Jean-Antoine-Marie Pelamourgues (1811–1875)[1] was a French missionary who was one of the first Roman Catholic priests to serve in the Diocese of Dubuque in the state of Iowa.

While in France he recruited two priests, Joseph Crétin and Pelamourgues, as well as four seminarians: Augustin Ravoux, Lucien Galtier, James Causse, and Remigius Petiot.

They attributed their safe passage to the intercession of St. Cessianus, whose relics had been given to Loras by Pope Gregory XVI while he was in Rome.

After they landed in New York, Pelamourgues and the seminarians went to St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore to learn English, while Loras and Crétin proceeded to St. Louis to wait out the winter.

In July of the same year the bishop made a pastoral visit to the area around Fort Snelling in present-day St. Paul, Minnesota.

Until 1846 he also regularly visited Muscatine, Burlington, Iowa City, Columbus Junction, DeWitt and Lyons, which is the north side of present-day Clinton.

He immediately set out to attend the dying man but was stopped by a guard who informed him that if he entered the tribe's reservation he would be imprisoned.

[4] When Pelamourgues first arrived at St. Anthony's, the church building was used for various community functions as it was the largest structure in the small town.

He had an addition built onto the building in 1843, and he convinced the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary to open a school in Davenport.

[2] In 1865 when Loras' successor, Bishop Clement Smyth, died, Pelamourgues served as administrator of the Dubuque Diocese.

[7] Father Pelamourgues was also an early promoter of Davenport being named a see city when the question arose concerning the division of the Dubuque Diocese.

German immigrants began to settle in Davenport, and so he helped to establish St. Kunigunda parish to serve their pastoral needs in 1855.

The following year he and Antoine LeClaire were instrumental in establishing St. Margaret's on the bluff to the east of downtown, and St. Anthony's lost its long-time parishioner and benefactor.

Michael Flammang, refused to serve the needs of the Irish who settled in the west end, Pelamourgues threatened to build a new church under his nose.

In 1867 Pelamourgues established St. Mary's parish on the Catholic cemetery property in the west end, two blocks from St.

Through his attorney, Father Pelamourgues assisted Mother Borromeo in acquiring the property where the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary had initially established a girls' school at the end of Marquette Street for Mercy Hospital.