ashes; Kaminski's faction damaged fire hydrants so there was no way to extinguish the fire. Kaminski was arrested.

Kruszka described the Buffalo situation as being the same that took place in Omaha.

He wrote that, in June 1894, that Alfons Mieczysław Chrostowski's ''Jutrzenka'', in Cleveland, printed that Kolaszewski and Wladyslaw Debski arrived in Buffalo to establish an independent parish.

Hieronim Kubiak wrote, in ''The Polish National Catholic Church in the United States of America from 1897 to 1980'', that the first independent parishes in the United States were organized by German, Irish, and French Catholics. A "pattern of a parish conflict" was already in place when Poles set up their independent parishes. Translation, with additional chapter, of "As long as the conflict continued, the parish most often divorced itself from the jurisdiction of the accused bishop and stood independent of him, which did not mean that the parish did not consider itself belonging to the Catholic Church symbolized by the Pope. In the division with the bishops, the parish kept very strictly to the rules of the norm of religious life, finding in it a further support for the rightness of their cause." Return to the previous state of affairs, exist in isolation and then vanish, or create "a self-determined religious movement" are the three alternative results, according to Kubiak.

According to Kruszka, the causes of this "social ulcer" can be found several years earlier when Poles began immigrating to Buffalo in large numbers. They had only one church prior to 1886; they built an additional church, without waiting for the permission of Bishop Stephen V. Ryan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, but a storm demolished it; they demanded another church and only under pressure from the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith was a second church built. Even so, there was by this time resentment and bitterness among the people which created prejudices against the clergy. That "social ulcer" burst in 1895 when a group demanded that Ryan relinquish ownership and management of their church; Ryan did not agree to the conditions, so the rebels schismed from the and organized an independent parish. Their parish did not develop at all, because everyone thought their pastor, Antoni Klawiter, was morally bankrupt. Klawiter eventually left, intent on reconciling with the , and Kaminski, who was according to Kruszka another notorious adventurer like Klawiter, replaced him. From 1896 until May 3, 1907, Kaminski was pastor of Holy Mother of the Rosary Parish in Buffalo.

According to Kruszka, Kaminski once counted under his jurisdiction a parish in Buffalo, a parish in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and a parish in Baltimore, Maryland.

Kaminski failed to persuade Gul to raise him to the episcopate.
Soon after, Kaminski was to be consecrated bishop by Vilatte, but this was delayed over the fee charged for consecration. It was deliberate and premeditated simony, the act of buying and selling an ecclesiastical office, Vilatte demanded money for the consecration but Kaminski did not have enough to give. Only after Vilatte was bankrupt and had sold his house and cathedral in Green Bay was he less demanding and agreed to consecrate Kaminski.
Kaminski was consecrated, on March 20, 1898, by Vilatte
as suffragan bishop for those Polish priests and parishes which accepted Vilatte's doctrinal reforms. In the end, he received $100 in cash from Kaminski and promissory notes for a few hundred dollars more. Kaminski threatened to take Grafton to court after Grafton publicly criticized him.

"Notices were sent out", according to Anson, that stated both Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore and Archbishop Sebastiano Martinelli, the apostolic delegate to the United States, "would assist at the ceremony. It is hardly necessary to add that neither of these prelates put in an appearance."
However, the new bishop fled the United States to Canada because of creditors. He was excommunicated by Rome and he abandoned Vilatte.

Kaminski was consecrated after the 1889 establishment of the Old Catholic Churches' Union of Utrecht and its , "the orders of ' in general, and specifically those of ..Kaminski, ..and of all those consecrated by them, are not recognized, and all connections with these persons is formally denied" by the .

On September 9, 1898, Vilatte was excommunicated by Ignatius Peter IV for consecrating Kaminski in a way contrary to the canon law of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. Anson wrote that in his agreement with Alvares, Vilatte acknowledged that if he "deviated from their Canons and Rules, he would be subject to dismissal from the dignity of Metropolitan." Bishops were consecrated by Vilatte "without authority" from the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, who "therefore does not recognize such consecrations or their derivative consecrations and ordinations."

For both Kaminski and Kozlowski, according to Kubiak, "their movements became isolated in the Polonia community, not so much because of the propaganda of the , but rather because of the public opinion negative assessment of the associations of Polonia toward the dissenters." Kubiak wrote:

Just before the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland and wider Revolution of 1905 in the Russian Empire, Stanislaw Osada, in ''Historya Związku Narodowego Polskiego i rozwój ruchu narodowego Polskiego w Ameryce Północne'', wrote in the United States, that Russian agents endeavored to draw believers into Old Catholicism, not for faith but for "implanting in the womb of Catholicism" the basis for Polish discord, to facilitate the Russification of the Catholic Church. Kubiak quoted Osada: "There exists yet another danger, namely that in recent times the leaders of that movement (independent) quite unequivocally help spread among the Polish masses the slogans of the Revolutionary-Socialists."

