Sources: Baudier, The Catholic Church in LA; BRDR; Hébert, D., South LA Records; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records; NOAR, & miscellaneous sources
[Acadian church parishes are in bold; (?) refers to a priest who was appointed not by a bishop but by church wardens or marguilliers]
| Date | Location | Parish Name(s) | Missionaries or Pastors | Comments |
| 1700 | Houma village Bayougoula village |
missions | Fr. Paul du Ru | first churches built in the present State of Louisiana; stood briefly at the villages of the Houma, near present-day Angola, and the Bayougoula, in today's Iberville Parish |
| 1700-07 | Fort de Mississippi | military chapel | Fr. Paul du Ru et al. | first military post on lower Mississippi River, built by Iberville in 1700 & abandoned by Bienville in 1707; present-day Plaquemines Parish |
| 1719 | New Orleans | St.-Louis | Fr. ?, 1719 Fr. Prothais Boyer, 1720 Fr. Joseph de St. Charles, 1721 Fr. ____ Richard, 1722 Fr. Bruno de Langres, 1722 Fr. Raphaël de Luxembourg, 1723 Fr. Philippe de Luxembourg, 1734 Fr. Mathias de Sedan, 1737 Fr. Philippe de Luxembourg, 1738 Fr. Pierre, 1738 Fr. Charles de Rambervilliers, 1742 Fr. Dagobert de Longuory, 1749 Fr. George de Fauquemont, 1753 Fr. Dagobert de Longuory, 1756 Fr. Cirillo de Barcelona, 1776 Fr. Antonio [Antoine] de Sedella, 1781 Fr. José de Xerez, 1785 Fr. Bernardo de Deva, 1785 Fr. Pedro de Zamora, 1785 Fr. Tomas Salvidar, 1787 Fr. Antonio de la Madrid, 1787 Fr. Antonio de Sedella, 1787 Fr. Joaquin de Portillo, 1790 Fr. Antonio de Sedella, 1795 Fr. Patrick Walsh, 1805 Fr. Antonio de Sedella, 1805 (?) Fr. Aloysius Leopold Moni, 1828 Fr. Étienne Rousselon, 1842 Fr. Constantine Maenhaut, 1842 Fr. Ferdinand Dominic Bach, 1843 Fr. Felipe Asensio, 1843 Fr. Constantine Maenhaut, 1844 Fr. Adrien Rouquette Fr. A. Theves Fr. Tolomier Fr. Felipe Asensio Fr. Jean Arthur Poyet Fr. Moll Fr. Cartuyvels Fr. M. A. Guillaume Duquesnay, 1855 Fr. P. Guerard Fr. J. M. Bertail Fr. Boes Fr. Antoine Durier Fr. Constantine Maenhaut, 1858 Fr. Isidore François Turgis |
"Cradle of the Church in the Mississippi Valley," and the oldest church parish in the State of Louisiana; the church at New Orleans was part of the Diocese of Québec, under Capuchin and Jesuit vicars-general, until Britain officially acquired Canada in 1763, and then lower Louisiana looked to the Archbishop of St.-Domingue; there was no "permanent" church at New Orleans until 1727, the year the Ursuline sisters came to the city; a pastor and several assistants served the large parish; Acadian baptisms began in 1764, marriages in 1765, but New Orleans was not an Acadian community; the original frame church was abandoned in 1766 due to hurricane damage and disrepair, so services were held in the royal warehouse until the church was repaired; Louisiana was placed under the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba in August 1769; an Auxiliary Bishop of Cuba (Spanish Capuchin Fr. Cirillo de Barcelona) took office at New Orleans in 1785 (his jurisdiction included not only Spanish Louisiana but also Spanish Florida); in September 1787, Louisiana was placed under the Bishop of Havana, Cuba (with Fr. Cirillo continuing as auxiliary at New Orleans); the original St.-Louis church was destroyed by the great fire of March 1788; the chapel at Charity Hospital, a house, and the Ursuline convent chapel (Our Lady of Consolation) served as temporary parish "churches" from 1788-94; the rebuilt St.-Louis church, constructed between March 1789 and December 1794, became, after its completion, the cathedral of the new Diocese of Louisiana, created by papal bull in April 1793 (but the new bishop, Don Luis Ignacio Maria de Penalver y Cardena, native of Havana, did not reach his seat at New Orleans until July 1795); there was no bishop, only a caretaker vicar-general, in charge of the diocese after November 1801, when Bishop Penalver left for Guatemala to become archbishop there; a parish Board of Wardens, called the marguilliers, "elected" the St.-Louis church pastor in March 1805 (Fr. Antoine) despite episcopal and papal disapproval (during his long tenure as pastor, Fr. Antoine, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Jefferson's Purchase, served as a clandestine agent for Spain in New Orleans); ignoring the marguilliers, the Bishop of Baltimore appointed a new vicar-general for the Diocese of Louisiana in December 1806; the marguilliers refused to recognize the new vicar-general, and so the Ursuline chapel, later called the Bishop's Church or St. Mary's, became the new "cathedral" for New Orleans; the Archbishop of Baltimore appointed an Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of New Orleans, as it was now called, in August 1812; by special arrangement with the Vatican, the New Orleans diocese was not part of an archdiocese; but the bishops of New Orleans "adopted" the Archbishop of Baltimore as apostolic guide; the New Orleans bishops served as vicars-general for the Baltimore archbishop in the Mississippi territory until 1842, when a bishop arrived for the new Diocese of Natchez; Abbé William Dubourg, apostolic administrator in Louisiana, was consecrated the first bishop of the Diocese of New Orleans in Rome in September 1815; after remaining in Europe to solicit funds and religious for his diocese, Bishop Dubourg took his seat in the fall of 1817 not at New Orleans but at St. Louis, Missouri, and did not visit the "See" city until December 1820; meanwhile, the new bishop was represented in New Orleans by a vicar-general who resided at the Ursuline convent; the marguilliers were incorporated by the State of Louisiana in March 1822; Bishop Dubourg finally took up residence in New Orleans in 1823, not at the cathedral presbytere but at the Ursuline convent, which, after the sisters moved to another location in 1824, became the bishop's house or "Archeveche"; in the mid-1820s, after the marguilliers secured a city ordinance banning burials inside the cathedral, a mortuary chapel was built near the parish cemetery for that purpose; Bishop Dubourg resigned his episcopacy in February 1826 and left for France via St. Louis and Baltimore; his auxiliary bishop, Fr. Joseph Rosati, became bishop of the new Diocese of St. Louis, carved out of the northern part of the New Orleans diocese, in 1827; the State of Louisiana remained in the Diocese of New Orleans, and Bishop Rosati became its administrator; in late 1826, as a result of the division of the old diocese, Fr. Antonio de Sedella, long-time pastor of St. Louis Cathedral, became vicar-general for Bishop Rosati in New Orleans and also head of an episcopal council there until his death in 1828; Fr. Léo Raymond de Neckere was appointed third Bishop of New Orleans in August 1829 at the age of 29 and was consecrated at the New Orleans cathedral in June 1830 (the first to be consecrated there), Fr. Antoine Blanc serving as vicar-general; Bishop de Neckere died at New Orleans of yellow fever in September 1833 (his was the shortest term for a bishop of New Orleans); after Bishop de Neckere's death, Fr. Antoine Blanc served as diocesan administrator and succeeded as fourth Bishop of New Orleans in November 1835 (he, too, was consecrated at the cathedral in New Orleans); Fr. Auguste Jeanjean and Abbé Étienne Rousselon served as vicars-general; another dispute between the marguilliers and the bishop led to the abandonment of the cathedral by all clergy from November 1842 to January 1843, masses being held, instead, at St. Augustine's and St. Mary's of the Bishopric in New Orleans; later in 1843 and until October 1844, after yet another dispute with the marguilliers, the bishop withdrew the clergy from the cathedral, leaving only a chaplain; after the marguilliers unsuccessfully sued him in state courts, the bishop gained full ecclesiastical control of the cathedral in 1844 (but not of its property until 1883); after his victory over the marguilliers, Bishop Blanc approved a renovation of the cathedral façade, begun in 1849; in January 1850, the main tower collapsed, damaging the cathedral façade and delaying renovation; Father Maenhaut, long-time pastor of St. Louis Cathedral, served as archdiocesan vicar-general before resuming the pastorate; a papal bull of 19 July 1850 created the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which included the existing dioceses of Galveston, Little Rock, Natchez, Mobile, and, in 1853, the diocese of Natchitoches--the fourth archdiocese created in the U.S.; Bishop Antoine Blanc became the first Archbishop of New Orleans, his investiture in February 1851 being held at St. Patrick's church on Camp Street due to ongoing repairs at the cathedral; Fr. Étienne Rousselon remained his vicar-general; Archbishop Blanc died suddenly at New Orleans in June 1860 and was buried in the cathedral sanctuary; Vicar-general Fr. Rousselon administered the archdiocese until Lazarist Fr. Jean Marie Odin, native of Ambierle, France, and first Bishop of Galveston, Texas, succeeded as the second Archbishop of New Orleans in May 1861; Fr. Napoleon Joseph Perche, former chaplain of the Ursulines and publisher of the first Catholic newspaper in Louisiana, served as vicar-general and administrator of the archdiocese in 1867 and again in 1869-70 when Archbishop Odin traveled to Rome; Fr. Perche was named coadjutor of the archdiocese in April 1870 and was consecrated "Titular Bishop of Abdera" in May; meanwhile, after years of failing health, Archbishop Odin died at his birthplace in France in May 1870; Fr. Perche, native of Angers, France, succeeded as third Archbishop of New Orleans; Fr. Gilbert Raymond became vicar-general and chancellor |
| 1722 | Côte des Allemands, or Lower German Coast, now St. Charles Parish | St.-Charles Borromeo or St.-Charles des Allemands | Fr. Philibert de Viauden, 1722 Fr. Mathias de Sedan Fr. Hyacinthe de Verdun Fr. Philippe de Luxembourg, 1728 Fr. Pierre Fr. Prosper Fr. Barnabé, 1767 Fr. Luis Fr. Juan Delvaux, 1793 Fr. Sebas. Flavien de Besancon, 1794 Fr. Mariano y Brunete,1797 Fr. Jérôme Blace, 1797 Fr. Nepomucene Boez, 1808 Fr. Louis Leopold Moni, 1818 Fr. A. Millet, 1823 Fr. Segura, 1825 (?) Fr. Auguste De Angelis, 1826 Fr. E. Barthe, 1840 Fr. L. Parent, 1848 Fr. John F. Suriray, 1869 |
originally a mission; the first chapel, just a shed, was built in the early 1720s at Karlstein, the commandant's home, on the west bank of the river; the next church, a log structure, erected in 1740 and dedicated to St.-Charles de Borromeo, stood on the east bank of the river and served the parish until 1806; though Fr. Barnabé ministered to Acadians at St.-Jacques on the Lower Acadian Coast in the late 1760s, Des Allemands was not an Acadian community; there was no pastor at St.-Charles in the late 1780s and early 1790s, so the parish was served by the priest from St.-Jean-Baptiste, just upriver; in 1806, exactly 25 miles above New Orleans, at Destrahan, a frame building, called "the Little Red Church," replaced the old log church, destroyed by fire; "The Little Red Church" served as a prominent landmark on the river throughout the steamboat era |
| 1722 | La Balize | mission | Fr. Christophe de Chaumont, 1722 Fr. Gaspard, 1726 Fr. Arcange Fr. Maximin |
a mission for the small fortified community at the mouth of the Mississippi, present-day Plaquemines Parish, appeared in 1722, though the fortifications at "the beacon" were not built until 1724; there was no church or priest's house at La Balize; the mission was abandoned in early 1750s after a hurricane devastated the post; although ships laden with Acadians necessarily had to pass through the post to get to New Orleans, La Balize was never an Acadian settlement |
| 1724 | Chapitoulas | mission | Fr. Philibert de Viauden, 1724 Fr. Théodore, 1729 Fr. Charles d'Avranche |
no church or priest's house there; in present-day Jefferson Parish; abandoned by the mid-1740s because of difficulties between the Capuchin missionaries and the settlers; never an Acadian community |
| 1727 | New Orleans | chapel | Fr. Ignatius de Beaubois, 1727 Fr. Mathurin le Petit, 1729 Fr. Ignatius de Beaubois, 1732 Fr. Mathurin le Petit, 1735 Fr. Doutreleau, 1739 Fr. Pierre Vitry Fr. Michel Baudouin, 1750-63 |
chapel at Jesuit plantation, present-day New Orleans, presided over by the Jesuit superior in Louisiana after restoration of the order to lower Louisiana in 1726; from the 1730s to the early 1760s, the Jesuit superior also was vicar-general of the Bishop of Québec in lower Louisiana; when the order was driven from Louisiana in July 1763, colonial officials confiscated and sold at public auction the Jesuit plantation, razed its chapel, and, according to one source, desecrated its graves, where some of the Jesuit slaves were buried |
| 1727 | New Orleans | Our Lady of Victories Our Lady of Consolation St. Mary's of the Bishopric/Archbishopric St. Mary's Italian Church |
Fr. Ignatius de Beaubois et al., 1727 Fr. G. V. Gauthreaux, 1845 Fr. Napoleon Joseph Perche |
the chapel at Ursuline house for the nuns, known first as Our Lady of Victories and then Our Lady of Consolation, on Chartres Street, was occupied by the nuns for nearly a century; in the early 1800s, during the troubles with the St. Louis Cathedral marguilliers, the New Orleans bishops and priests held mass here instead of at the cathedral, so the chapel became the "Archeveche"; the site also became the bishop's/archbishop's residence; the chapel was popular with the city's Creole population, so Bishop Blanc built a larger church on the site in 1845 to accommodate more worshipers; the church was offered to the German Catholics of Faubourg Marigny, but they built their own church, Holy Trinity, about the same time, so the parish congregation remained largely Creole; St. Mary's priest, Fr. Gauthreaux, died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1853 |
| 1727/1738 | Pointe Coupée | St.-François de Assisi | Fr. Philibert de Viauden, 1722 Fr. Maximin, 1728-29 Fr. Pierre, 1735 Fr. Anselm de Langres, 1738 Fr. Charles de Rambervilliers, 1741 Fr. Matherne, 1741 Fr. Rémy, 1743 Fr. Barnabé, 1747 Fr. Pierre, 1753 Fr. Amé, 1754 Fr. Pierre, 1756 Fr. Irénée, 1759 Fr. Stanislaus, 1764 Fr. Irénée, 1764 Fr. Arcange, 1765 Fr. Irénée, 1767 Fr. L. Dubourg de St. Sepulchre, 1774 Fr. Valentin, 1775 Fr. Luis de Quintanilla, 1777 Fr. Louis Dubourg de St. Sep., 1777 Fr. Hilaire de Genevaux, 1778 Fr. Bernardo de Limpach, 1791 Fr. Carlos Burke, 1796 Fr. Claude Nicolas Gerboy, 1796 Fr. Francis Lennan, 1799 Fr. Paul de St.-Pierre, 1800 Fr. Francis Lennan, 1804, 1805 Fr. de l'Epinasse, 1807 Fr. Francis Lennan, 1810, 1813 Fr. William Dubourg, 1814 Fr.Decrugy, 1818 Fr. Antoine Blanc, 1820 Fr. Jean Baptiste Blanc Fr. L. De Lhoste, 1832 Fr. J. M. Bourriot, 1833 Fr. Jean Martin, 1834 Fr. P. J. Doutreluingue, 1842 (visiting) Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1842 Fr. Victor Jamey, 1847 Fr. F. Rogalle, 1849 Fr. H. Thirion, 1854 Fr. Francis Mittlebronn, 1857 Fr. Philibert Gutton, 1866 Fr. Jean Arthur Poyet, 1866 Fr. Constantin Van de Moere, 1871 |
