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The Coat of Arms of the Diocese of Alexandria wascommissioned by Bishop Daniel F. Desmond, the fifthBishop of the Diocese of Alexandria, in 1933 anddesigned by the heraldist Pierre de Chaignon LaRose.

The Coat of Arms of the Roman Catholic Diocese ofAlexandria, which was established as an independent See byHis Holiness, Pope St. Pius X on August 6, 1910, is composed ofa shield with a red field on which is placed a white Greek cross.In the quadrants of the cross are found four silver bells, symbolsof the ancient Patriarchal See of Alexandria, Egypt. Superimposedon the cross is the checkered crescent from the arms of the Houseof Xavier symbolizing the patronage of St. Francis Xavier, patron offoreign missions and the principle patron of the Cathedral church andthe diocese.

The coat of arms is completed with the addition of one traditional externalornament; a jeweled miter. The miter is the ceremonial head covering of abishop in the western or Latin Catholic church. Its placement signifies thatthe coat of arms is that of a diocese under episcopal direction ■

Blazon: Symbolism of the Diocesan Coat of Arms���

Juchereau de St. Denis who had first scouted the Red River withBienville in 1700. A Jesuit, Fr. Paul Du Ru, had accompanied thatexpedition but had been unable to offer mass in the area after his‘pirogue’ capsized near present day Montgomery. In that accident, helost his ‘mass cards’ in the stream that came to be known as ‘Rigoletde Bon Dieu’. St. Denis and Jules Lambertexplored the Red River valley again in 1702 and in1710. St. Denis persuaded a portion of theNatchitoches tribe to relocate south to BayouSt. John near present day New Orleans. Theyaccompanied St. Denis on his ‘trading’ expeditionnorth in 1713.

In response to an appeal for help sent to theFrench governor at Mobile by a Spanish friar, FrayFrancisco Hildalgo of the San Juan Bautistamission on the Rio Grande, Governor Cadillacordered St. Denis and his Natchitoches allies toproceed north to the Red River and into Spanish‘Tejas’ in order to establish contact with theSpanish on the Rio Grande and open tradebetween the two colonies. The Frenchmen arrived

at the old Natchitoches encampment on November 25, 1713. Leavingsupplies under guard, St. Denis continued west and south arriving atSan Juan Bautista on July 19, 1714. He and his companions were heldthere under house arrest by the Spanish authorities. During hisconfinement, St. Denis met and won the hand of Dona EmanuelaSanchez de Vararro, the 17-year-old granddaughter of theCommandant, Don Ramon Sancho de Navarro.

Brought under guard to Mexico City in March of 1715, St. Deniswas imprisoned and questioned over a period of several months. OnAugust 22, he was released after pledging allegiance to the King ofSpain and was commissioned by the Spanish as guide and ‘conductorof supplies’ to Captain Ramon’s new expedition, which was chargedwith extending Spanish authority into the area north of the RioGrande. St. Denis and Emanuela were married at the San JuanBautista mission in 1716. The Ramon expedition, under the spiritualleadership of Venerable Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus, established sixnew missions in east Texas. In March 1717, the Ramon expedition, inresponse to the French presence among the Natchitoches, pushed eastof the Sabine River and established their last mission outpost, SanMiguel de Linares, near the Arroyo Hondo among the Adaes Indiansjust 21 miles from the French ‘Poste de Natchitoches’. Fr. Margiltraveled the 21 miles between the two outposts to offer the firstrecorded mass at the French settlement in 1717.

War between France and Spain broke out in 1719. French troopsunder the command of Lt. Phillipe Blondel raided the Spanish outpostdriving the friars from the mission. They returned, in force, in 1721,under the leadership of the Marquis de Aguyano and re-establishedthe San Miguel mission. The new presidio of Los Adaes was builtaround a new chapel dedicated to Nuestra Senor del Pilar, Our Ladyof the Pilar. The chapel was dedicated on October 12, 1721, with massand a sermon by Fr. Margil. Los Adaes, the only Spanish mission built

in Louisiana, became the capital of Spanish‘Tejas’. Fr. Margil worked among the Indians ofnorthwest Louisiana with limited success. Intime, he was recalled to Mexico City where he diedin the ‘odor of sanctity’ in 1724. His cause forbeatification was introduced in Rome and he wasdeclared ‘Venerable’ by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836.