From 1898 to 1911 he edited and published a weekly Polish newspaper ''Warta'', an organ of his independent church.

He died in Buffalo on September 19, 1911. After his death, the Buffalo center of the independent movement ceased to exist and most of his parishioners affiliated themselves with the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC), the Scranton center of the independent movement.

Paolo Miraglia

Paolo Vescovo Miraglia-Gulotti was a priest from Ucria, Sicily, who in 1895 was sent into Piacenza, in Northern Italy, to preach the May sermons in honor of Mary; there he was embroiled in a series of either scandals or conspiracies.
He opened his , ''Chiesa Italiana Internationale''
Paulina Irby wrote, in ''National Review'' that it began in a former stable of an old palazzo with church furnishing principally provided by Mazzini's niece. His congregation had just that church, and "is spoken of contemptuously as the congregation of Signor Abbate's stable", she wrote, as the Abbate family own the palazzo.

On April 15, 1896, Miraglia, who resided in Piacenza but was a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Patti". That year, Nevin introduced in ''The Churchman'' the "modern Savonarola", Nevin wrote "he has placed himself under wise guidance, and will not be apt to do anything rashly or ignorantly" but failed to include any specifics. The following week, ''The Churchman'' only hinted at the secular side of that movement by publishing a story from Milan's '' Corriere della Sera'' which wrote: "The struggle is now not only religious, but civic. The partisans of the bishop will hear of no truce with the partisans of Miraglia, and whenever they can, remove them from the employments that they hold." Within a year, on August 31, 1897, he attended the 4th International Old Catholic Congress in Vienna.

By 1900, two reformation groups in Italy elected bishops for their churches: one group in Arrone elected Campello as its bishop and the other group in Piacenza elected Miraglia as its bishop. Campello was licensed in 1883 by Bishop Abram Newkirk Littlejohn, of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, to work as a priest "wherever there may be lawful opportunity" for Campello's reformation efforts in Italy, and by that time, Nevin already knew Campello for many years. Campello was elected bishop by a synod of his church in 1893 and asked Herzog for consecration, who in turn brought Campello's case to the . The refused to consecrate Campello in 1901, according to Oeyen, "because of his limited number of baptisms and marriages and his close relationships with Anglicans, Methodists, and Waldenses". The Church of Utrecht thought Campello was to Protestant.
Miraglia, by then a leader of reform in northern Italy, wrote to Vilatte regarding the movement and consecration. On May 6, 1900, while the Holy See examined Vilatte's case, he consecrated Miraglia in Piacenza. Miraglia was a popular speaker known for his relations with Ferdinando Bracciforti, who represented Milanese liberal Protestantism. According to Smit "the orders of ' in general, and specifically those of ..Miraglia, and of all those consecrated by them, are not recognized, and all connections with these persons is formally denied" by the . On June 13, 1900, the Congregation of Universal Inquisition declared that major excommunication was incurred by both Miraglia and Vilatte. The next day, June 14, 1900, the ''Alexandria Gazette'' reported that his anti-Catholicism offended the sensibilities of an American Methodist Episcopal Church in Rome that the "majority of the Protestant congregation interrupted" his discourse "with angry protests against his abuse of the pulpit and the police were finally called to prevent an open riot." In 1901, Tony André Florence, in a report about the liberal movement in Italy presented to the ''International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers'' in London, wrote that Miraglia's "desire to be at the head of a personal movement, after separating him from the Old Catholics whose ideas were akin to his, threw him suddenly into a false path." His consecration by Vilatte "lost him the sympathy of many, and his profession of faith completed their disappointment." Florence wrote that Miraglia's "reformatory movement, therefore, is now in suspense", after he was obliged to refuge abroad.
While the reported, in ''The Times'', that although the "discreditable incident" of Miraglia "having arrogated to himself the dignity" of bishop-elect and his consecration happened, the work of the "real bishop-elect", Campello, was going on independently, with headquarters at Rome.The Times (London). 1901-06-20. p. 7. . It is unclear if the two juxtaposed groups were concurrent factions of one movement.

In 1904, the refused to recognize Miraglia's consecration as valid when he presented himself to the sixth International Old Catholic Congress in Olten, Switzerland. Here, the name Tichy is spelled Tichi and the name Vilatte is spelled Villatte.

Already a convicted fugitive who evaded Italian justice, Miraglia was then involved with religious associations in France.
For example, a parish church in Piedigriggio, Corsica, was confiscated by the government from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ajaccio

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