Detroit — A Bible belonging to a 19th century missionary priest, the first ordained in the United States, has found a new home at the University of Notre Dame.

The rare Bible once belonged to Fr. Stephen Badin, who was the first priest ordained in the U.S. in 1793. The Bible was given to Fr. Badin and inscribed by Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, the first bishop in the United States, according to a news release from the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at Notre Dame.

Fr. Badin was serving among the Pottawatomie Tribe of American Indians near modern-day Kalamazoo when the Diocese of Detroit was first established in 1833. The diocese at that time encompassed all of Michigan.

Ownership of the Bible was transferred from the Sisters of Loretto in Nerinx, Ky., who had kept it for nearly 200 years.

The Cushwa Center called the Bible a “rare book” as well as “the first ‘Catholic’ Bible for sale in the United States,” of which fewer than 500 copies were made at a time when Catholics comprised just 1 percent of the total U.S. population of about 4 million.

The center also said the acquisition would reunite the Bible with its owner, who is buried in the university’s Log Chapel. The Bible will be on display for the fall semester, the center said.