In 1721, Sieur St. Denis, now a Knight ofSt. Louis and Commandant of the French post atNatchitoches, built a chapel in his home. TheSpanish friars at Los Adaes regularly walked the21 miles between the posts to minister to theFrench garrison. A sum of 600 French livres was

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French Colonial LouisianaUnder the rule of the French Crown, the Louisiana colony

stretched from Canada down the Mississippi River to the Gulf ofMexico. The explorer, Robert de la Salle, claimed the land for Franceand, on April 9, 1682, christened the area ‘Louisiane’ in honor KingLouis XIV. One of the members of La Salle’s party, Fr. ZenobiusMembre, a Franciscan Recollect friar, became the first missionary inthe area of Louisiana when he encountered a party of Tensas Indianson the shores of Lake St. Joseph near present day Newellton.

French exploration of the area continued in May of 1690 whenHenri de Tonti visited the Natchitoches Indians encamped on the RedRiver during his fruitless search for survivors of La Salle’s secondexpedition. These early adventurers found a land dominated by water- streams, rivers, bayous, lakes and marshes inundated the landscape.These waterways became highways through the virgin forests forFrench trappers and settlers. In 1699, Iberville established a formalroyal colony opening settlement along the Gulf coast, in lowerLouisiana and along the Mississippi. Three priests from the Seminaryof Quebec were sent out to begin the conversion of the native tribessouth of the Illinois territory.

Fr. Francois de Montigny, together with two lay brothers,established a missionary post among the Tensas Indians in northeastLouisiana. He labored among the Tensas for seven months baptizing185 children before his return to France in 1700. French settlementamong the Natchitoches Indians of the Red River valley began duringthe Crozat administration around 1714 under the leadership of Louis

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The History of the D

iocese of Alexandria - A Time for Faith

■ Old River, Avoyelles Parish

■ Robert de la Salle and Fr. Membre

■ First Mass plaque, Immaculate Conception Church, Natchitoches.

‘A Time for Faith’The Colonial Past

■ Venerable Father Antonio Margil de Jesus, FranciscanMissionary and founder of the Los Adeas mission, 1717.

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The History of the D

iocese of Alexandria - A Time for Faith

Natchitoches he witnessed the will of Sieur LouisJuchereau de St. Denis. His replacement, Fr. Barnebe,arrived in April of 1744 and served the parish untilSeptember 1748. It was in Fr. Barnebe’s time that thechurch was dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi.

St. Denis, the founder of Natchitoches andgodfather to many of its inhabitants, white andblack, died at 10 in the evening on June 11, 1744 andwas buried with due ceremony by Fr. Barnebe, theCapuchin pastor, assisted by the Spanish friars fromLos Adaes, including Fr. Francisco Ballejo, superiorof the Texas missions. Also present at the funeralwere the chiefs of the Natchitoches and Adaes tribestogether with Don Justo Boneo y Morales, theSpanish governor of Tejas. St. Denis was laid to restin the sanctuary of the parish church. Emanuela St. Denis was 47 atthe time of her husband’s death. She survived him by 14 years.

In March 1749, the Capuchin superiors sent Fr. Ame to thechurch on the Red River but his tenure was short and he was replacedthat same year by Fr. Eustache, who served until 1755. ‘Chronicfriction’ between the Capuchins and their frontier flock erupted in1759 under Fr. Valentin. An affidavit dated June 9, 1759, titled “A certificate on the Subject of Insults spoken in the Pulpit by theReverend Father Valentin against Mr. de Blanc, commandant” ispreserved in the Natchitoches Parish court records. The case wasprosecuted between November 1761 and January 1762. Fr. Valentin

was found guilty and his personal belongings wereseized and auctioned to cover the fine. The priest wasrecalled to New Orleans for his ‘unsatisfactoryconduct’.

Before his departure from the area, Fr. Valentinwas instrumental in establishing the second chapelin north Louisiana at the ‘rapids’ on the lower RedRiver. This mission, dedicated toSt. Louis, King of France andknown as ‘St. Louis de Appalages’,was established to minister tothe needs of the ApalacheeIndians who had fled fromBritish Florida to FrenchLouisiana in order to

practice their Catholic faith unmolested.The tribe, numbering about 30 families,were settled above the falls or ‘rapids’ onthe banks of the Red at the northern endof Bayou Jean de Jean, near present dayBoyce. They built their cabins andplanted their crops around the chapelbuilt for them by Fr. Valentin in Marchof 1764 on a bluff later known asZimmerman Hill overlooking the river.