originally a mission for an upriver post established in the early 1720s; the first entry in the parish register dates from 1727; the first regular pastor arrived in 1736; the first church, dedicated to St.-François de Assisi, was built in 1738; a new church was built on the same site in 1760, a cemetery in 1764; though many Acadian baptisms and marriages are found in its registers in 1765 & during the 1770s-1780s (when the Pointe Coupée priests served as missionaries to the Attakapas and Opelousas districts), only a few Acadians settled at Pointe Coupée; during the early 1800s, the priest at Bayou Sara, across the river, also was in charge at Pointe Coupée despite the political changes of late1803 taking Pointe Coupée out of Spanish control; the parish was abandoned in 1817 but resurrected the following year; a new church, 80 x 33, was dedicated in October 1822; the priest at Pointe Coupee served also at Baton Rouge, Bayou Sara/St. Francisville, Zachary, and Fausse River/New Roads after 1820; a dispute arose between the church wardens and the pastor (Fr. Jean Martin) in 1842-43 over the pastor's salary and was resolved by a court order in favor of the wardens; after the court's decision, Bishop Blanc withdrew Fr. Martin, leaving the parish temporarily without a regular priest; Fr. Thirion organized Poydras College at Pointe Coupee in 1855, but it lasted only two years; during the War of 1861-65, Federal forces arrested Fr. Mittlebron and imprisoned him at Baton Rouge; after the war, old St. Francis became a mission of St. Mary's church at New Roads; in the 1890s, the site of St. Francis church was moved four miles upriver |
| c1751 | English Turn | mission | Fr. Matthias Fr. Irénée |
mission to serve river forts, Ste.-Marie and St.-Léon, between New Orleans and La Balize; there was no church or priest's house |
| 1765/1773/1781 | Attakapas Post, now St. Martinville | L'Èglise des Attakapas St.-Joseph St.-Bernard St.-Martin des Attakapas St.-Martin de Tours |
Frs. Didier, Irénée, Valentin, 1756 Fr. Jean-François de Civray, 1765 Fr. Hilaire de Genevaux, 1781 Fr. José de Arezena, 1782 Fr. Geffrotin, 1783 Fr. José Antonio Dias Maseda, 1787 Fr. Charles N. M. D'Hermeville, 1789 Fr. Bernardo de Deva, 1790 Fr. George Murphy, 1792 Fr. Bernard-Alexandre Viel, 1794 Fr. Michel-Bernard Barrière, 1795 Fr. Bernard-Alexandre Viel, 1803 Fr. Michel-Bernard Barrière, 1804 Fr. Gabriel Isabey, 1804 Fr. Michel-Bernard Barrière (retired) Fr. Flavius H. Rossi Fr. Marcel Borella, 1823 Fr. J. F. Brasseur, 1836 Fr. Charles H. B. St.-Aubin, 1839 Fr. J. E. Martin, 1841 Fr. Berel Fr. C. Lucas, 1841 Fr. Dufour, 1845 Fr. J. Jacques Fontbonne, 1848 Fr. Ange Marie Félix, Jan 1851 |
the vast Attakapas District was served by Pointe Coupée priests from the mid-1750s (the first baptisms appear in 1756) until the spring of 1765, when Fr. Jean-François de Civray escorted the Broussard Acadians to lower Bayou Teche. Fr. Jean-François kept an impromptu register for baptisms and births, the last entry made on 11 January 1766. In 1773, the first church for the district, L'Èglise des Attakapas, a small frame building, arose at the site of present-day St. Martinville, but there was no resident priest at Attakapas until 1781; as a result, the district was again served by missionaries from Pointe Coupée and Ascension on the river, and from Opelousas after 1776; in its early days, the parish was called St.-Joseph and St.-Bernard; Fr. Murphy was the first to call it St. Martin des Attakapas or St. Martin de Tours, which stuck; after regular priests were assigned to St.-Martin de Tours parish, many of them acted as missionaries to other established parishes as well as to the far flung settlements of the Attakapas region; by the early 1800s, the parish was populous enough to have assistant pastors under Fr. Isabey; members of the parish today call St. Martin of Tours the "Mother Church of the Acadians," dating its founding at 1765; in 1918, with the creation of a new diocese for South Louisiana, St. John the Evangelist Church in Lafayette, not St. Martin of Tours, was chosen as the cathedral church for the Diocese of Lafayette |
| 1767/1768/1770 | Cabanocé, now St. James | St.-Jacques | Fr. Valentin, 1770 Fr. Luis Lipiano de Tolosa, 1772 Fr. Prosper, 1774 Fr. Francisco de Azuqueca, 1785 Fr. Patrick Morgan/Mangan, 1794 Fr. Jean Dalvaux, 1803 Fr. de l'Epinasse, 1810 Fr. Charles Mariani Fr. Hercule Brassac, 1822 Fr. Aristide Anduze, 1823 Fr. Fabre, 1824 Fr. Charles L. Chiavareti Fr. Auguste Jeanjean Fr. Léon Pigeon Fr. Charles de la Croix Fr. Auguste Martin Fr. Paul E. Lecuru Fr. C. Vigneney |
this was the first Acadian settlement (February 1764) but the second Acadian church parish, after Attakapas (1765); the priest from the German Coast, Fr. Barnabé, served the Acadians at Cabanocé after they came in large numbers in 1765; records go back to 1767; some sources claim that land for the church and priest's house, located on the west bank of the river, was donated in 1771 by Jacques Cantrelle, a concessionaire at Cabanocé; others say that land for the church already had been set aside when Cantrelle came to the area; the first chapel, a mere "shed," completed in July 1768, was dedicated to Sts.-Jacques & Philippe; the first baptism in St.-Jacques parish, recorded in June 1770, was an Acadian, as was the first funeral, in June 1777; the area on both sides of the river was known as the First, or Lower, Acadian Coast; the priest from St. James also served Ascension parish during the early 1810s; the site of the first church was inundated by the river during the early antebellum period; the cornerstone for a new church was laid in February 1840, and the church was consecrated by Bishop Blanc in May 1841 (this church stood for almost a century, until the late 1930s, when it was demolished to make way for a new levee, after which the second parish cemetery lay between the new levee and the river!) |
| 1772 | Lafourche des Chitimachas, now Donaldsonville | Ascension | Fr. Angelus de Revillagodos, 1772 Fr. Joachim de Ajofrin, 1785 Fr. Pedro de Zamora, 1785 Fr. José de Arazena, 1789 Fr. Bernardo de Deva, 1793 Fr. Francisco Notario, 1795 Fr. Gregory White, 1798 Fr. John Maguire, 1799 Fr. Henry Boutin, 1803 Fr. Charles Lusson, 1808 Fr. Clemente de Garcia, 1815 Fr. Tomas Ponz, 1816 Fr. Richard, 1817 Fr. Joseph Tichitoli, 1819 Fr. Segundo Valenzano, 1819 Fr. Janvier, 1823 Fr. Hercule Brassac, 1823 Fr. Auguste de Angelis, 1826 Fr. Joseph Tichitoli, 1827 Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1833 Fr. Hercule Brassac, 1833 Fr. Pierre Ladaviere, 1837 Fr. J. Francis Abbadie, 1837 Fr. Gauthier, 1837 Fr. Boullier, 1838 Fr. T. Giustiniani Fr. Thadée Amat Fr. Chaudy Fr. Roman Fr. Pascual Fr. J. B. Escoffier Fr. J. M. Masnou Fr. Jean François Llebaria Fr. J. M. Mignard Fr. J. Alabau Fr. Calvo Fr. Anthony Andrieu Fr. Conway Fr. Hector Figari Fr. Anthony Verrina Fr. S. T. A. Félix Dicharry Fr. John Hayden Fr. A. Acquaroni Fr. Reilly Fr. Charles Boglioli |
first church parish in Louisiana administered by a Spanish Capuchin; located at the confluence of Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi River at Donaldson, present-day Donaldsonville; the first pastor died at the rectory in December 1784 after 12 years of service to the parish; Fr. Boutin drowned in Bayou Lafourche in March 1808 while on a sick call and was buried at nearby Assumption; having no resident pastor, Ascension was served by priests from Assumption and St. James throughout the 1810s, with no regular pastor until 1819, and no regular pastor again from 1822-27; from the 1830s, the Ascension priests also served a chapel at New River and St. Anne's chapel, on the east bank of the Mississippi across from Donaldsonville; after Fr. Brassac retired in 1837, Donaldsonville was without a regular pastor for a number of months, so itinerant Jesuits and the Assumption priest served the parish until a regular pastor arrived; Lazarist priests from the seminary at Plattenville served the parish from 1838-72 (the seminary burned in 1855 and was moved to New Orleans, but the Lazarists continued to serve Donaldsonville); plans for a new church at Donaldsonville were begun by Fr. Bouillier in the late 1830s, and it was built in 1843; that year, on invitation from Fr. Bouillier, Sisters of Charity from New Orleans came to Donaldsonville to open a noviate for their order, St. Vincent's Institute, as well as an orphanage; the state legislature provided funds for the noviate as well as a hospital under the Sisters of Charity at Donaldsonville, the cornerstone for which was laid by Bishop Blanc in 1848; during the first year of the War of 1861-65, Fr. Boglioli served as chaplain of the Donaldsonville Artillery in Virginia; in August 1862, Federal naval forces shelled St. Vincent's Institute, and the nuns took refuge at Convent in St. James Parish |
| 1772 | Upper German Coast, now St. John the Baptist Parish/Edgard | St.-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands | Fr. Bernardo de Limpach, 1772 Fr. Barnabé, 1776 Fr. Francisco Rosario, 1784 Fr. Mariano de Brunete, 1787 Fr. Francis Lennan, 1802 Fr. Urbain Janin, 1805 Fr. Modesta Mina, 1817 Fr. Louis Leopold Moni Fr. Auguste De Angelis Fr. Savine Fr. J. F. Brasseur Fr. J. Moulard Fr. J. M. Mignard Fr. Francis Mittelbronn Fr. M. Legendre Fr. P. M. Lacour |
first church, at present-day Edgard, was built in 1771; this was not an Acadian community, but it lay just downriver from St.-Jacques/St. James, so Acadians appear in St.-Jean church registers; the St.-Jean-Baptiste pastor also served St.-Charles parish, just down river, during the late 1780s and early 1790s, when St.-Charles had no priest; the priest from St.-Charles served St.-Jean-Baptiste when it had no priest in the early 1800s; meanwhile, the church at Edgard was rebuilt in 1795 but was swept away by the flood of 1819; a cornerstone for a new, more substantial church was laid in November 1820, and the church, Romanesque in style, was consecrated March in 1822; the parish qualified for assistants in the 1820s; Fr. Mina served as pastor for 47 years!; Fr. Legendre, one of the parish's assistant pastors, died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1853 |
| 1773 | St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish | St.-Gabriel | Fr. Angelus de Revillagodos, 1773 Fr. Aloysius, 1773 Fr. Louis Maria Grumeau, 1774 Fr. Angelus de Revillagodos, 1774 Fr. Valentin, 1779 Fr. Angelus de Revillagodos, 1782 Fr. Charles N. M. D'Hermeville, 1783 Fr. José Antonio Maceda, 1789 Fr. Bernard Limpach, 1790 Fr. Buenaventura de Castro, 1795 Fr. Félix de Quintanam, 1799 Fr. Paul de St.-Pierre, 1803 Fr. Aristide Andruze, 1830s Fr. E. Dupuy, 1838 Fr. Cyrille Delacroix, 1859 Fr. Jean Honoré Dubernard, 1866 |
first pastor was the priest from Ascension, downriver; the church (still standing, the oldest wooden church structure in the Mississippi valley) was located on the east side of the river, but San Gabriel priests served residents on the west bank as well; after 1779, the priest at San Gabriel also served the San Bernardo chapel at nearby Galveztown on the Amite River; the area around San Gabriel along the Mississippi was known as the Second, or Upper, Acadian Coast; there was no regular pastor at San Gabriel in 1801-02, so the parish was served by priests from Pointe Coupée and Ascension; the parish was incorporated by the state legislature in March 1818; the College of St. Gabriel was established at Iberville during the early 1800s; during that time, priests from St. Gabriel also served chapels on the east side of the river at Manchac and Crevasse; Fr. de St.-Pierre, from France, served the parish from 1803 until his death in 1826--nearly two dozen years |
| 1776 | Opelousas | Immaculate Conception St.-Landry |
Frs. Didier, Irénée, Valentin, 1756 Fr. Valentin, 1776 Fr. Louis Dubourg de St. Sepul., 1777 Fr. Louis-Marie Grumeau, 1779 Fr. José de Arezena Fr. Francisco de Azuqueca, 1785 Fr. Pedro de Zamora, 1789 Fr. Louis Buhot, 1801 Fr. Michel-Bernard Barrière (retired) Fr. Flavius H. Rossi, 1817 Fr. Léo Raymond de Neckere Fr. E. Rousselon, 1839 Fr. Victor Jamey, 1840 Fr. Charles F. Morachini, 1842 Fr. Desgaultiers, 1842 Fr. Raviol, 1843 Fr. Gilbert Raymond, 1855 Fr. J. François Raymond Fr. A. Beaugier |
originally a mission at the Jacques Courtableau plantation near the present city (first baptisms appear in 1756), priests from Pointe Coupée held services in Courtableau's home and continued serving the area as missionaries until a parish was established for Opelousas in 1776; the first church was at the original post; a new church, also a wooden one, was built at the site of the present city in 1798; a new brick church was consecrated in March 1828 by Bishop/Administrator Rosati; a priest who served as assistant pastor at Opelousas during Fr. Rossi's tenure, Fr. de Neckere, became Bishop of New Orleans in 1829; in the early 1840s, Fr. Jamey was not only pastor at Opelousas, but also vicar-general for that part of the diocese; the parish briefly had no pastor in 1843; in 1856, the Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross established the Academy of the Immaculate Conception at Opelousas; during the late 1850s, two brothers, Frs. Gilbert and J. François Raymond, served as priests at Opelousas; Fr. Gilbert Raymond served as dean of the section, which stretched all the way to the Sabine River; meanwhile, in 1858-59, Fr. François Raymond, his brother's assistant, traveled throughout Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, ministering to far-flung Catholic communities such as Lake Arthur and Creole, the first priest to travel in that remote area; Fr. François even visited Catholics west of the Sabine, beyond the jurisdiction of the Louisiana archdiocese; Fr. Gilbert followed up his brother's work in 1862 with a visit by horse and buggy to Lake Charles and the same remote communities of his deanery |
