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convinced “the most happy man on earth is he who
practices most faithfully the duties of Christianity.” He
told his father that six others of the corps also had
“come forward after the same manner, and we hope
for a further increase.” Nightly meetings for prayer
and discussion with Dr. McIlvaine were continuing, he
told his father. Then, later in the year, he announced
his intention to enter holy orders.

PREPARATION FOR HOLY ORDERS

This was something of a bombshell to his family. His
father urged time for reflection on such a serious step,
and Leonidas agreed. He finished his course at the
Academy, graduating eight in a class of thirty-eight on
July 4, 1827. After that, at his father’s suggestion he
traveled for several months, both for reasons of health
(he had not been well) and to reflect on his determina-
tion to enter the priesthood. He visited Canada, much
of the East (at Albany he visited Martin Van Buren,
whose son he had known at West Point) and, returning
South in the fall, dined with Gen. Andrew Jackson in
Tennessee. There, his father reluctantly consenting, he
resigned his commission in the Army and prepared to
enter the Virginia Theological Seminary at Alexandria.

He entered the Seminary in November, 1828, post-
poning his marriage to Frances Devereux of Raleigh, a
childhood sweetheart (and a great-granddaughter of
both Thomas Pollock, a colonial Governor of North
Carolina, and the New England divine, Jonathan
Edwards), until after he had completed his theological
studies. These studies he pursued effectively and con-
scientiously. In addition, he was active in raising funds
for foreign missions and in personal missionary work

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