The last French Capuchin pastorof the Natchitoches church wasFr. Stanislaus who was appointed to thepost in 1764. In 1769, the year thatcontrol of Louisiana passed from Franceto Spain, the official census registered 453whites and 311 black slaves in Natchitochesand 33 whites and 18 slaves at ‘Poste deRapides’ with a small village of ApalacheeIndians nearby. These settlers raisedtobacco, corn and rice, pastured a few cowsand kept chickens. Most of the settlers wereengaged in trade with the various Indiantribes. It was truly a frontier existencewithout religion, without discipline, andwithout order but the seeds of faith hadbeen sown.

allocated by the Company of the West under Crozat for the erection ofa chapel at Fort St. Jean Baptiste. The first French Capuchinmissionary from the Compeigne seminary to serve the Natchitochespost was Fr. Maximin, who arrived in the area in 1728. Thesacramental records of ‘la paroisse de Natchitoches’ begin with theentry of Francois Gaspar Barbier’s baptism on September 3, 1724, byFr. Francisco Ballejo of the Los Adaes mission. Fr. Maximin recordedhis first act as ‘pastor’ with the baptism of a Negro slave on April 8,

1729. Later that year, Fr. Maximin was persuaded to leave the post bySt. Denis whose own son was baptized later that year by the Spanishfriars preferred by Dona Emanula. St. Denis and his wife exercised agreat religious influence in the area. They regularly presented theirslaves for baptism and they or their daughters regularly stood asgodparents.

A 1733 French plan of Fort St. Jean Baptiste shows a small chapelconstructed of mud and logs covered with bark with one door in thefront wall and one window in each side wall. In 1734, Fr. Pierre Vitry,a Jesuit from New Orleans, came to minister in the northern post. Hisfirst pastoral act was recorded in the parish register in March 1734.In 1735, the fort was moved from its original site, which was prone toflooding, to the western side of the river and a new church was builtoutside the walls in the growing community between the site of thesecond fort and what is now known as the American Cemetery. Aninventory dated May 9, 1738, describes a church building dedicatedto St. John the Baptist measuring 24 feet wide and 26 feet in length,covered with wooden shingles to protect the mud walls from theweather. The structure had 6 small windows, double doors and 18benches. Two lay trustees or ‘marguilliers’ were elected to help overseethe church: Robert Avant and Pierre Fosse. Jacques Cunel served asthe ‘beadle’ or sextant of the parish.

The post at Natchitoches officially came under the jurisdiction ofthe French Capuchins. When additional Capuchins arrived in thecolony in 1738 one of them, Fr. Jean Francois de Civray, was sent toreplace Fr. Vitry. The people petitioned to keep their Jesuit pastor andwhen the petition was refused by the civil authorities Fr. Civray choseto leave the post before the year was out. He was replaced byFr. Arcange in March 1740. Fr. Arcange labored in Natchitoches untilSeptember 1743 when he was replaced by Fr. Dagobert de Longuory.He stayed at the post until March 1744. Just before leaving

■ 1731 map of the Red River Valley.

■ Plans for St. Francis Church Natchitoches, 1786.

■ Fort Chapel. Chapel within the palisade of the reconstructed Fort St. Jean Baptiste.(Courtesy of the Louisiana Office of State Parks.)

■ Burial record St Denis 1744

■ Bust of de St Denis

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■ Signature of St. Denis■ Antique statue of St. Francis of Assisi, circa

1770, Bishop Martin Museum, Natchitoches.

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bishop confirmed a class of 109. Sixty-eight baptisms were recorded.The population of the post was 338 whites and 105 blacks. Inaddition, the commandant, Carlos de Grande Pre, counted 138Pascogoulas, 144 Biloxi, 111 Tunicas and 135 Apalachee in the area.The Spanish Crown had granted 240 arpents of land for the erectionof a church and cemetery in 1784 but no structure had been built bythe time of the bishop’s visitation.