| 1779/1921 | Galveztown French Settlement |
San Bernardo (only a chapel) St. Vincent Ferrer St. Joseph |
Fr. Francisco Lopez, 1779 Fr. Manuel Garcia, 1787 Fr. Félix de Quintanam, 1791 Fr. Domingo Joachin Solano, 1802 Fr. Thadée Amat, 1839 |
Galveztown was a combination Spanish garrison/Anglo/Isleño community on the Amite River in present-day Ascension Parish that lost its principal purpose after the Spanish cession of West Florida in 1783; it never had a church, only a chapel attached to the post's barracks; the priests from nearby San Gabriel ministered to Galveztown from 1779, when the recently-appointed priest at Galveztown died in an epidemic there, to 1787, and also in the early 1790s and early 1800s; after the Louisiana Purchase, the post was virtually abandoned, its parish register ending in 1807; Acadians from San Gabriel and Ascension settled in the area during the late colonial and antebellum periods, creating the settlements of Port Vincent and French Settlement on the Livingston Parish side of the Amite River; a chapel at Port Vincent, on land donated by Vincent Leivicque, was blessed in 1839 and dedicated to St. Vincent Ferrer, but priests from surrounding parishes visited the chapel only occasionally; not until 1921 was an independent parish, St. Joseph's, created at nearby French Settlement |
| 1779 | Terre-aux-Boeuf, Nueva Gálvez, St. Bernard | San Bernardo | Fr. Mariano de Brunete, 1787 Fr. José de Villaproveda, 1794 Fr. Firso de Peleagonzalo, 1798 Fr. Domingo Joachin Solano, 1802 Fr. Jean-Marie Rochanson, 1805 Fr. Herman Joseph Stocker, 1807 Fr. Pierre Bussi, 1809 Fr. Louis Sibourd Fr. A. Millet Fr. Auguste De Angelis Fr. Juan J. Casado, 1826 Fr. Félix Loperanza, 1830 Fr. Jean Martin, 1834 Fr. Victor Jamey, 1835 Fr. Jean Caretta, 1836 Fr. Savelli Fr. André Cauvin, 1850s |
on orders of Governor Gálvez, a church was built at La Conception, later called Nueva Gálvez, on Bayou Terre-aux-Boeuf, below New Orleans, in 1779, but, until 1787, priests from St.-Louis church in New Orleans served the community, mostly Isleños from the Canary Islands; Acadians from France settled there in 1785-86; there was no priest at St. Bernard from 1802-05, so the parish was served by priests from New Orleans, who also served the parish when it had no priest in the 1810s and early 1820s; early church registers (baptisms from 1787-1801, and marriages from 1787-1821) are missing; the priest at St. Bernard also served the new St. Thomas parish at Pointe-à-la-Hache from the early 1830s to the mid-1840s; Fr. Caretta built a new church on the site of the old church at Terre-aux-Boeuf in 1851 |
| 1786 | Bayou des Écores or New Feliciana | none | none | in early 1786, on a triangular-shaped 62-arpent plot along lower Bayou des Écores (called Rio Feliciana by the Spanish, present-day Thompson Creek), five miles above the confluence with the Mississippi, near present-day Port Hudson, Acadians newly-arrived from France built a church, presbytery, and cemetery; however, because of a chronic shortage of priests in the colony, the pastor assigned to Bayou des Écores was sent elsewhere, so a parish was never formally established there; priests from Pointe Coupée and later Baton Rouge served the area for the rest of the Spanish period; a parish at Feliciana, called Nueva Valencia, was created in the mid-1790s at nearby Bayou Sara and St. Francis, but by then most of the Acadians had abandoned Feliciana, and Anglo Americans soon became predominant in the area; an ecclesiastical parish was not created in West Feliciana Parish until 1858 |
| 1792 | Baton Rouge | St.-Joseph | Fr. Charles Burke, 1792, 1796 Fr. John Brady, 1803 Fr. Antoine Blanc, 1820 Fr. Hercule Brassac, 1832 Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1834 Fr. J. Evrard, 1838 Fr. Brogard, early 1840s Fr. Auguste Martin, late 1840s Fr. P. Gache, 1851 Fr. Anthony Parret, 1853 Fr. P. Lavay, 1854 Fr. Darius Hubert, 1860 Fr. F. Larnaudie, 1866 Fr. Cyril Delacroix, 1868 |
a church built by residents at the site of present city in the late 1780s was served by priests from Pointe Coupée and/or San Gabriel until 1792, when a pastor was assigned to Baton Rouge; Irish priests were sent there because of the many Anglo Americans who settled in the area; unlike the rest of Louisiana, the parish remained under Spanish jurisdiction from November 1803 until the West Florida revolt of 1810; the Baton Rouge priest served Pointe Coupee in the 1810s, and Baton Rouge shared a priest with Pointe Coupee from 1820-32; Fr. Blanc, the future bishop, built a new church at Baton Rouge in 1826; a dispute arose between the pastor and the church wardens in 1844, resulting in the election of new wardens; in the 1840s, the Baton Rouge priest also served the churches at Manchac, The Plains, Jackson, and Bayou Sara; in 1848, Fr. Martin opened a school for girls at Baton Rouge run by the Sisters of Charity, called St. Mary's Select and Free School, but the school closed in 1851, when the Jesuits took over the parish; in 1851, the Jesuits built a school for boys at Baton Rouge, called Sts. Peter and Paul Academy, and invited the Sisters of the Sacred Heart to open a new school for girls, which, because of Protestant opposition, the sisters abandoned in 1855; the Jesuit boys' school closed its doors in 1856; the Jesuits built a new church at Baton Rouge in 1853, but it had no sanctuary; Baton Rouge pastor Fr. Parret died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1853; in 1858, the Sisters of St. Joseph, a French teaching order, opened a school at Baton Rouge; St. Joseph parish had no pastor during the War of 1861-65, Fr. Hubert having joined the Confederate forces as chaplain of the 1st Regiment Louisiana Infantry in 1861; during the war, the Christian Brothers' school at Baton Rouge was converted into a hospital; the Jesuits withdrew from the parish in the late 1860s; early in the 1860s, local ladies created the "Societé de Notre Dame de Bons Secours" and opened an orphanage; in 1868, at Fr. Delacroix's request, the Sisters of St. Joseph took over the Baton Rouge orphanage, which became St. Joseph Academy |
| 1793 | Plattenville | Assumption | Fr. Bernardo de Deva, 1793 Fr. Francisco Notario, 1795 Fr. Bernardo de Deva, 1808 Fr. Joseph Bigeschi, 1817 Fr. Joseph Tichitoli, 1826 Fr. Charles Louis Chiavereti, 1827 Fr. Joseph Caretta, 1827 Fr. Charles Boutelou, 1830 Fr. Pierre Ladaviere, 1831 Fr. J. T. Drapeur, 1831 Fr. Pierre Ladaviere, 1832 Fr. H. B. St. Aubin, 1832 Fr. Gauthier Fr. B. Armengol, 1838 Fr. Anthony Andrieu, 1855 Fr. A. Marecheaux, 1858 Fr. Jules Bouchet Fr. Cyprien Veyrat (d. Dec 1867) |
the first church for the Valenzuela District, at present-day Plattenville, "was little more than a shack"; the parish register was opened in April 1793, however, Assumption shared a priest with Ascension until December 1795, and the priest from Assumption served Ascension when it had no regular pastor in the early 1800s; following the example of the St.-Louis cathedral in New Orleans, the wardens of Assumption Parish church, or Marguilliers, with approval of territorial Governor Claiborne, were incorporated as the parish governing body in April 1811; a new church of brick was dedicated in December 1819 and located "two squares farther down the bayou" from the first church; a convent school under the Sisters of Loretto was founded at Assumption in early 1826, but Bishop Dubourg's attempt to create a seminary at Assumption on land donated by Fr. de Deva came to naught; the convent school was taken over by the newly-arrived Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1828 and closed in 1832; in November 1838, the first seminary in Louisiana, built "about two squares" above the site of the original church at Plattenville, was established by Bishop Blanc under the Lazarist Fathers (Congregation of the Mission) and named after St. Vincent de Paul, but it was popularly called the Seminary of the Assumption (the seminary burned in February 1855, and Archbishop Blanc reopened it at Stephen's Church in Faubourg Bouligny above New Orleans, in 1858); Lazarist Fathers served Assumption church parish from the founding of the seminary until 1858; in 1856, the year after the seminary burned, Lazarist Fr. Andrieu built a new church, also of brick, at Plattenville, "just a little to the front of the site of the first church of 1793" |
| 1796 | Nueva Feliciana, now St. Francisville/Bayou Sara | St. Mary of Mount Carmel | Fr. Michael O'Reilly, 1796 Fr. Francis Lennan, 1800 Fr. Patrick Lonergan, 1804 Fr. Francis Lennan, 1804 Fr. Antoine Blanc, 1820 Fr. P. J. Doutreluingue, 1841 Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1842 Fr. Victor Jamey, 1847 Fr. F. Rogalle, 1849 Fr. C. Chambost, 1849 Fr. A. Doyle, 1851 Fr. R. O'Reilly, 1852 Fr. H. Thirion, 1854 Fr. Francis Mittelbronn, 1857 Fr. Joseph Praskensky, 1857 Fr. John Hayden, 1857 Fr. P. G. McMahon, 1858 |
this was the second "parish" in the area (after the one at Bayou des Écores, today's Thompson's Creek, built by Acadians from France in 1786), but it was the first established parish; by the mid-1790s, after a series of hurricanes and floods devastated the area, the great majority of the Acadians at Bayou des Écores had moved elsewhere; Irish priests were sent to New Feliciana because of the many Anglophones who settled there; unlike the rest of Louisiana, the parish remained under Spanish jurisdiction from November 1803 until the West Florida revolt of 1810, which prompted Fr. Lennan to flee the parish; the priests from Pointe Coupee, as well as visiting Lazarist and Jesuit priests, served the parish from the 1820s into the late 1850s; in the 1840s, Mass was conducted at the Market House in Bayou Sara; the first baptisms in the Bayou Sara "register" date from 1840-42; not until 1858 was Feliciana given a resident pastor, at Jackson; during the War of 1861-65, Federal forces burned Bayou Sara, including the Market House "church"; the first actual church in the area, St. Mary of Mount Carmel, was built at St. Francisville in 1871 |
| 1808/1822 | Convent | St. Michael | Fr. Gabriel Chambon Latour, 1812 Fr. Anselin, 1821 Fr. J. E. Martin, 1822 Fr. Charles de la Croix, 1823 Fr. Boue, 1834 Fr. Pierre Ladaviere, 1840 Fr. J. Francis Abbadie, 1849 Fr. Claude Anthony Tholomier, 1854 Fr. E. Vignonet, 1857 Fr. Bellanger, 1863 Fr. Gautherin Fr. Onézime Renaudier, 1869 |
created as a mission to serve the east bank of St. James Parish; the first register (for burials) starts in 1808; the first church, measuring 50 x 30 feet, was blessed by the Ascension priest in October 1809; St. Michael's became an independent parish in 1822; after St. Michael's became a parish, Bishop Dubourg created the Convent of the Sacred Heart, or Sacred Heart Academy, under the Religious of the Sacred Heart, at Convent; the new convent school building, made of brick, 100 feet long, with green shutters, was completed near the church in 1825 and served its purpose until the late 1840s; a new church was blessed by Bishop de Neckere in March 1833; in 1840, Bishop Blanc assigned Jesuit priests to the parish; a new Sacred Heart Academy building at Convent was blessed in 1848; in 1849, Fr. Abbadie built chapels at Paulina, dedicated to St. Joseph, and at Union, dedicated to St. Mary, both served by the Convent priest; various Jesuit missionaries presided over the parish from 1852-54, and then secular priests from 1854-63, when the Marist Fathers took over the parish and also served as chaplains for Sacred Heart Academy; in May 1864, Archbishop Odin authorized the Marist Fathers to resurrect Jefferson College at Convent, which had opened in 1831 as a secular institution, closed briefly in 1855, reopened in 1861, and closed again during the War of 1861-65; the Marists reopened the school in May 1864 and renamed it Jefferson St. Mary's College; for 60 years it served as a noted Catholic institution of higher learning in the state; early in the war, Sacred Heart Academy closed for lack of food for the resident children and, in the summer of 1862, served briefly as a refuge for Sisters of Charity from Donaldsonville whose school had been bombarded by Federal naval forces; in 1867, Religious of the Sacred Heart opened St. Joseph's school for former slaves--the first post-war Catholic school for blacks in the state |
| 1817 | Thibodauxville, now Thibodaux | St. Joseph | Fr. Joseph Bigeschi, 1817 Fr. Antoine Pontini, 1822 Fr. Jean Audizio, 1827 Fr. H. B. St. Aubin, 1841 Fr. Charles Menard Fr. Vincent Jeannault, 1845 Fr. J. M. Mignard, 1845 Fr. Charles Menard, 1845 |
at first a mission of the Assumption church; in 1816, Jean Baptiste Hébert donated 3 acres by 4 acres of land for a church at Thibodauxville; a parish was incorporated in 1817; the first church, 30 x 60, was finished in 1819; the first registers date from 1820, but baptisms were recorded in 1818-19; the first pastor began serving in 1822; priests from Thibodauxville served a huge parish that included parts of Assumption and all of Lafourche Interior and Terrebonne civil parishes all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atchafalaya Basin to near the west bank of the Mississippi, including the communities at Labadieville, Chackbay, Lockport, Raceland, Houma, Montegut, Grand Caillou, Cheniere Camanda, Chacahoula, Berwick, and Barataria in lower Jefferson Parish, which was an Isleños community; Thibodauxville had no priest in 1826-27; Fr. Menard served the parish for 54 years--4 years as assistant and 50 years as pastor!; Fr. Menard built a new brick church at Thibodaux in 1849; in 1855, at the request of Fr. Menard, Sisters of Mt. Carmel from Vermilionville, led by Mother St. Paul Aucoin, opened Mt. Carmel Academy, a school for girls, at Thibodaux; in June 1860, during his final visit to the parishes, Archbishop Blanc confirmed 174 Catholics at Thibodaux; during the War of 1861-65, "in a large brick building which the G. B. Thibodaux family offered ... for the purpose," Fr. Menard established a hospital for local Confederates, and the Sisters of Mt. Carmel served as nurses; Fr. Menard's brick church was destroyed by fire in 1916, and a new church was dedicated in 1923; today, St. Joseph is the co-cathedral of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, created from the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1977 |
