 As required of Jesuit priests, he initially declined the honor, but was then sent a formal mandate from the Holy See.He received his consecration on March 25, 1851 from Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick, of St. Louis, with Bishops James Oliver Van de Velde, S.J., the Bishop of Chicago, and Jacques-Maurice De Saint Palais serving as co-consecrators, at St. Xavier's Church in St. Louis.Miège departed St. Louis in May 1851, and later arrived among the Potawatomi on the Kansas River.