After his visitation, Bishop Penalver decided to erect a new parishin the Avoyelles. The sacramental register for the Nuestra Senora delCarmen or (Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church), which comprisedthe Avoyelles, Rapides and Ouachita posts, was entrusted to Fr. JuanMaguire, an Irish-born Carmelite graduate of the University ofSalamanca, in June 1797. He was succeeded by Fr. Juan Brady in 1798.Fr. Brady built the first church and served as pastor for the Avoyellesarea as well as the scattered French settlements along the Ouachitanear Fort Miro. Bayou Scie and Fort Miro were established asindependent parishes in 1799 but there were no priests available toserve as pastors and they remained as missions.

By the terms of a secret agreement, the Treaty of San Ildefonsosigned in 1800, Spain relinquished control of the Louisiana territoryback to France. In 1801, Bishop Penalver was appointed Archbishopof Guatemala and the Louisiana See was left vacant. From 1805 until1815, the Bishop of Baltimore served as Apostolic Administrator.With the bishop’s departure in 1801, a ‘period of confusion anddecline’ set in as uncertainty and frustration settled over the region.

The Louisiana PurchaseIn 1803, the United States purchased the territory of Louisiana

from France for the sum of 15 million dollars or roughly 4 cents anacre. In the days that followed, most of the Spanish clergy left the areato continue their ministry in Spanish territory. Fr. Brady retired fromthe Avoyelles church and went on to serve at Baton Rouge in Spanish‘West Florida’. Fr. Pavie continued to serve at Natchitoches all thewhile expressing his discontent and mistrust of the new infantrepublic. He eventually retired from the Church of St. Francis in 1806and returned home to La Rochelle. With no resident pastors in place,the scattered Catholics of north Louisiana had to rely on visitingmissionaries for the celebration of the sacraments.

From 1806 to 1812, Fr. Louis Buhot of Opelousas andFr. Francisco Maynes of Nacogdoches visited the area. Fr. Buhotentered the claim with the U.S. Land Commission in Opelousas thatsaved the church lands in the Avoyelles from confiscation. Theproperty was surveyed in May 1811 and title was made and confirmedby the state in 1813. Fr. Maynes was appointed pastor of the church

in Natchitoches in 1813. He pressed to have the parish incorporatedunder state law that same year and had the parish lands surveyed andregistered. The land given to the church at Fort Miro was lost andeventually sold at public auction.

In 1814, a new pastor was appointed for the Mount CarmelChurch which had been without a resident pastor since 1803.Fr. Michael Barrier served for two years and baptized over 200 peoplebefore taking up his new assignment in St. Martinville. DuringFr. Barrier’s tenure and immediately after, a new wave of immigrationbegan in the Avoyelles as French refugees crossed the Atlantic after thefall of Napoleon. Many of these were veterans of the ‘Grande Armee’.For these old soldiers the vast grasslands of the Avoyelles prairieresembled the fought-over ground near El Mansura in Egypt wherethe Army of the Nile had been defeated in 1799. Others with a moreclassical bent called the area around the church and cemeteryHydropolis. After Fr. Barrier’s departure, Fr. Flavius Henri Rossi andFr. Marcella Borella provided services intermittently in the Avoyellesbetween 1816 and 1822.

In Natchitoches, Fr. Francisco Maynes continued the missionaryrounds established by Fr. Pavie. In 1816, a new chapel was dedicatedto St. John the Baptist on lands donated by Alexis Cloutier. The firstchapel was built at Alexandria, a town laid out in 1805 along the RedRiver by Alexander Fulton and William Miller, in 1817.

In 1815, Fr. Louis William Valentin DuBourg, who had beennamed Apostolic Administrator of Louisiana and the Floridas byArchbishop Carroll of Baltimore in 1812, was consecrated in Rome asthe second Bishop of Louisiana. He visited his northern parishes in1821 and noted: “I saw with sorrow the decadence of everythingpertaining to religion; the church and the presbytery threaten tocollapse; the ornaments are in tatters; the zeal and faith singularlycold, ignorance in all the classes”. In Natchitoches the bishopconfirmed a class of 30. In Alexandria, he preached at the College ofRapides, an institution also known as the ‘Academy’. The smallwooden chapel of 1817 had grown too small and mass was beingoffered four times a year either in the Academy building or in thehome of a local merchant, Antoine Biossat.