| 1819 | Grand Coteau | St. Charles | Fr. Hercule Brassac, 1819 Fr. Segundo Valenzano, 1822 Fr. Francis Cellini, 1822 Fr. Léo Raymond de Neckere, 1824 Fr. Jean Audizio, 1826 Fr. John Rosti, 1828 Fr. J. Francis Abbadie, 1837 Fr. Théodore Detheux, 1840s Fr. Anthony Parret, 1850s Fr. J. Esseiva Fr. P. Rocoford Fr. Joseph Roduits Fr. C. J. Anthonioz Fr. C. A. Vialleton Fr. A. de Chaignon |
this was the first parish established by Bishop Dubourg in Louisiana and, for a short time in 1821, included "All the territory west of the Vermilion River" down to the Gulf of Mexico that was once part of the St. Martin de Tours parish; in 1821, with a donation of a house and land from Mrs. Charles Smith, Bishop Dubourg established a convent and school at Grand Coteau under Religious of the Sacred Heart; the school was called the Academy of the Sacred Heart and was for girls only; Mrs. Smith also donated land for a parish church, located some distance from the convent and school; in 1837, under Bishop Blanc, and after rejecting locations at St. Gabriel, Houma, Mandeville, and Donaldsonville, French Jesuits, having returned to Louisiana in 1835, founded St. Charles Academy--the first permanent Catholic school for boys in Louisiana--the cornerstone for which was laid in July, and the first students arrived in January 1838; after the founding of St. Charles Academy, the Jesuits also administered Sacred Heart church and St. Charles parish, which included not only southwestern St. Landry Parish, but also present-day Acadia and Evangeline parishes, and part of Calcasieu Parish; during the War of 1861-65, after the fall of New Orleans in the spring of 1862, refugees from the city swelled the number of students at the Sacred Heart Academy; the academies continued their operations even during Federal invasions up the Teche-Vermilion valley in the spring and fall of 1863 and the spring of 1864; after the war, in 1867-68, a prolonged drought and failure of the cotton crop in the area drastically reduced attendance at the Grand Coteau academies; soon after the war, work began at Grand Coteau on a school for freed slaves, resulting in Sacred Heart School for the Colored, opened in May 1875 |
| 1821 | Vermilionville, now Lafayette | St. John the Evangelist | Fr. Michel Bernard Barrière, 1822 Fr. Lawrence Peyretti, 1824 Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1840 Fr. Joseph Billon, 1841 Fr. A. D. Megret, 1842 Fr. S. J. Foltier, 1856 Fr. S. E. Forge |
like the new Grand Coteau parish, it, too, was created from the St. Martin de Tours parish by Bishop Dubourg; from 1819-21, the area was briefly under the priest at Grand Coteau; the first church, built on 5.54 arpents of land donated by Jean Mouton, was blessed in December 1821; in 1822, the bishop gave the new parish the southern part of the old Attakapas District down to the Gulf of Mexico; Fr. Barrière, well known in the region, came out of retirement to serve as first pastor, but he served only briefly, returning to his native France, where he soon died, and priests from Grand Coteau and St. Martinville served the new parish until Fr. Barrière's replacement arrived; numerous disputes arose between the pastors and the parish wardens from the late 1820s into the early 1840s, resulting in a public assault on the pastor, Abbé Megret, in1843; after the assault, Abbé Megret no longer performed mass at St. John's church; by late 1844, the state supreme court decision of June 1844 and the efforts of Abbé Megret had nullified the influence and control of the wardens; in 1846, newly-elected wardens transferred parish property to control of the pastor, ending further disputes between them; Abbé Megret having invited the Sisters of Mt. Carmel, under Mother St. Paul Aucoin, to leave New Orleans and open a school for girls at Vermilionville, Mt. Carmel Academy opened in September 1846; St. John became the cathedral church for the new Diocese of Lafayette in 1918 |
| 1823 | Fausse Rivière/False River/New Roads | St. Mary | Fr. Antoine Blanc, 1823 Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1842 Fr. Victor Jamey, 1847 Fr. F. Rogalle, 1849 Fr. H. Thirion, 1854 Fr. Francis Mittelbronn, 1857 Fr. Philibert Gutton, 1866 |
a second church for Pointe Coupee Parish, it was completed on land donated by Mme. Olinde at New Roads on False River in 1823; the priests from nearby Pointe Coupee served the parish from the 1820s into the 1860s; in 1866, the parish received its first resident pastor; after the War of 1861-65, St. Mary at New Roads became the principal church in the area, and old St. Francis church at Pointe Coupee became its mission; in 1904, the Sisters of St. Joseph, a French teaching order, opened a school at New Roads |
| mid-1820s | New Orleans | mortuary chapel St. Anthony of Padua |
Fr. Loperana Fr. James Lesne, 1845 Fr. Isidore François Turgis, 1866 |
in the mid-1820s, after the St. Louis parish Marguilliers secured a city ordinance banning burials inside the cathedral, a mortuary chapel, dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, was built near the parish cemetery, St. Louis No. 1, for special burials; after the marguilliers lost a court case over the issue, and especially after the epidemics of 1848 and 1853, the mortuary chapel became less important to the city; after Fr. Lesne left in 1854, priests from the cathedral oversaw services at St. Anthony chapel; Fr. Turgis, who became minister of the chapel following the War of 1861-65, in which he served as the beloved chaplain of the 30th Regiment Louisiana Infantry, died in the church's rectory in March 1868 |
| 1826 | The Plains, now Zachary | St. John the Evangelist | Fr. Antoine Blanc, 1826 Fr. Brogard, 1840s |
the first church was built at The Plains, now Zachary, in East Baton Rouge Parish, on 30 acres of land; the first pastor also served Pointe Coupee, Baton Rouge, St. Francisville, and New Roads; in the 1840s, the priest at Baton Rouge served the church at The Plains |
| 1831 | Union | a chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, was built at Union in 1831; before this, Catholic services were held at the home of James Conway, later St. Mary Plantation; a new chapel was built in 1875; the chapels were served by priests from Convent | ||
| 1833 | New Orleans | St. Patrick | Fr. Adam Kindelon, 1833 Fr. James Ignatius Mullon, 1835 Fr. Cyrille Delacroix Fr. Henry Riordan, 1866 Fr. J. D. Flanagan |
the second church parish established in the city, primarily for English-speaking Catholics, especially Irish; the church was located on Camp Street; originally a frame church, after much difficulty with the soft ground, architect James Gallier, in 1837, built a new church around the old wooden structure; meanwhile, in 1835, Fr. Kindelon founded St. Mary's Orphanage for boys on Bayou St. John, but a hurricane later that year destroyed the orphanage and contributed to Fr. Kindelon's death; French artist Pierre de la Pommerade painted three large murals for the St. Patrick church in 1841; in the early 1840s, a dispute arose between the wardens and the bishop over parish indebtedness; the parish qualified for an assistant pastor in 1847; a great bell cast in Cincinnati was installed in the church belfry, then the highest point in the city, in 1849, and served as a fire bell for the city for many years; during repairs to St. Louis Cathedral in 1849-50, St. Patrick church served as the "pro-cathedral" for the Diocese of New Orleans; it was at St. Patrick's that Bishop Blanc was elevated to Archbishop of New Orleans in 1850; in that same year, Fr. Mullon opened a free boy's school, the first of its kind in the city, administered by the Christian Brothers; the much beloved Fr. Mullon, pastor for 30 years, died in 1866, age 74, and was buried in the church sanctuary |
| 1834 | Pointe-à-la-Hache | St. Thomas | Fr. Jean Martin, 1834 Fr. Jean Caretta, 1836 Fr. Baron d'Aurange, 1843 Fr. Savelli, 1845 Fr. J. B. Langlois, 1857 |
the first church parish established in Plaquemines Parish, it was only a mission in 1834; the first resident priest arrived in 1836, but he also served St. Bernard parish upriver; the first permanent church was not built until the late 1840s; in 1857, during the Know-Nothing madness, parishioners fatally stabbed Fr. Savelli on the river road, dragged his body to the church, mutilated it, threw his organs into the river, threw his body into a tub, and drank his blood with whisky that they poured into the tub! |
| 1835 | New Orleans | St. Mary's Orphanage Catholic Male Orphan Asylum |
Fr. Adam Kinelon, 1835 Fr. F. Cointret, 1851 Fr. F. Gouesse, 1854 |
in 1835, Fr. Adam Kinelon, pastor of St. Patrick parish, opened an orphanage for boys on Bayou St. John, called St. Mary's Orphanage; later that year, a hurricane destroyed the orphanage and contributed to the death of Fr. Kinelon; in 1847, Bishop Blanc invited the newly-arrived Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross, from France, to administer the orphanage, which had been moved from the flood-prone bayou to the river front; the sisters took charge of the orphanage in 1848; in May 1850, Brothers of the Holy Cross of St. Joseph, from South Bend, Indiana, began teaching at the school; in c1860, the Brothers opened a model farm for older boys; in 1873, the Brothers opened what became Holy Cross College |
| 1835 | Brusly | St. John the Baptist | Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1835 Fr. J. Evrard, 1839 Fr. Paul Jordan, 1841 Fr. P. Lucas, 1846 Fr. Berthaud, 1859 Fr. Charles Clerouin, 1859 Fr. T. A. Vaudray, 1870s Fr. Emmanuel Lossouran, 1875 Fr. J. Juhel, 1878 Fr. Emmauel Lossouron, 1880 Fr. Antoine Borias, 1883 Fr. F. Laroche, 1888 |
originally a mission of Baton Rouge, this was the first church parish established in West Baton Rouge Parish; in 1837, Baptiste Hébert gave land for a parish cemetery; in 1838, the church wardens, believing that the church's property was too small, sold the original land, purchased a new property of 16 acres from Ambroise Blanchard, and erected a new brick church and rectory without permission from the pastor or the bishop (this church burned in 1907 and was replaced by a frame structure); in 1875, Fr. Vaudray, pastor at Brusly, ran off with a young woman of the community and married her before an Episcopal priest at New Orleans!; vicar-general Fr. Gilbert Raymond (Archbishop Perche being in Europe at the time) replaced him with another priest; the parish trustees refused to accept the new pastor, so the vicar-general followed through on his threat to excommunicate them; the spurned priest, Fr. Lossouron, was soon given a new parish upriver at Lobdell; meanwhile, the vicar-general and the archbishop denied the church at Brusly a priest or holy services until the wardens relented (it was a daughter of the president of the board of wardens who had run off with Fr. Vaudray); however, from his new parish at Lobdell, Fr. Lossouron made sick calls in the Brusly area and served Sunday Mass in the open air until the schism ended in 1878; Fr. Lossouron returned as pastor in 1880 and died and was buried at Brusly in 1883; in 1891, the Sisters of St. Joseph, a French teaching order, opened a school at Brusly |
| 1836 | New Orleans | St. Patrick's Asylum New Orleans Female Orphan Asylum St. Elizabeth's House of Industry St. Vincent's Infant Asylum |
the Sisters of Charity, who came to New Orleans in 1830, the second order of nuns, after the Ursulines, to work in the city, served at first at the Poydras Asylum; in 1836, they founded their own institution, St. Patrick's Asylum, at "the Withers," an old plantation house on New Levee Street; by 1839, the sisters moved to larger quarters at Clio and Prytania streets, offered to them by the Foucher and Saulet families; in 1840, Bishop Blanc erected for the Sisters of Charity the New Orleans Female Orphan Asylum on Magazine Street; in 1854, also on Magazine Street, Sister Francis Regis, mother superior of the Female Orphan Asylum, opened St. Elizabeth's House of Industry for orphan girls ages 14 and older, which remained part of the Female Orphan Asylum until 1872; in 1858, Sister Francis Regis opened St. Vincent's Infant Asylum on Magazine Street for female orphans below age 7 | |
| 1836/1841 | Charenton | Immaculate Conception St. Mary Immaculate Church of the Conception St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception St. Mary's of the Attakapas |
Fr. D. Brasseur, 1836 Fr. Charles H. B. St.-Aubin, 1840 Fr. Joseph Billon, 1841 Fr. C. Lucas, 1846 Fr. J. E. Blin, 1848 Fr. N. Français, 1852 Fr. P. Guerard Fr. James Blake Fr. P. G. McMahon Fr. Desgaultiere Fr. F. Christophe Cuny, 1861 Fr. F. P. Ponchon, 1872 |
originally a mission, the area of lower Bayou Teche that became St. Mary Parish was served by priests from the New Orleans cathedral and St. Martinville; St. Mary's at Charenton was the first church in the eponymous civil parish; after 1838, priests from New Iberia also served St. Mary's mission; Charenton became an independent parish in 1841; as soon as the parish was founded, its priests served Franklin and Pattersonville, lower down the Teche, as well as the wide swatch of swamp, prairie, and marshland east and west of the lower bayou; the Sisters of St. Joseph, a French teaching order, opened a school at Charenton in 1884 |
| 1836/1844 | New Orleans | Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary | Fr. J. M. Morisot, 1844 Fr. Antoine Durier, 1860 |
originally a chapel dedicated to the Annunciation on Morales Street in Faubourg Marigny, below the "French Quarter," it became the site of a widow's asylum that was opened in the early 1840s, so the chapel also became known as the Women's Asylum Chapel; in 1844, the chapel became known as the Annunciation church, was designated a parish, and given a pastor; a church to replace the chapel was completed in 1846 |
| 1838 | New Orleans | St. Vincent de Paul | Fr. Edmond D'Hauw, 1840 Fr. Font, 1840 Fr. John A. Francon, 1845 Fr. Bonafay, 1850 Fr. Scheffer, 1851 Fr. Masson, 1861 |
the third church parish established in the city, on Dauphine Street in Faubourg Marigny, below the "French Quarter," the first parish in that part of New Orleans; a church was dedicated by the bishop in August 1838, but financial problems forced the construction of a chapel instead, which was served by priests from St. Louis Cathedral until 1840; following Bishop Blanc's legal victory over the cathedral marguilliers in 1844, the parish wardens turned over church property to the bishop; during the 1850s, St. Vincent parish was served by the pastor of nearby Holy Trinity church and for seven years, until 1861, had no pastor of its own |
