In 1869, during his fifth year at Saint-Sulpice, Bourgade and five other seminarians were recruited by the newly-consecrated Bishop Jean-Baptiste Salpointe for the missions in the American Southwest.[3] The group sailed from Brest in September 1869 and traveled by railroad and stagecoach to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Salpointe ordained Bourgade to the priesthood on November 30, 1869.[3][4]
Following his ordination, Bourgade was named pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Yuma, Arizona. However, in the summer of 1873, ill health forced him to return to France for two years.[2] He returned to the United States in 1875 and was sent to San Elizario, Texas, where he served as pastor for six years and distinguished himself by opening a parochial school under the Sisters of Loreto in 1879.[5] In 1881 he was transferred to St. Vincent de Paul Church in Silver City, New Mexico, where he built a convent, hospital, and academy for the Sisters of Mercy.[6]
Bourgade was named the fourth Archbishop of Santa Fe on January 7, 1899.[7] He served as archbishop for nine years, and his last annual report to Rome showed the archdiocese contained a Catholic population of 167,000 people, 45 churches with resident priests, and 340 missions.[6] He was in poor health for most of his tenure and received John Baptist Pitaval as an auxiliary bishop in 1902.
^Chavez, Angelico (1957). Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, 1678-1900. Washington, D.C.: Academy of American Franciscan History. J. B. Salpointe, certif. of ordination of Peter Bourgade. Las Cruces, Nov. 30, 1869.