In 1822, the year Fr. Maynes left Natchitoches to return to Texas,the Church of St. Francis caught fire. The blaze not only destroyedthe church but also about 65 other buildings around it. The ownerswho lost property sued the trustees of the church for damages

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Under Spanish Rule

The Louisiana colony was originally under the ecclesiasticaljurisdiction of the Diocese of Quebec. When control of the territorywas ceded to Spain the colony came under the jurisdiction of theDiocese of Santiago de Cuba. Later it wastransferred to the Diocese of St. Christopher inHavana. In the initial period of transition, many ofthe French Capuchins remained in place; includingFr. Stanislas in Natchitoches.

Orders went out from the new regime forrepairs to be made to the parochial church inNatchitoches and the cornerstone for a new church,made of native stone, was laid in 1771. Fr. Stanislasleft the post in March of 1774, and returned toFrance. Since the transfer of power, Spanish officialsdecided to abandon the old presidio and mission atLos Adaes since its military purpose of guarding theSpanish frontier against the French was nowobsolete. Land in the area was poor for farming andthe missionaries had never really succeeded in theirefforts to bring the Adaes Indians into the fold. TheSpanish, French and Indian settlers along the ArroyoHondo were ordered to move and resettle around themission at San Antonio. In time, a number of thesesettlers returned east to establish the town of

Nacogdoches; others returned tosettle along the Sabine, near theold Los Adaes site. The Spanish

friars from Los Adaes took charge of St. FrancisChurch in Natchitoches and Fr. Luis de Quintanillaserved as pastor from June 1775 to February 1783.

In 1777, yellow fever broke out in Natchitochesand many died in the widespread epidemic. Two years

later, Spain declared war on England and colonists fromnorth Louisiana marched south to fight with GovernorGalvez. During these turbulent times, Osage raidingparties spread terror to the region west of Natchitoches. Inthe midst of these tragedies, Fr. Quintinilla tried to reform

the laxity of his parish with Spanish rigor. The number ofholy days was increased and Church law was rigidly enforced as never before. In 1783, Fr. Quintinilla was

replaced by Fr. Francisco de Caldes, who served theparish until 1786. He was replaced by a secular

priest, Fr. Jean Delvaux, who began construction on a new church inthe new civil center that same year. The French priest was reassignedin 1793 and was replaced by Fr. Pedro de Valez who died in 1794.Fr. Delvaux returned to Natchitoches in January 1795.

During this second term, Fr. Delvaux was charged with making‘seditious speeches’ calling for an end to Spanish rule. The authorities

in New Orleans agreed to recall the priest but hislocal supporters circulated a petition calling for hismaintenance. Seven or eight of the pastor’s closestsupporters were later charged with physical assaultand disorderly conduct. Delvaux was eventuallyarrested and sent to Havana to await trial before theInquisition. He was formally charged in July 1797but escaped from Havana in October 1798.

In September, 1795, Fr. Pierre Pavie, a nativeof La Rochelle, who had fled the terror of theFrench Revolution, arrived in Natchitoches. Thiszealous priest traveled extensively throughout allnorth Louisiana visiting new settlements at IsleBrevelle. A new chapel was built on Bayou Scie atLas Cabezas some 20 miles from present day Manyand dedicated to Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.

In February of 1783, Captain Don Juan Filhiolbegan to establish a military post, Fort Miro, at‘Prairie de Canots’ a small settlement on the OuachitaRiver in northeast Louisiana. Fr. Quintinilla traveledto the Ouachita Post in May of 1787 andministered to the scattered Catholics in the regionas well as to the neighboring Choctaw tribe for aperiod of three months.

Frequent flooding along the Mississippi in the 1780's forcedmany inhabitants of the Pointe Coupee area to seek higher groundnorth along the Red River. They found shelter from the rising waterson high grasslands among the Avoyelles Indians. A small military posthad been established in the region in the early days of Spanish rulebut the area remained sparsely populated.

In 1795, Bishop Luis Penalver y Cardenas, the first Bishop ofLouisiana and the Floridas, arrived in his See city of New Orleans. Thenew bishop visited his northern most parishes in October andNovember of 1796 with the expressed intent “to preserve and extendthe Catholic religion”. Three hundred and ninety-four white settlersand 140 slaves greeted the bishop at ‘El Rapido’. In his 2-day visit, thebishop performed 48 baptisms, 1 marriage and 35 confirmations. Atthe Apalachee village, 6 children were baptized and 10 confirmed. InNatchitoches, the bishop baptized 80 children and confirmed a classof 86. The census that year counted a total population of 1,694. Over900 of those counted were black slaves. At the ‘Puesto Aboyeles’ the ■ Bishop Martin's signature ■ Chalice 1782

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■ Bishop Luis Penalver y Cardenas, 1st Bishopof Louisiana and the Floridas, 1796.