| 1838 | New Iberia | St. Peter | Fr. Charles H. B. St.-Aubin, 1838 Fr. Giustiniani, 1839 Fr. Peter Francis Beauprez, 1840 Fr. J. Prioux, 1840 Fr. P. Lucas, 1845 Fr. J. Prioux, 1846 Fr. H. Thirion, 1850 Fr. J. E. Blin, 1851 Fr. A. Theves, 1852 Fr. J. Outendrick, 1854 |
from the founding of Nuéva Iberia by Spanish Governor Galvez in 1779, the settlement was served by priests from Opelousas and Attakapas Post/St. Martinville; the original church at New Iberia was a frame chapel on Main Street; a new brick church, begun in 1836 and finished in 1838, was erected on land a short distance from Bayou Teche and donated by the Duperier family; seeing the church completed, Bishop Blanc created an independent parish for New Iberia in 1838; in the early 1840s, Fr. Prioux quarreled bitterly with some of the male parishioners, who threatened him with physical harm |
| 1838/1841 | New Orleans | St. Augustine | Fr. Étienne Rousselon, 1841 Fr. Victor Jamey, 1843 Fr. Étienne Rousselon, 1844 Fr. M. A. Guillaume Duquesnay, 1845 Fr. J. E. Blin Fr. Cenas, 1855 Fr. J. B. Jobert, 1856 Fr. Joseph Subileau |
the fourth church parish established in the city, it was at first only a chapel called St. Claude's on land along Claude Street donated by the Ursuline nuns in1838; the chapel stood next to a school for Negro children previously run by the Ursulines and then by the Sisters of Mount Carmel; a church dedicated to St. Augustine, at the corner of Bayou Road, later Governor Nicholls Street, and St. Claude Street, was begun in 1841 on land purchased from Pierre Soulé near the chapel and was completed in 1842; the congregation included free Negroes; assistant pastor Fr. Blin died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1853; in July 1869, the Sisters of Mount Carmel took over a Confederate children's orphanage that two lay women had opened in the parish; known as Mount Carmel Orphanage, it operated until 1919 |
| 1839 | Paincourtville | St. Elizabeth | Fr. A. Andrieu, 1844 Fr. J. C. François Fr. A. Aquaroni Fr. B. Raho Fr. A. Verrina Fr. J. M. Bertaille, 1857 Fr. Marie Ange Le Saischerre, 1870s |
on land donated by Miss Élisabeth Dugas at Paincourtville, on the west bank of upper Bayou Lafourche, a new parish was carved from the Plattenville church in 1839; the state legislature incorporated the new parish, named for its donor's patroness, in March 1840; Bishop Blanc awarded the new church to the Vincentian/Lazarist Fathers of the Assumption Seminary at Plattenville; the parish received its first resident pastor, a Lazarist, in 1844; the original church was destroyed by fire in 1854 and promptly rebuilt; another fire, in 1855, this one at the seminary, led to the seminary's relocation to New Orleans and the withdrawal of the Lazarists from Paincourtville in 1857, after which secular priests served the congregation |
| 1840/1850 | Raceland | St. Mary Pamela Nativity of the Virgin Mary |
Fr. Charles Menard, late 1840s Fr. Amédée Beccard, 1850 Fr. C. Urcun, 1860 Fr. J. B. Heran, 1864 Fr. E. Vigroux, 1870 |
the property on which the church was built served as a cemetery since the early 1820s; the "Congregation de l'Èglise Catholique Romaine de Sainte Marie Pamela" was organized in 1840 to look after the cemetery and was served by the priest from Thibodaux; the Raceland congregation numbered 127 in June 1841; congregation trustees proposed the building of a chapel in 1845; St. Mary Pamela parish was not created until August 1850, when a wooden church, under the name Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was dedicated by Bishop Blanc; during the early 1860s, the priest from Raceland also served the communities of Chacahoula, Bayou Boeuf, Tigerville, and Brashear, now Morgan, City, which were returned to the Thibodaux priest after the War of 1861-65 |
| 1840/1851 | Church Point | Our Lady of the Sacred Heart | originally a mission of Grand Coteau, church records for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish date from 1851 | |
| 1840/1857 | Waggaman Plantation, Jefferson Parish | private chapel Guardian Angels |
Fr. F. Zeller, late 1840s Fr. J. Lesnes, 1857 Fr. Léon F. Denis, 1867 Fr. Joseph Jaxel, 1870s |
begun as a private chapel at the plantation of Mrs. Waggamon in Jefferson Parish, above New Orleans, in 1840, it attracted priests from the city, who said mass there; in the late 1840s or early 1850s, Fr. Zeller, pastor at nearby Carrollton, used the chapel for services in that part of Jefferson Parish, but soon the chapel proved to be too small; Fr. Zeller urged Mrs. Waggamon to donate land for a new church, which she did--a 144 x 777 parcel fronting the river; subscriptions were solicited starting in July 1853, and by February 1854 Archbishop Blanc was able to bless a new church on the site; solicitations for a new bell and for a presbytery took longer to complete; in the late 1850s, Archbishop Blanc authorized the creation of Guardian Angels Parish at Waggaman's; the first regular pastor arrived in 1857; Jesuits from the city served the parish during the War of 1861-65; a Marist priest from Algiers resumed the pastorate in 1867; the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration/Sister of the Most Holy Sacrament started a school there in the 1870s; the vagaries of the river required the movement of the church several times |
| 1842/1855 | Brulée Labadie, now Labadieville | St. Philomena | Fr. Charles Menard, 1842 Fr. Cyprien Venissat, 1855 |
originally a mission of Thibodaux, the first Mass at Brulée Labadie, just across the line in Assumption Parish, was held at the home of Widow Zacharie Boudreaux in the spring of 1842; a small church dedicated to St. Philomena was built at Labadieville in 1847, and a larger church was completed in 1853, but Archbishop Blanc did not create a parish there until 1855, when Fr. Venissat, recently arrived from France, came to St. Philomena; he built the first brick church in 1860; in 1871, with encouragement from Archbishop Perche, Fr. Venissat created the Institute of the Immaculate Conception at Labadieville, which provided native-born nuns for the new parish boarding school and, eventually, five other schools in South Louisiana; the noviate was transferred to New Orleans in 1908 |
| 1843 | Covington | St. Peter | Fr. Jouanneau, 1843 Fr. V. Plunkett Fr. Brunet, 1848 Fr. M. Alyward, 1852 Fr. Fahy, 1853 Fr. Patrick Canavan, 1854 Fr. G. M. Giraud, 1863 |
in 1843, Abbé Jouanneau began construction of a church on the west side of Bogue Falaya River at Covington--the future St. Peter's--which also served Madisonville and Mandeville, in St. Tammany Parish, north of Lake Pontchartrain; only a single Acadian family, the Gousmans from St. Bernard, settled in St. Tammany, on Bayou Bonfouca near present-day Slidell; in 1890, the Benedictine Sisters, a German order, founded St. Scholastica's Convent at Covington, which became the mother convent of the order in 1902, the year a new academy was attached to the convent; the Benedictine Sisters also administered a parish school for St. Peter's |
| 1844 | New Orleans | St. Joseph | Fr. Edmond D'Hauw, 1844 Fr. J. A. Poyet, 1852 Fr. John Hayden, 1858 Fr. Thomas Smith, 1868 Fr. J. Boglioli |
Bishop Blanc established a parish to serve the city above Canal Street; Fr. D'Hauw built the first church and rectory on Tulane Street; Archbishop Blanc gave the parish to the Lazarist Fathers in 1858; in 1859, Fr. Hayden built a school for boys, taught by the Christian Brothers, and a school for girls under the Sisters of Charity; in 1866, Fr. Hayden purchased a square of ground bounded by Tulane Avenue and Gravier, Derbigny, and Roman streets, on which the construction of a magnificent new church was begun in January 1868, at the time "the largest in the South"; the huge church was roofed in 1877, but a faulty foundation delayed work on the interior until 1883 |
| 1844 | Lafayette/New Orleans | St. Mary's Assumption | Fr. Kundeck, 1844 Fr. Masquelet, 1845 Fr. Czackert, 1847 Fr. Petesch, 1848 Fr. Krutil Fr. Masson Fr. Steinbacher Fr. McGrane |
originally a mission at Josephine and Chippewa streets in the City of Lafayette, above the "French Quarter," the congregation met under the tutelage of a Redemptorist priest, Fr. Czackert, at Kaiser's Hall, a converted dancehall, in the early 1840s; in 1843, Bishop Blanc ordered the building of a proper church at the site, which was completed in 1844 under a secular priest, Fr. Kundeck, the parish's first pastor; most of the congregation were Germans, but there were French and Irish parishioners as well, many of whom demanded their own parish; the Redemptorists took over the pastorate in 1847, and Fr. Czackert's assistants helped with the French and Irish elements in the parish; the parish's founder, Fr. Czarkert, the first Redemptorist to come to New Orleans, died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1848 and, with special permission of the city council, was buried in the sanctuary of St. Mary's Assumption church; in August 1848, a parochial school opened in the parish--perhaps the first of its kind in the city; conflicts between the pastors and the church wardens, as well as the polyglot congregation, plagued the parish in its early years; Irish members of the congregation got their own church, St. Alphonsus, in 1850; in 1853, St. Mary's School for Germans, first a girls' and then a boys' school, opened in the parish; in late December1854, after the great yellow fever epidemic of 1853, the parish opened an orphanage, St. Joseph's German Orphan Asylum, in a large, three-story brick structure erected at the corner of Josephine and Laurel streets; in December 1856, a convent house for the Sisters of Notre Dame, headquartered in Milwaukee, opened in St. Mary's Assumption parish at Josephine and Constance streets; the Notre Dame Sisters administered St. Joseph's Orphanage and St. Mary's School; in 1869, the newly-arrived Brothers of Mary, or Marist Brothers, took over St. Mary's German School for Boys until it was given to the Sisters of Notre Dame |
| 1845 | Abbeville | St. Mary Magdelene | Fr. A. D. Megret, 1845 Fr. S. J. Foltier, 1854 Fr. J. A. Poyet, 1856 Fr. Théodore Lamy, 1866 Fr. Alexander Mehault, 1870 |
during a dispute with the church wardens in Vermilionville, where he was pastor, Abbé Megret purchased land on the lower Vermilion River from Joseph LeBlanc in 1843, held services in LeBlanc's old house, and sold lots around the impromptu chapel--the beginning of the town of Abbeville, named after the abbé; Bishop Blanc authorized a new parish dedicated to St. Mary Magdelene in 1844; Abbeville became the seat of Vermilion Parish in 1852; after Abbé Megret resigned the pastorate at Vermilionville, he resided at Abbeville, where he died in a yellow fever epidemic in December 1853; the first Abbeville church was destroyed by a storm in 1856 and was promptly rebuilt; during the 1860s, the parish extended westward all the way to the Sabine River, and the Abbeville priest served the mission at Charleston, now Lake Charles, in Calcasieu Parish |
| 1845/1876 | Gibson | St. Patrick St. Anthony |
originally a mission of Thibodaux, Houma, Chacahoula, and Brashear, now Morgan, City, services in the area began in the mid-1840s, but a chapel was not built at Gibson on Bayou Black, Terrebonne Parish, until 1876 | |
| 1847 | New Orleans | Holy Trinity | Fr. Scheffer, 1847 Fr. Peter Leonard Thevis, 1870s |
in 1847, Bishop Blanc approved the creation of a parish for German Catholics of Faubourg Marigny, below the "French Quarter"; the parish church was consecrated in 1848 but destroyed by fire in 1851; meanwhile, Fr. Scheffer was pastor of both Holy Trinity and nearby St. Vincent de Paul parishes; the new Holy Trinity church was dedicated in 1853; in 1869, a new parish, St. Boniface, was created for the Germans who lived "below Canal Street" and in the rear of Holy Trinity; in 1870, Fr. Thevis invited Benedictine Sisters from Kentucky to open a parish school; the sisters later opened their own noviate |
| 1847 | Algiers | St. Bartholomew | Fr. Ogee, 1847 Fr. Masquelet Fr. J. Outendric Fr. Henriot Fr. P. Guerard Fr. Théodore Lamy Fr. Jeon F. Denis, 1865 |
the first parish established on the west bank of the river across from New Orleans, the original church at Algiers, a small frame one, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, was built on Morgan Street, across from the courthouse, in 1847; in 1857, Sisters of Mt. Carmel opened a school for girls at Algiers for St. Bartholomew and Holy Name of Mary parishes; in 1865, St. Bartholomew parish was given to the Marist Fathers, who, at the behest of Archbishop Odin, had recently come to Louisiana |
| 1847 | Houma | St. Francis de Sales | Fr. Z. Leveque, 1847 Fr. E. Barthe, 1848 Fr. J. or F. Rogalle, 1853 Fr. F. Tasset, 1854 |
served originally by the priest from Thibodaux, in the late 1850s, Fr. Menard of Thibodaux urged Bishop Blanc to create a parish at Houma; Fr. Leveque organized the congregation, dedicated to St. Francis de Sales, in June 1847; the parish boundaries originally ran west to the lower Atchafalaya, south to the Gulf, east along the lower Lafourche, and north up the Lafourche to the Thibodaux cemetery; before a church and presbytery were built, Fr. Leveque said mass at the Terrebonne Parish courthouse in Houma and at various residences and lived in a small house in Houma, which was then only a small village; the church was not completed until the late 1840s, under Fr. Barthe; today, St. Francis is the co-cathedral of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, created from the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1977 |
| 1847 | Breaux Bridge | St. Bernard | Fr. F. Legrand, 1847 Fr. A. Dillegret, 1851 Fr. Jean Honoré Dubernard, 1857 |
in 1847, Bishop Blanc approved the creation of a new parish at Pont Breaux on Bayou Teche above St. Martinville; the first recorded baptism was in September of that year, the first burial in March 1848, and the first marriage the following April |
| 1847 | New Orleans | St. Louis School for the Colored | in 1837, the will of Widow Bernard Couvent, a wealthy black woman, donated her lot and buildings in the city for the construction of a school for black orphans; the Catholic Society for the Instruction of Indigent Orphans, created in 1847, administered the school, which became one of the oldest parochial schools in the city; the hurricane of 1915 destroyed the school, but funds were raised to rebuild it; the new school, dedicated in September 1917, was served by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament | |
