South Louisiana Church Missions/Parishes, 1700-1870
Sources: Baudier, The Catholic Church in LA; BRDR; Hébert, D., South LA Records; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records; NOAR
[this list is still very incomplete]
| Date | Location | Parish Name(s) | Missionaries or Pastors | Comments |
| 1700 | Bayougoula | mission | Fr. Paul Du Ru | first church built in present State of Louisiana; stood briefly at an Indian village in present-day 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, abandoned by Bienville, in 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 de Sedella, 1785 |
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; a pastor and several assistants served the large parish; Acadian baptisms began in 1764, marriages in 1765, but New Orleans was never 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, 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); the original St.-Louis church was destroyed by the great fire of 1788; the rebuilt St.-Louis church became the cathedral of the new Diocese of New Orleans in 1794; St.-Louis parish is called "cradle of the Church in the Mississippi Valley" |
| 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, 1772 Fr. Luis |
originally a mission; first chapel, just a shed, dedicated to St.-Jean, was built in the early 1720s at a village called Carlestin 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, when it was replaced by a frame church, the "Little Red Church" at Destrahan, all church sites in present-day St. Charles Parish; never an Acadian community, though Father Barnabé ministered to Acadians at Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the Lower Acadian Coast in the mid- to late 1760s |
| 1722 | La Balize | mission | Fr. Christophe de Chaumont, 1722 Fr. Gaspard, 1726 Fr. Archange Fr. Maximin |
a mission for the small fortified community at the mouth of the Mississippi, present-day Plaquemines Parish; there was no church or priest's house there; the mission was abandoned in early 1750s after a hurricane devastated the post; never an Acadian community |
| 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, who, in the 1730-50s, 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 | chapel | Fr. Ignatius de Beaubois et al., 1727 | chapel at Ursuline house for the nuns |
| 1728/1738 | Pointe Coupée | St.-François of Assisi | 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. Archange, 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 |
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, called St.-François, 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 during the 1770-80s (when the Pointe Coupée priests served as missionaries to the Attakapas and Opelousas districts), only a few Acadians settled at Pointe Coupée, and not until the late antebellum period |
| 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 |
| 1756/1765 | Attakapas, now St. Martinville | St.-Joseph St.-Martin of Tours |
Frs. Didier, Valentin, 1756 Fr. Jean-François de Civray, 1765 Fr. Hilaire de Genevaux, 1781 Fr. José de Arezena, 1782 Fr. Geffrotin, 1783 Fr. Maceda, 1787 Fr. Charles N. M. D'Hermeville |
originally a mission for Poste des Attakapas, present-day St. Martinville, served by priests from Pointe Coupée until 1765, when Fr. Jean-François escorted the Acadians to Bayou Teche, founded the first parish, and built the first church, a small frame building at the post; called "Mother Church of the Acadians"; Fr. Jean-François left in early 1766, and there was no resident priest at Attakapas until 1781, so the district was again served by missionaries from Pointe Coupée and Ascension on the river, and from Opelousas after 1776 |
| 1756/1776 | Opelousas | Immaculate Conception St.-Landry |
Frs. Didier, Irénée, Valentin, 1756 Fr. Valentin, 1776 Fr. Louis Dubourg de St. Sep., 1777 Fr. Louis Maria Grumeau, 1779 Fr. José de Arezena |
originally a mission at the Jacques Courtableau plantation near the present city; services were held in Courtableau's home by priests from Pointe Coupée, who continued serving the area as missionaries until a parish was established for Opelousas in 1776 |
| 1770 | Cabanocé, now St. James | St.-Jacques | Fr. Valentin, 1770 Fr. Luis Lipiano de Tolosa, 1772 Fr. Prosper, 1774 Fr. Francisco de Azuqueca |
this was the first Acadian settlement (February 1764) but the second Acadian church parish, after Attakapas (1765); located on the west bank of the river; land for the church and priest's house was donated in 1771 by Jacques Cantrelle, original concessionaire of Cabanocé, for whom the parish was named; the first baptism at St.-Jacques, 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 |
| 1772 | Lafourche des Chitimachas, now Donaldsonville | Ascension | Fr. Angel de Revillagodos, 1772 | first church parish in Louisiana administered by a Spanish Capuchin; located at the confluence of Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi River |
| 1772 | Upper German Coast, now St. John the Baptist Parish | St.-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands | Fr. Bernardo de Limpach, 1772 Fr. Barnabé, 1776 Fr. Francisco Rosario, 1784 |
church at present-day Edgard; never an Acadian community, but it lay just downriver from St.-Jacques/St. James, so Acadians appear in St.-Jean church registers |
| 1773 | St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish | St.-Gabriel the Archangel | Fr. Angel de Revillagodos, 1773 Fr. Aloysius, 1773 Fr. Louis Maria Grumeau, 1774 Fr. Angel de Revillagodos, 1774 Fr. Valentin, 1779 Fr. Angel de Revillagodos, 1782 Fr. Charles N. M. D'Hermeville, 1783 Fr. Maceda, 1787 |
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 St.-Gabriel priests served residents on the west bank as well; the priest at St.-Gabriel also served San Bernardo chapel at nearby Galveztown on the Amite River after 1779; the area around St.-Gabriel along the Mississippi was known as the Second, or Upper, Acadian Coast |
| 1779 | Galveztown | San Bernardo (only a chapel) | Fr. Francisco Lopez, 1779 (died in an epidemic later in the year) | Galveztown was a combination Spanish garrison/Anglo/Isleño community on the Amite River in present-day Ascension Parish; it never had a church, only a chapel attached to the post's barracks; the priest from nearby St.-Gabriel ministered to Galveztown after 1779; Acadians settled in the area during the late colonial and antebellum periods |
| 1779 | St. Bernard | San Bernardo | on orders of Governor Gálvez, a church was built at La Conception, later called Nueva Galvez, on Bayou Terres-aux-Boeuf, below New Orleans, in 1779, but, until 1787, priests from St.-Louis church in New Orleans served the community; a hand full of Acadians from France settled there in 1785 |
Copyright (c) 2011-12 Steven A. Cormier