The History of the D

iocese of Alexandria - A Time for Faith

33-year-old Fr. Louis Alaux in 1835. Fr. Alaux traveled south alongBayou de Glaises but few attended his masses. Parents refused to sendtheir children to catechism and more than half the parish had nevermade their first communion. Twenty-one children received their firstcommunion in August, 1835 in what would be Fr. Alaux’s last act aspastor. In 1836, Fr. Martin returned and resumed the pastorate until1840. He began to draw up plans for a new church in September of 1837.

Catholics in Alexandria were able to move forward on theirchurch building project in 1834 with the aid of Mother XavierMurphy, Superior of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in GrandCouteau. In gratitude for Mother Xavier’s donations, the Alexandriachurch was dedicated to her patron saint, St. Francis Xavier. Theframe church built by Theophilus Hilton measured 80 feet long and36 feet wide and held 38 pews. It would be another decade before itsinterior was completely finished.

In January 1836, the new Bishop of New Orleans, Antoine Blanc,made his first visitation to the Church of St. Francis in Natchitoches.The bishop confirmed a class of 42. Fr. D’Hauw was reassigned tosouth Louisiana and Fr. Victor Jamey was appointed pastor. OnMarch 17, 1838, a fire in Natchitoches gutted the new Church ofSt. Francis together with several other buildings. Nothing was left butthe four brick walls. The pews and whatever else could be salvagedwere placed in the new LeComte townhouse where mass was offered.Repairs began immediately and a new roof was in place by January1839. Necessary repairs were made to the church in Cloutierville andwere finished in February but the interior had neither pews nor altarand there was only one vestment.

Fr. Nicolas Francais was assigned as pastor to St. Paul’s inHydropolis in 1840. During his three-year term he established thefirst Ladies’ Altar Society in north Louisiana in 1842. A pastor wasassigned to St. Francis Xavier Church in Alexandria in October 1840.Fr. Robert Doogan was the pioneer priest ordained from Louisiana’sfirst seminary, St. Vincent de Paul at Assumption near Plattenville onBayou Lafourche. The new pastor visited Belgian settlements aroundSpring Creek, offering mass in the homes of Severan Rougeau andMichael Paul. Fr. Doogan established mission stations at HollowayPrairie, Plaisance, Bayou Boeuf and Calcasieu. During his visits to oneof the Indian villages, Fr. Doogan contracted a fever that left him weak.He finally agreed to rest in the home of John Brown, one of thewardens of the church. His condition deteriorated and ten days later,on October 2, 1843, he died from ‘bilious fever’ before the priest couldarrive from Natchitoches to anoint him. An account of his death noted:“He left no will because he had nothing”. He was buried on October4 in a vault under the main aisle of the Alexandria church, which hehad almost completed. Fr. Etienne Chartier replaced him in 1843.

Work on a new church in the Avoyelles began in 1844.Fr. Francais wanted to dedicate the building in honor of St. Vincent

but he was overruled and the new building completed in 1845, underFr. Charles Dalloz, was called St. Paul’s. Bishop Blanc came north forthe dedication and confirmed a class of 80. Fr. Dalloz remained atSt. Paul’s until his death in 1849. He had stepped on a nail and thewound had been slow to heal. Word reached him that a black womanhad died and was in need of Christian burial. The priest performed theceremony but pressure on his foot reopened the wound. Infection setin and he died at the age of 42 on June 27, 1849.

The Antebellum PeriodFr. Victor Jamey, the pastor of St. Francis of Assisi, informed

Bishop Blanc that the Natchitoches mission was too vast for one priestto handle. Due to a shortage of secular clergy in the diocese, BishopBlanc asked the Lazarist or Vincentian Fathers to take charge of themission and complete the construction of the new church. Theyagreed and Fr. Joachim Alabau, C.M. was named as administrator. Heand Fr. Doutreluingne arrived in Natchitoches in May 1840.Fr. Joseph T. Giustiniani, C.M. was named pastor. He was assisted byFr. Alabau, Fr. Pascual and Fr. Mignard, all of whom served atNatchitoches until 1844. In 1849, Fr. Roman Pascual, C.M. wasappointed pastor and a new mission station was opened on BayouPierre. Later that year, Fr. Anthony Varrina, C.M. wasnamed pastor.