| 1847/1849 | New Orleans | College and Church of the Immaculate Conception | Fr. Aloysius Curioz | Bishop Blanc urged the Jesuits to found a school for boys in the city; the Catholic Literary and Educational Society was incorporated in 1847; the yellow fever epidemic of 1848, which killed several Jesuits, delayed the founding of the College of the Immaculate Conception at Baronne and Common streets, which opened in 1849; a chapel served the school but soon became inadequate; erection of a new church in the "Moresque" style was begun in 1851 and finished in 1857 and was named after the college; the College of the Immaculate Conception was the first successful Catholic boys' school in the city; the college had a church of its own, also dedicated to the Immaculate Conception |
| 1848 | Carrollton | St. Mary of the Nativity Mater Dolorosa |
Fr. F. Zeller, 1848 | on the east bank of the river above New Orleans, the growing population at Carrollton was served by German priests from St. Louis Cathedral and St. Charles Borromeo on the German Coast at Destrahan; on orders from Bishop Blanc, the first pastor at Carrollton purchased land and built a church and rectory in 1848; for a time, the first pastor preached in German, the language spoken by the majority of the area's population, but the area also was populated by French, Irish, and Anglo Americans; a mission was begun at Kennerville, now Kenner, in 1868; in 1874, Benedictine Sisters, a German order, opened a parish school |
| 1848 | New Orleans | Sts. Peter and Paul | Fr. Cornelius Moynihan, 1848 Fr. J. D. Flannagan, 1870s |
created for the Irish community of Faubourg Marigny, below the "French Quarter," the parish church originally was a small frame structure; Fr. Moynihan built an imposing brick church in 1860, its spire becoming a landmark of downtown New Orleans; Fr. Moynihan invited the Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross to open a school in the parish in 1869 |
| 1848/1850 | New Orleans | St. Theresa | Fr. J. D. Flanagan, 1849 Fr. J. P. Bellier, 1850 |
one of the first churches in uptown New Orleans, the site of this parish was located on property donated by the Saulet and Foucher families for a children's asylum, which was opened by the Sisters of Charity in 1840; the parish church was not built until 1848 and was completed in 1849; the first resident pastor arrived in 1850 |
| 1848/1867 | Pattersonville, now Patterson | St. Joseph | Fr. J. E. Blin, 1848 Fr. P. Guerard, 1852 Fr. James Blake, 1854 Fr. P. G. McMahon, 1859 Fr. Desgaultiere, 1862 Fr. F. Christophe Cuny, 1865 Fr. Richard Kane, 1867 Fr. Mathurin Harnais, 1869 Fr. Mathurin Chapin, 1871 Fr. J. A. Smith, 1878 Fr. Yves Rivoallan, 1883 |
as early as 1848, when church records begin, the community was served by priests from Charenton and Franklin; in 1867, Patterson became a mission of Franklin, but priests from Brashear, now Morgan, City also served Patterson during the late 1870s and early 1880s |
| 1849 | Madisonville | St. Francis Xavier | Fr. Jouanneau, 1843 Fr. V. Plunkett Fr. Patrick Canavan, 1854 Fr. Eugene Avelhie Fr. Gratz Fr. George Lamy Fr. J. E. Lavaquery |
in the early 1800s, in the absence of a church parish in St. Tammany Parish along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, missionaries from New Orleans used a chapel at Madisonville; in 1849, on land donated by the Lassassier and Lancaster families, the chapel was replaced by a brick church, 50x20 feet, dedicated to St. Francis Xavier; Madisonville also was served by priests from Mandeville and Covington |
| 1849 | New Orleans | St. Stephen | Fr. Angelo Gondolfo, 1849 Fr. J. B. Escoffier Fr. John M. Delcros, 1851 Fr. J. Buysch, 1858 Fr. Anthony Verrina, 1859 Fr. S. Lavazeri Fr. J. M. Masnou Fr. M. Beecher Fr. Alexius H. Mandine Fr. J. Duncan Fr. J. Kelly Fr. Antoine Andrieux Fr. Corneille Thomas Fr. Jean Hickey Fr. Charles Becherer |
located at Faubourg Bouligny or Jefferson City, one of the upper suburbs of New Orleans but then in Jefferson Parish, the ecclesiastical parish, upon Bishop Blanc's request, was administered by the Lazarist Fathers (the Congregation of the Mission); from the time of its founding, the parish was large enough to have an assistant pastor; the original church was a small frame building; the first mass was celebrated in 1850; a larger church was built in 1851, the old church serving as the parish hall; in February 1855, Archbishop Blanc moved the seminarians from Assumption Seminary on Bayou Lafourche, which had been destroyed by fire, to St. Stephen's, and a new seminary, run by the Larazist Fathers and called Bouligny Seminary and Jefferson City Seminary, reopened at St. Stephen parish in 1858, but was closed by Archbishop Odin for lack of funds in 1867; in 1865, the Christian Brothers opened a school for boys in the parish |
| 1840s/1870 | Lake Charles | Immaculate Conception | Fr. Étienne Badoil, 1870 Fr. Christophe Cuny, 1874 |
the community, founded in the late 1840s by Jacob Ryan and other Anglo Catholics and known originally (1857-68) as Charleston, stood on the east side of Lake Charles, a protrusion of the Calcasieu River, at the western end of Calcasieu Parish; the small church there was served first by priests from Opelousas and then became a mission of the priest at Abbeville in the 1860s; soon after he took office, Archbishop Perche created an independent parish at Lake Charles, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception; it was, at the time, "the furthest church west in South Louisiana"; the Lake Charles parish boundaries were immense, encompassing present-day Calcasieu, Allen, Beauregard, Jefferson Davis, and Cameron parishes; the church of the Immaculate Conception is now the cathedral church of the Diocese of Lake Charles, carved out of the Diocese of Lafayette in January 1980 |
| 1850 | Mandeville | St. Theresa Our Lady of the Lake |
Fr. J. Outendrink, 1850 Fr. C. M. Dupuis, 1854 Fr. Eugene Avelhie Fr. Gratz Fr. George Lamy Fr. J. E. Lavaquery Fr. Adrian Rouquette Fr. G. M. Giraud, 1863 |
the congregation, the second in St. Tammany Parish, was organized in 1850 and dedicated to St. Theresa but later became Our Lady of the Lake; priests from Mandeville also served nearby Madisonville and Covington; in the late 1800s, Benedictine Sisters, a German order, administered a parish school for Our Lady of the Lake parish |
| 1850 | New Orleans | St. Alphonsus | Fr. McGrane, 1850 Fr. Duffy, 1852 |
the Irish parishioners of St. Mary's Assumption Parish in the City of Lafayette, above the "French Quarter," demanded a parish of their own; a new church, 36 x 80 feet, was completed in 1850; like St. Mary's Assumption, the Redemptorist Fathers administered this parish; the original church was enlarged in 1851; in 1852, Fr. Duffy solicited door-to-door for funds to open a school for Irish children at St. Alphonsus; the school opened during the yellow fever epidemic of 1853, the children taught at first by the Sisters of Notre Dame and then by lay teachers; in 1870, Sisters of Mercy from St. Louis replaced the lay teachers and opened a convent, as well, on St. Andrew Street |
| 1850 | Plaquemine | St. John the Evangelist | Fr. C. Mouret, 1850 Fr. Dufour, 1851 Fr. Charles Chambost, 1853 Fr. Auguste Chambost Fr. Hy Riordan, 1858 Fr. François Follet, 1859 Fr. Charles D'Hemecourt, 1867 Fr. Harnais, 1878 |
this was the first parish established on the west bank of the river between Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish and Brusly in West Baton Rouge Parish; ground for a church at the confluence of Bayou Plaquemine and the Mississippi River was donated in 1840, but it took the community a decade to complete the structure; the first pastor, Fr. Mouret, died of yellow fever in 1851, soon after assuming the pastorate; Fr. Charles Chambost established a school for boys, the College of the Immaculate Conception, in 1853 (his brother Auguste, also a priest, served as college vice-president); the school thrived, and a 3-story college building was completed in 1855; the state legislature incorporated the college in March 1856 and approved the awarding of degrees; Fr. Chambost established a girl's school, called St. Basil's Academy, under the Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross in May 1857; a new boy's college building and the church burned in February 1858; Fr. Charles could not raise enough funds for a new college building, so he returned to France; his successors built a new church, mass, meanwhile, being held in the Sisters' home; during the War of 1861-65, Confederate and Union forces occupied St. Basil's Academy, forcing its closing; the nuns reopened the school in 1865; a new church was not completed until after the war, but the contractor seized the building when the parish failed to pay for its construction; Archbishop Odin had to raise money throughout the archdiocese to buy back the church; in the late 1860s, Fr. D'Hemecourt tried to re-establish a boy's school at Plaquemine, but it failed after only a few years |
| 1850/1853 | Longueville, now Lockport | Sts. Charles and Andrew Saint Sauveur or Holy Savior |
Fr. Amédée Beccard, 1853 Fr. J. Vanbeveren, 1860 Fr. P. M. Letilly, 1865 |
Fr. Menard of Thibodaux, with the approval of Bishop Blanc, urged the building of a church at Longueville, later Lockport, on the lower Lafourche; the church was completed in 1850; the priest from Raceland served the congregation until 1853, when Archbishop Blanc authorized the creation of a parish at Lockport; the Raceland priest served as pastor at Lockport until 1860, when Lockport got a priest of its own; Fr. Letilly built a new and larger church at Lockport in 1870, which he dedicated to Saint Sauveur or Holy Savior |
| 1851 | New Orleans | orphanage Academy of the Holy Angels |
in 1851, the Sisters Marianites of the Holy Cross, then administering St. Mary's Orphanage for boys on the river front, agreed to open a second orphanage for girls, which at first was located in a small house on the Ursuline convent grounds; in 1856, the orphanage was moved to a larger building which had been erected at North Rampart and Elmira streets in 1855; the Marianite Sisters also conducted a boarding and day school on the property; during the War of 1861-65, against great odds, the Sisters erected a new brick school building on North Rampart Street, the Academy of the Holy Angels, completed in 1865 and chartered in 1866 | |
| 1852 | New Orleans | St. John the Baptist | Fr. Jeremiah Moynehan, 1852 Fr. Thomas J. Kennedy, 1874 |
in 1852, Archbishop Blanc carved a new parish from the "rear" of St. Theresa and St. Joseph parishes; the original church, a framed affair, soon proved inadequate for the growing congregation; the cornerstone for a brick church was laid in 1857, and the church, with its imposing brick tower, was completed in 1861; meanwhile, Fr. Moynehan brought the Dominican Sisters from Cabra, Ireland, to open a school next to the church, on Dryades Street, the forerunner of St. Mary's Dominican College, which the sisters moved uptown to the Greenville area in April 1865; the academy on Dryades Street continued as a day school for boys, operated by the Christian Brothers; parish debt resulting from construction of the church and school became especially onerous during the Reconstruction years, the church's creditors even threatening to seize church property; in 1867, Archbishop Odin carved a new parish, St. Francis de Sales, out of a portion of St. John the Baptist |
| 1852 | New Orleans | St. Maurice | Fr. C. Mangin, 1852 Fr. Bonafay, 1857 Fr. S. Guinaud, 1861 Fr. Théodore Lamy, 1865 Fr. A. Duval, 1867 |
in 1852, Archbishop Blanc authorized the creation of a parish in "Faubourg La Course," south of downtown New Orleans; the first Mass was celebrated at the chapel there in November; an enlarged chapel opened in June 1853; a new wooden church was blessed in 1854; the cornerstone for a new brick church was laid on the site of the wooden church at Hancock Street, now St. Maurice Avenue, and Moreau, now Chartres Street, in April 1857; the pastorate was vacant in 1860-61 |
| 1852 | New Orleans | St. Anne | Fr. J. M. Lefranc, 1852 Fr. Hyacinth Tumoine, 1855 Fr. A. Bulot Fr. Joseph Thebault |
carved from St. Augustine Parish in 1852, the first church was built on St. Philip Street; the Sisters of St. Joseph established themselves in the parish under Fr. Tumoine |
| 1853/1868-69 | Île Piquant, later Patoutville, now Lydia | Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary St. Nicolas |
Fr. Aristide Plotin, 1869 Fr. A. Guillet, 1873 Fr. J. B. Lapeyruse, 1875 |
a mission chapel was built at Patoutville, originally Île Piquant, now Lydia, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, as early as 1853; priests from New Iberia served the mission until 1869, when Archbishop Odin created a new parish, dedicated to St. Nicolas, at Lydia; church records began in 1868 (according to one source, "the original church records burned--but a microfilm copy made it possible for new volumes to be made available" to researchers) |
| 1854 | Arnaudville | St. Francis Regis | Fr. L. Rocoffort, 1854 Fr. I. C. Bruehl Fr. J. M. Lefranc, late 1850s Fr. C. J. Anthonioz Fr. A. de Chaignon Fr. J. B. Dechambenoist Fr. J. Francis Abbadie Fr. F. Benausse Fr. C. A. Vialleton Fr. F. Christophe Cuny, 1871 |
created in 1854 by Archbishop Blanc, the parish was served first by secular priests; in the late 1850s, Fr. Lefranc went on a mission to Lake Charles, in Calcasieu Parish, and died there; afterwards, the parish was served by Jesuits from Grand Coteau until 1871, when a secular priest took over the pastorate; Jesuits took over again in 1875 until a secular priest arrived later that year |
| 1854 | Ville Platte | Sacred Heart | Fr. A. Beaugier, 1854 Fr. Hyacinth Gonellaz, 1860 Fr. C. Rigollot, 1861 Fr. René Vallee, 1864 Fr. E. Forge, 1868 |
the area originally was served by the priests from Opelousas; an assistant priest at Opelousas became the first resident pastor at Ville Platte in 1854; from March 1859 to January 1860, the parish was served once again by an Opelousas priest; only a few Acadians lived in the area, which was populated mostly by French Creoles |
| 1857 | Gretna | St. Joseph | Fr. Schnirch, 1857 Fr. J. B. Canon Bogaerts, 1863 Fr. Matthew Halbedl, 1871 |