By December 1844, Fr. Chartier hadleft Alexandria and returned to NewOrleans. His tenure in Alexandria had notbeen a happy one and he left claiming histime in central Louisiana had been the‘height of unhappiness’ and never in his lifehad he “suffered such secret sorrow”. Hisreplacement, Fr. William Ivers, a native ofHailfax, Nova Scotia, had served in Boston andRhode Island before coming south to Louisiana.He left the parish after six months declaring:“This mission will not support a priest”. He wasreassigned to St. Patrick’s in New Orleans.

A Vincentian priest, Fr. Hector Figuri, a nativeof Genoa, Italy, served the Alexandria area untilJanuary 1848. Under his direction a chapel was builtin Spring Creek by W. Verheyden. During visits tothe Spring Creek mission, Fr. Figuri lodged with the Andries family.Bishop Blanc assigned Fr. Jean Pierre Bellier, a former Eudist Father,to the church in Alexandria in January 1848.

During this period, the first Catholic school was opened inNatchitoches by the Religious of the Sacred Heart in 1847. They

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claiming that the hired caretaker had becomeintoxicated leaving all the windows open andthe candles on the altar lit which then ignitedthe hangings and draperies. The plaintiffswon their suit only to have the verdictoverturned on a technicality. Mass was said byvisiting priests at irregular intervals in a publichall.

In 1824, Bishop DuBourg assignedFr. Jean Emile Martin as pastor of theAvoyelles church. He found little on his arrivalin the area. The faith had all but witheredaway. The small chapel was a ‘mere cabanage’and there was no rectory. Setting up a littlelean-to shelter beside the ruined church,Fr. Martin made do with cornbread andcharity as he went about the work ofrebuilding his church and parish. In his firstyear, he blessed 50 marriages and began torepair the church which he dedicated in honorof St. Paul the Apostle. At the growing community of Marksville,north of the Hydropolis site, Fr. Martin built a small chapel dedicatedto St. Joseph. During his visitation in 1825, Bishop DuBourg praisedthe work of the pastor and people and confirmed a large class.

At Natchitoches, Bishop DuBourg installed Fr. Aristide Anduzeas pastor with directions to build a new church. During the course ofthe bishop’s month long visitation, 108 baptisms were celebrated anda new board of trustees elected. The bishop also gave Fr. Anduze anassociate, Fr. Dusaussoy, a relative of St. Madeline Sophie Barat, thefoundress of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. These two priestsvisited Cloutierville, Campti, Bayou Pierre, Cane River, Grand Ecore,and Bayou Scie. Efforts were made in 1826 to begin rebuilding the

church but funds collected by the ladies ofNatchitoches were quickly used up in layingthe foundations and no other income wasforthcoming. Fr. Anduze resigned his postwith its unfinished church and was transferredto south Louisiana after a year. BishopDuBourg resigned his See and returned toFrance in 1826 and was named Bishop ofMontaubon. His auxiliary, Bishop Rosati ofSt. Louis, became the administrator of thediocese.

In June of 1827, Bishop Rosati appointedFr. Jean Baptiste Blanc, the younger brother ofFr. Antoine Blanc, to the parish atNatchitoches. Fr. Blanc, “a model priest anddevoted pastor”, undertook the completion ofthe church. Work resumed on September 1,1827 and in February 1828 “an act was passedby the state legislature and approved byGov. H. Johnson authorizing the procuring of

a sum of $20,000 by means of a lottery for the purpose of building aCatholic Church in Natchitoches”. The new church was blessed byFr. Blanc on October 25, 1828. The finished building measured50 feet wide by 100 feet long.

Through the generosity of Nicolas Augustine Metoyer and hisbrother, Louis Metoyer, a chapel was built on Cane River at IsleBrevelle and dedicated to St. Augustine on July 19th, 1829. In Campti,a new chapel, dedicated in honor of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin,was built on lands donated by Miss Francoise Crichet and blessed byFr. Blanc on September 8, 1831. In 1832, Catholics in Alexandriasecured a site on Front Street for a new church.