this area of Jefferson Parish west of the river was served by Redemptorist priests from St. Mary's Assumption Parish in Lafayette, upriver from New Orleans, until 1857, when Archbishop Blanc ordered the creation of a parish at Gretna; the first church, at Sixth and Lavoisier streets, was completed with the help of the parishioners in 1858; the congregation had no resident pastor in 1862-63; in the 1860s, the second pastor, Fr. Bogaerts, built a rectory that also served as a school |
| 1857 | New Orleans | Nativity of the Virgin Mary St. Rose of Lima |
Fr. Claude Pascal Maistre, 1857 Fr. J. C. E. M. Ferrec, 1864 Fr. Francis Mittelbron, 1866 |
in 1857, Archbishop Blanc established a parish to serve the Bayou St. John/Gentilly area, north of downtown New Orleans; the first church, built in 1858, was on Mystery Street, and was rededicated by Fr. Maistre to St. Rose of Lima; a wealthy German woman donated land for a new church, which was completed in 1861, and it also was dedicated to St. Rose of Lima; in early 1863, Archbishop Odin censured Fr. Maistre for inciting area Negroes against the whites; Fr. Maistre ignored the censure, and in May 1863 the archbishop interdicted the pastor and parish; the parish remained interdicted until February 1864; meanwhile, Fr. Maistre started a schismatic church, dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, at Ursuline and North Claiborne streets; St. Rose of Lima's second pastor, Fr. Ferrec, drowned in Lake Pontchartrain |
| 1857/1861 | Chenal/Lakeland | Immaculate Conception | Fr. H. Thirion, 1857 Fr. Francis Mittelbronn, 1857 Fr. J. M. Marion, 1861 Fr. Berthaud, 1861 Fr. Francis Mittelbronn, 1862 Fr. V. Gavard, 1863 Fr. Marcellin Broquere, 1871 |
the third church for Pointe Coupee Parish, it was originally a mission chapel served by the priest from nearby Pointe Coupee; in 1857, Fr. Mittelbronn, pastor of Pointe Coupee church, purchased land at his own expense, laid out a cemetery, and then built a church, 40x35 feet, next to the cemetery; Archbishop Odin established an independent parish at Chenal in March 1861; there was no pastor at Chenal from June 1868 to November 1871, when the parish was served by priests from New Roads and Pointe Coupee; the church at Chenal was enlarged in 1886 and 1900 |
| 1857/1874 | Canal/Napoleonville | Immaculate Conception St. Napoleon St. Anne |
Fr. Nazareno Orfei, 1874 | since the early 1850s, the Lazarist priests at Plattenville resisted the creation of a new parish at Napoleonville, where they had a mission; a chapel, dedicated to the Immaculat Conception, was built at nearby Canal in 1858, church records there dating from 1857, but Canal did not receive its own priest until June 1920; meanwhile, after the Foley family donated land in the center of Napoleonville for a church and rectory, Archbishop Perche authorized the creation of a new parish there; the first church was built in 1874 and dedicated to St. Napoleon, but when a new church was built in 1907, it was rededicated to St. Anne |
| 1858 | New Orleans | school for girls/noviate | in the fall of 1858, newly-arrived Sisters of St. Joseph from France via Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, opened a day school for girls on Galvez Street in the city; as the school grew, it occupied a second building at Galvez and St. Philip streets, which became a boarding school; the sisters also built a small chapel at the school; in the early 1860s, the sisters opened a noviate in New Orleans | |
| 1858 | Chacahoula | St. Lawrence | Fr. Perreau, 1858 Fr. Clause Pascal Maitre, 1871 |
the area was a mission of the Thibodaux church until 1858, when Archbishop Blanc, upon the urging of Fr. Menard at Thibodaux, created St. Lawrence parish; the first pastor, Fr. Perreau, formerly an assistant at Thibodaux, was killed by a fall from his horse in September 1858, and the priests from Thibodaux and Raceland looked after the parish, which had no regular pastor until 1871 |
| 1858 | East and West Feliciana/Jackson | Our Lady of Perpetual Help | Fr. George McMahon, 1858 Fr. Blake, 1859 Fr. John Scollard, 1860 Fr. T. A. Smith, 1869 |
in April 1858, Catholics at Jackson, where only a mission chapel stood, beseeched Archbishop Blanc to create an ecclesiastical parish for the Feliciana region; Acadians had left the area before the early 1800s, and most of the people in the area during the late 1850s were Anglo American and French Creole, the former largely Protestants; the priest at Jackson also served communities in East Baton Rouge Parish, at Port Hudson, the Plains, now Zachary, and Greensburg and Amite in St. Helena Parish; in 1874, Archbishop Perche ecclesiastically separated the two Feliciana civil parishes, giving West Feliciana to the St. Francisville church and East Feliciana to the Jackson church |
| 1858 | Belle River | Fr. Jules Bouchet, early 1860s | a chapel served by the Lazarist priests from Donaldsonville was built at Belle River, on the west shore of Lake Verret, in the 1850s; mission records begin in 1858; secular priests from Plattenville and Paincourtville also served the mission; during the War of 1861-65, Fr. Bouchet, later pastor at Plattenville, served the mission | |
| 1859 | New Orleans | Convent of the Good Shepherd | encouraged by Archbishop Blanc, in February 1859, the Sisters of the Institute of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, better known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, opened a school for wayward girls in New Orleans; the original location of the school was at the back of St. Patrick's Church, facing Magazine Street, but the convent was later moved to Bienville and Broad streets; after 1866, Jesuit priests attended to the spiritual needs of the convent school | |
| 1859 | Royville, now Youngsville | St. Stephen St. Anne |
Fr. E. J. Foltier, 1859 Fr. Joseph Viau Fr. Hyacinthe Lecozic, 1867 Fr. Aristide Plotin, 1872 |
Archbishop Blanc created this parish in 1859; the name was originally St. Ètienne or St. Stephen but was changed to St. Anne |
| 1859 | St. Tammany Parish | Choctaw mission | Fr. Adrien Rouquette, 1859 | Archbishop Blanc allowed his secretary, Fr. Rouquette, to establish a mission among the Choctaw of St. Tammany Parish in the fall of 1859; Fr. Rouquette built chapels at Bayou Lacombe, near present-day Lacombe, and at Ravine des Cannes; during the War of 1861-65, Fr. Rouquette joined the Choctaw in their retreat into the swamps to avoid Federal raiders, and there he converted them to Catholicism; as a result, they called him "Chata-Ima"; he remained with the Choctaw of St. Tammany Parish until his health failed in the late 1880s |
| 1850s/1860 | Cornerview | Sacred Heart | Fr. Jean B. Le Saissecherre, 1864 Fr. Anthony Andrieu, 1868 Fr. L. P. Landry, 1868 Fr. V. A. Gavard, 1869 |
a chapel served by the Lazarist priests from Donaldsonville was built at Cornerview in the 1850s; the church was built in c1860 to serve the settlers of the New River area of Ascension Parish, who, before then, had to travel 20 miles to attend services at Crevasse chapel near Belle Hélène on the river; however, Cornerview did not receive a resident pastor until 1864; Lazarist priests served the parish in 1868, the same year that a chapel was established at nearby lower New River, now St. Amant, in the attic of a resident's home. Cornerview at one time was a part of Gonzales parish |
| 1860/1917 | Gonzales | St. Theresa | Fr. J. C. Gonon, 1917 Fr. E. Hubert, 1918 Fr. William J. Castel, 1933 |
First records begin in 1860, when it was part of "chapel car St. Paul" in Ascension Parish. The church was not built and the parsih not formall established until the late 1910s, during World War I |
| 1850s/1868 | Washington | Immaculate Conception | Fr. Claude Jacquet, 1868 | a chapel served by Opelousas priests was built at Washington in the early 1850s; Archbishop Blanc visited Washington twice in the mid-1850s to confirm dozens of local Catholics; Archbishop Odin created an independent parish for the bayou port in 1868; meanwhile, the Sisters of Mt. Carmel opened a school there |
| 1850s/1870 | Brashear, now Morgan, City | St. Clotida, Queen of France Sacred Heart of Jesus |
Fr. Justin Claris, 1850s Fr. Joseph Pineau Fr. Urgain Fr. Peter M. Letilly Fr. Claude Favre Fr. Mathurin Chapin, 1870 Fr. Thomas A. Smith, 1883 |
the first church and presbytery at Brashear, a mission served by priests from Bayou Boeuf, Chacahoula, and Thibodaux, burned in June 1859; in 1867, Fr. Favre, assistant at Thibodaux, along with the railroad agent at Brashear, began a subscription to build a new church and presbytery; the church, 22 x 40 feet, built on Railroad Avenue on a lot purchased by Archbishop Odin and dedicated to St. Clotilda, Queen of France, was named after the eldest daughter of community leader Eugène Landry, who helped build the structure; the new church was blessed by Fr. Favre in August 1868; the parish was not officially created until June 1870, by Archbishop Perche soon after he took office; Brashear City was renamed Morgan City, in honor of Charles Morgan, owner of the Opelousas and Great Western Railroad, in February 1876; in August 1885, Fr. Smith dedicated an enlarged church, 40x70 feet, on the site of the old church and renamed it Sacred Heart of Jesus |
| 1860 | Tangipahoa Parish | Fr. J. A. Manoritta | a mission, served by a priest from Covington and Madisonville, was established by Archbishop Odin at Chiappapiela, one of the oldest settlements in the area; the first Mass was celebrated in 1860; the first church, of logs, was built in 1865 on an acre of land donated by the Baham family for a church and cemetery | |
| 1860 | New Orleans | St. Simeon's Select School for Girls and Young Ladies of
the City Mercy Hospital |
in 1860, the Sisters of Charity opened a finishing school for girls in the city, later renamed Mercy Hospital; it operated until 1912 | |
| 1861 | New Orleans | Louisiana Retreat De Paul Sanitarium |
in 1861, the Sisters of Charity opened a sanitarium "for the care and treatment of mental and nervous diseases" on Nashville Avenue; the need was so great for such care that, in 1876, six city blocks on Henry Clay Avenue, Audubon Boulevard, Camp Street, and Perrier Street were purchased for the expanded institution, later renamed De Paul Sanitarium | |
| 1863 | New Orleans | Holy Name of Jesus | Fr. Claude Pascal Maistre, 1863 | Archbishop Odin censured and then interdicted Fr. Maistre, pastor of St. Rose of Lima church, in May 1863 for stirring up the Negroes of the parish against the whites; in October, Fr. Maistre took the registers of St. Rose of Lima and began a schismatic church at Ursuline and North Claiborne streets, which he dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus; one of his innovations was the racial integration of the parish register, a violation of archdiocesan practices; the church lasted until 1871, when Fr. Maistre submitted to episcopal authority |
| 1863/1882-83 | Mermentau | St. John | Fr. Alex J. Chasles, 1882/83 | the community, named after an Attakapas chief who fished and hunted in the area, arose where the Old Spanish Trail (today's U.S. Highway 90) crossed the Mermentau River in present-day Acadia Parish; Jesuits from Grand Coteau first served the area; the first Mass held at the village, in c1863 by Fr. Abbadie, S.J., included first communions and marriages; area children learned their catechisms at the Benedictine school near Rayne (Robert's Cove) and at the chapel at Coulee Triffe, now Estherwood, on the prairie east of Mermentau; in 1882 or 1883, Archbishop Perche established an independent parish at Mermentau, dedicated to St. John, the patron saint of pioneer settler Jean Castex; the first pastor, Fr. Chasles, built the parish's first church and rectory next to the cemetery, along the old trail; the original parish boundaries ran south to Cameron Parish, west to Calcasieu Parish, north to Eunice in St. Landry Parish, and east to Rayne; the rectory burned in 1886, destroying the original records; after the fire, Fr. Chasles attempted to move the church to another site, but the edifice fell to pieces; after the 1886 fire, Mermentau had no resident pastor until 1909; meanwhile, priests from Rayne, Jennings, Crowley, and other nearby parishes served the community; Fr. P. Van Alfen of Crowley built a new church at Mermentau in 1902 |
| 1864 | Buras | Notre Dame de Bon Port | Fr. Mathruin Harnais, 1864 Fr. Laporte Fr. J. Dumas Fr. Stephen Badoil Fr. Marius A. Pouillon Fr. Bedel |
in 1864, Archbishop Odin established another parish on "the Lower Coast" at Buras, Plaquemines Parish; the pastor at Buras in 1878, Fr. Pouillon, died of yellow fever |
| 1864 | Bonnet Carre/Reserve | St. Pierre | Fr. P. M. Lacour, 1864 | the Bonnet Carre area originally was a mission of St. Jean Baptiste of the German Coast, where the first pastor had served as an assistant; the first sacramental records of the new parish begin in April 1864; Fr. Lacour also served the communities of Mt. Airy and Garryville above Reserve, and Belle Pointe, La Crevasse, and Laplace below |
| 1864 | Montegut | Sacred Heart | Fr. Jean Marie Joseph Denece, 1864 | the area was a mission of St. Joseph of Thibodaux; at the suggestion of the Thibodaux priest, Fr. Menard, Archbishop Odin created a new parish for the Acadians and Indians along this stretch of lower Bayou Terrebonne; the first pastor built a church at Petit Caillou, and the parish included the communities of Grand Caillou, Canal Bélanger, now Bourg, and Le Terrebonne, now Montegut, where the priest's house and the church were later relocated; Fr. Denece served the parish for 26 years, until his death in 1890 |
| 1864 | Vacherie | Notre Dame de la Paix | Fr. A. Duval, 1864 Fr. J. M. Ravoire, 1865 |
the area originally was served by St. James parish, upriver |
| 1866 | New Orleans | St. Vincent de Paul School | in 1866, the Christian Brothers opened St. Vincent de Paul School for boys in Faubourg Bouligny on Napoleon Avenue | |
| 1867 | Franklin | St. Anthony | Fr. P. Guerard, 1852 Fr. James Blake, 1853 Fr. P. McMahon, 1861 Fr. Desgaultiers, 1862 Fr. F. Christophe Cuny, 1865 Fr. Richard Kane, 1867 |
this area of lower Bayou Teche and St. Mary Parish was served originally by priests from the cathedral at New Orleans, St. Martinville, New Iberia, and, after 1841, nearby Charenton; the first chapel at Franklin, from the early 1840s, was an upper story in a commercial building; a small church, dedicated to St. Anthony, was built in the early 1850s, but the church did not become an independent parish nor was it given a regular pastor until the late 1860s; during the War of 1861-65, Federal forces occupied the priest's house at Franklin, so he was forced to reside at Charenton; in 1867, Franklin received its first resident priest, who had to live in one of the town's hotels; he also served the nearby Patterson mission |
| 1867 | New Orleans | St. Francis de Sales | Fr. J. B. Simon, 1867 | in 1867, Archbishop Odin established a new parish from part of St. John the Baptist parish in the "rear, uptown" section of the city |
| 1867 | New Orleans | day school/convent Mater Admirabilis Le Couvent de Sacre Coeur |
at Archbishop Odin's insistence, the Sisters of Charity, who already were established at Convent, Grand Coteau, and Natchitoches, opened a day school on Dumaine Street in 1867; locals called it the "Mater" | |
| 1867/1892 | Pointe-aux-Loups, now Iota | St. Joseph | records begin in 1867, but an independent parish was not created until much later; from the early 1860s until the parish was created, priests from Opelousas, Grand Coteau, Mermentau, Rayne, and Jennings served the community along Bayou Pointe-aux-Loups, or Wolf Point, in Acadia Parish, now the town of Iota; services were held originally in settlers' homes, especially that of Mathieu Pousson, who donated 40 acres at Iota for a church; a chapel was built in 1879 and dedicated to St. Joseph, but the first pastor at Iota was not appointed until 1892 | |
| 1868 | New Orleans | St. Michael | Fr. M. Sheehan, 1858 | in 1868, Archbishop Odin created a new parish for Irish Catholics from Felicity Road to Terpsichore Street and from the river to Carondelet Street, between St. Theresa and St. Alphonsus parishes; the parish church was dedicated in May 1869; the first marriage and the first baptism were not recorded until the following December |
| 1868 | Amite | Fr. John Scollard | the Amite area of St. Helena Parish was served by priests from distant Feliciana; Archbishop Odin established an independent parish at Amite in the late 1860s and placed it under Fr. Scollard of Feliciana; Fr. Scollard built the first church at Amite in 1868; in that year, he also founded a school, in which were taught Protestant and Jewish as well as Catholic children--the only school in the area | |
| 1868 | New Orleans | St. Joseph House for the Aged Poor of New Orleans | in November 1868, the Little Sisters of the Poor, recently arrived in New Orleans, opened a home for aged white folks on Laharpe Street | |
| 1869 | New Orleans | St. Boniface | Fr. Joseph Koergerl, 1869 | in 1869, Archbishop Odin approved the creation of a new parish for German Catholics of Holy Trinity parish who lived "below Canal Street" and "behind" Holy Trinity; the St. Boniface parish limits ran from Canal Street to Elysian Fields and from North Rampart Street to Lake Pontchartrain and included many French Creoles and Foreign French who lived in the area; the parish church was built on Lapeyrouse and North Galvez streets; in 1873, the Benedictine Sisters, a German order, established a parish school on Lapeyrouse Street; St. Boniface parish closed in 1917, and the Benedictines moved to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish on North Claiborne Avenue |
| 1869 | New Orleans | St. Aloysius Gonzaga College | Archbishop Odin encouraged the Brothers of the Sacred Heart to open a college in the city; located at the corner of Barracks and Chartres streets, it opened in September 1869 | |
| 1869 | Chataignier (Eunice) | Our Lady of Mt. Carmel | Fr. Jean Baptiste Bre, 1869 Fr. Blaise Branche, 1880 Fr. Charles Clark, 1892 Fr.A. Bacciochi, 1896 |
Archbishop Odin authorized the parish in 1869; as was typical for that part of St. Landry and Evangeline parishes, relatively few Acadians lived in the area; the priest at Chataignier also served nearby Bois Mallet, including the black community there; Fr. Bacciochi moved the rectory from Chataignier to Eunice in December 1901 (in Father Hébert's Southwest LA Records, the records for this parish are attributed to St. Anthony of Padua Parish at Eunice, which was not founded until 1902) |
| 1870 | New Orleans | diocesan seminary | Fr. J. M. Berronet, 1870 | after Archbishop Odin was forced to close the archdiocesan seminary at St. Stephen's church in 1867 because of lack of funding, he ordered the construction of a new seminary building next to the old Ursuline chapel, the "Archeveche," or archbishop's residence, at Ursuline and Chartres streets; the seminary was dedicated in November 1870, while Archbishop Odin's successor, Archbishop Perche, was in Rome; secular priests made up the seminary's faculty |
| 1870/1877 | Bayou Goula | St. Raphaël St. Paul |
Fr. Jean Honoré Dubernard, 1877 | a mission of St. Gabriel church on the east side of the river, originally Masses were held in a building that served first as a courthouse and then as a dance hall before becoming St. Raphaël chapel; a church was not erected at Bayou Goula until 1870; an independent parish was not established until 1877 and was dedicated to St. Paul |
| 1872 | Poupeville/Rayne | St. Joseph | Fr. C. J. Anthonioz, 1872 | Jesuits from Grand Coteau served the area along Bayou Queu de Tortue during the antebellum period; the first chapel was built on Valsin LeBlanc's plantation, southeast of the present city; two small communities in the area, Castille and Poupeville, wanted a church of their own, so one was built on a ridge between the two communities; mission boundaries stretched westward to the Mermentau River; the first pastor for the area was a noted Jesuit missionary; the town of Rayne did not arise until the railroad came through the area in the late 1870s; in 1880, Fr. Anthonioz moved the old church with 60 pairs of oxen to property the Jesuits had purchased near the railroad, at the site of the present city; a new church was not built until 1898, and the old church, moved once again, served as a boy's school |
| 1872 | New Orleans | Our Lady of the Sacred Heart | Fr. Antoine Borias, 1872 Fr. Célestin Frain, 1881 |
Archbishop Perche created the parish in 1872; the church was built at North Claiborne Avenue and Annette Street; the original congregation was largely "colored people in the then-sparsely settled area bounded by North Rampart and Touro streets to St. Anthony, to St. Claude, to St. Bernard avenue, to the junction of Laharpe street, to the woodside of North Claiborne avenue to the downside of Kerlerec to the riverside of North Tonti street, down to St. Bernard, across St. Bernard to North Broad to Marigny avenue to Touro and Touro back to North Rampart street"; the parish's second pastor served for 35 years, during which time "the colored societies disbanded and the church had a white congregation"; the original church was destroyed by the hurricane of September 1915; the Benedictine Fathers took over the parish in 1917 after the closing of St. Boniface on Lapeyrouse Street |
| 1873 | Loreauville | St. Joseph | Fr. J. B. Lapeyruse, 1873 | Archbishop Perche created the parish in 1873 |
| 1873 | Larose | Our Lady of the Holy Rosary | Fr. Hyacinthe Brindejonc, 1873 | Archbishop Perche created the parish in 1873 |
| 1873 | Port Barre | Sacred Heart of Jesus | Fr. Michael Bardi, 1873 | Archbishop Perche created the parish in 1873; the mission at Leonville, previously served by priests from Opelousas, Grand Coteau, and Arnaudville, was given to the Port Barre priest in 1873 |
| 1874 | Carencro | St. Peter | Fr. B. M. Guillot, 1874 Fr. John F. Suriray, 1877 Fr. M. Welte, 1883 |
Île Carencro, as it was called, located at the northern edge of the old Attakapas District, was settled by Acadian immigrants during the late colonial period and served by priests from St. Martinville, Grand Coteau, Vermilionville, and Breaux Bridge throughout the antebellum period; in his will, local planter Pierre Cormier (the author's great-great grandfather), who died in December 1871, donated land for a church and cemetery at Carencro with the stipulation that the name of the church be St. Pierre; the land he gave was exchanged for another piece of property closer to the center of the village; in 1874, the community finally was given a parish of its own, dedicated to St. Peter; the parish's second priest, Fr. Suriray, formerly at St. Charles on the old German Coast, was forced to leave in 1880 after he was "threatened by the people"; the original church was destroyed by fire soon after Fr. Suriray left, and the parish was without a pastor until 1883 |
| 1875 | Bayou du Large/Theriot | St. Éloi/Eligius | Fr. Jean Geoffroy, 1875 Fr. Joseph Coustarot, 1882 |
in the late 1860s and early 1870s, priests from Houma and other nearby parishes said mass in the Bayou du Large community in Terrebonne Parish at a country store owned by a Mr. St. Martin; in 1875, Mrs. Michel Éloi Theriot, widow of a local planter, donated 3 arpents of land at what became the town of Theriot for a church to be dedicated in her late husband's memory; local residents promptly built a wooden church on the property, and, later in the year, Archbishop Perche came to bless the new church, dedicated to St. Éloi; the first entry in the parish registry was for a baptism performed in April 1875; the parish's second pastor, Fr. Coustarot, died in a rectory fire in January 1884, though some locals feared he had been murdered; from 1884 until 1890, the parish was without a pastor and was served by priest from Houma once again |
| 1875 | Grand Point | Fr. Onézime Renaudier, 1875 | in 1874, Michel Martin of Grand Point, St. James Parish, offered land for a chapel in the community; the rector of nearby St. Michael's parish in Convent agreed to the arrangement, and Miss Desirée Martin helped raise money to built the new chapel, which was first used in 1875 and served by the priests from Convent | |
| 1876 | Lobdell | Sts. Peter and Paul | Fr. Emmanuel Lossouran, 1876 Fr. Horace Cajone, 1880 |
Archbishop Perce created a new parish at Lobdell, only the second one in West Baton Rouge Parish, after the church wardens downriver at Brusly refused to accept a new pastor appointed by the vicar-general; as a result of the dispute, the vicar-general excommunicated the church wardens at Brusly and denied that parish a priest and holy services, but the spurned priest, Fr. Lossouran, from his new parish at Lobdell, paid sick calls at Brusly and conducted Mass in the open air until the schism ended in 1878; in 1880, Fr. Lossouran returned to Brusly |
| 1877 | Taft | Our Lady of the Holy Rosary | Fr. Gabriel Jobard, 1877 Fr. Émile Peufier, 1890 Fr. Antoine D'Hommee, 1898 |
Archbishop Perche established this parish for the Catholics of St. Charles Borromeo who lived on the west bank of the river in St. Charles Parish |
| 1877 | Paulina | Fr. Onézime Renaudier | a chapel served by the priests from nearby Convent in St. James Parish was built at Paulina community in 1877 | |
| 1877 | New Orleans | Monastery of St. Claire of the Blessed Sacrament | Archbishop Perche invited the Poor Clares of Rome, who followed "the primitive rule," to open a monastery at New Orleans; their first cottage was on Flood Street, but the first nuns soon left for other cities; in 1887, the archdiocese bought land bounded by Magazine, Constance, Calhoun, and Henry Clay streets, and in 1891 a modest wooden building housed the monastery | |
| 1878 | New Orleans | Sacred Heart of Jesus | Fr. Martin A. Marine, 1878 Fr. A. E. Saulnier,1890s |
in 1878, Archbishop Perche insisted that the Holy Cross Fathers, who had just established a college in the lower section of the city, create a new parish "in the rear of Canal street" on what was then virtual swampland; parish records begin in August 1879; the first church was built of logs and stood until 1895, when Fr. Saulnier erected a new brick church on Canal Street |
| 1878 | New Orleans | Monastery of St. Joseph and St. Theresa Chapel of Reparation |
Father D. S. Phelan, 1877 | the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, a Belgian order, came to New Orleans from Antwerp via Baltimore and St. Louis in 1877; the following year, they established a monastery on North Rampart Street; the Carmelites created the Confraternity of the Holy Face in their chapel in 1883; in 1895, Archbishop Janssens dedicated the Chapel of Reparation at the monastery |
| 1879 | New Orleans | St. Isidore's College Holy Cross College |
in 1879, the Holy Cross fathers opened a boarding school, St. Isidore's College, below the Ursuline Convent; in June 1890, the state legislature granted permission for the college to confer degrees as Holy Cross College | |
| 1879 | Jeanerette | St. John the Evangelist | Fr. J. D. Flanagan, 1879 Fr. M. Bardy, 1885 |
records begin in 1879, when Archbishop Perche established the parish; the first church, a temporary structure, was destroyed by a storm; a new church was built in 1881 and another one in 1908; the parish's second pastor, Fr. Bardy, served until 1928 |
| 1879 | Brûlé St. Martin | Fr. Marie Ange Le Saicherre, 1879 | Fr. Le Saicherre of Paincourtville built a chapel at nearby Brûlé St. Martin in 1879 | |
| 1880 | Robert's Cove | St. Leo | Fr. Aegidius Hennemann, 1880 Fr. Silvan, 1883 Fr. Félix, 1888 |
in 1880, Fr. Hennemann, a Benedictine monk from Munich, Germany, purchased a section of land four miles northwest of Rayne, present-day Acadia Parish, on which he hoped to build a monastery and a college; Archbishop Perche authorized the creation of a new church parish there, dedicated to St. Leo; a few years later, Fr. Hennemann sold the land to Fr. Peter Leonard Thevis of Holy Trinity parish, New Orleans, a German congregation; Fr. Thevis encouraged German Catholics from the Aachen region to emigrate to Louisiana and settle on the Acadia Parish property; Fr. Thevis sold the property to Benedictines from St. Meinard's Abbey in Indiana, and they came down "to take charge of the spiritual needs" of the new German settlers; a small building served as a chapel until 1893, when a proper church was built at present-day Robert's Cove; the school there was run by Benedictine Sisters and later Sisters of the Most Holy Sacrament |
| 1882 | Belle Alliance | St. Julien | Fr. Jules Bouchet, 1882 | in 1882, Fr. Bouchet from Plattenville built a chapel dedicated to St. Julien at the old Valenzuéla community, now Belle Alliance, on Bayou Lafourche south of Donaldsonville; Archbishop Perche approved the creation of a new parish there to accommodate the increasing population in the area |
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