In the Avoyelles, troubles between Fr. Jean Martin and thetrustees of St. Paul’s Church came to a head before Holy Week in 1832and the pastor found himself locked out of his church and rectory.The new bishop, Leo de Neckere, tried to mediate between the wardensand the pastor to no avail. The bishop was forced to place the parishunder interdict. St. Paul’s remained without a pastor for 2 years. Inearly May 1834, Fr. Blanc left Natchitoches in the care of his associate,Fr. D’Hauw, and set off for a rest in New Orleans. Opposite PointeCoupee he grew dangerously ill and was put ashore for treatment. OnMay 11, Fr. Jean Baptiste Blanc died in Pointe Coupee and was buriedin the cemetery of St. Francis’ Church. Fr. Edmond D’Hauw broughthis body back to Natchitoches and it was interred in a vault in thesanctuary of the church on February 5, 1835. Fr. D’Hauw, a Belgianpriest, was appointed pastor.

Fr. Martin returned to the Avoyelles church after the interdictwas lifted in 1834 but he remained for only a year. He was replaced by

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■ 1700s Avoyelles Church land grant

■ Fr. Pierre Felix Dicharry, Vicar General and rector of the Cathedral in Natchitoches, circa 1887.

The History of the D

iocese of Alexandria - A Time for Faith

■ Nicolas Augustin Metoyer, patriarch of Isle Brevelle andfounder of St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle, circa 1856.

The History of the D

iocese of Alexandria - A Time for Faith

pastor, Auguste Martin, was electedthe first bishop of the new See.

The bishop-elect wanted to havethe ceremonies of consecrationperformed in the church atNatchitoches, hoping that thesolemn celebration would“contribute abundantly to [his]influence for good” but theconsecrating bishops believed thechurch was too small for theceremony and the consecrationtook place in New Orleans at

the renovated Cathedral ofSt. Louis on November 30, 1853. On Sunday,

December 11, Bishop Martin was installed in his cathedral church.The new bishop’s task was enormous in scope. The vast territory of hisnew diocese was larger than the country of Holland - almost three-fifths of the state. To serve this large and growing area the bishop hadonly five priests, four of whom belonged to the Archdiocese of NewOrleans, and six churches; one Catholic school; three mission chapelsand over 25, 000 souls. The church at Campti was still vacant andFr. Kelly at Milliken’s Bend died in February of 1854 leaving anotherempty parish. The bishop assigned his only curate, Fr. Pierre Dicharryas his Vicar General and rector of the cathedral.

In May of 1854, Bishop Martin sailed for France to recruitseminarians and priests for his missionary diocese from his nativeBrittany. The trip was a great success and the bishop returned with 12young men of great piety and talent from Saint Brieuc, Nantes, Rennesand Orleans. At Treguier, the bishop invited the Daughters of theCross, a female religious congregation dedicated to teaching, toestablish a new school in the Avoyelles. Mother Hyacinth LeConiantwas named the superior of the first band of 10 religious to volunteerfor the Louisiana mission. They arrived in November of 1855 andopened their first school in Avoyelles, Presentation Academy, atCocoville on February 2, 1856.

Before his return home, Bishop Martin met with Pope Pius IX inAugust of 1854 to ask his blessing on the new diocese. The bishopalso requested permission to dedicate the cathedral church inNatchitoches in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the BlessedVirgin Mary. The Holy Father gave permission and granted aperpetual indulgence to the people of north Louisiana on December8 of every year. The Holy Father also presented the bishop with a fineleather-bound set of the Roman Pontificals for use in his cathedral.Cardinal Fransconi gave the new bishop a monetary gift to help defraythe costs of ornamenting the new cathedral church. Bishop Martinand his party arrived in Natchitoches on December 16. The firstordinations were performed in the Cathedral of the ImmaculateConception on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1855. Jean Pierrereceived minor orders; Francois LeVezouet was ordained to thesubdiaconate; Jean Marie Beaulieu was ordained a deacon andMathurin Chapin was ordained a priest.

opened a girls’ boarding and day school in theformer Pierre Bossier mansion. Mother TelcideLandry was the first superior of the Academy of theSacred Heart in Natchitoches. The Academy waslater relocated to the former Judge Bullard mansionoutside of town on land that now housesNorthwestern State University.

In 1849, the Vincentian Fathers informedBishop Blanc that due to a lack of personnel theywould have to hand over the Natchitoches missionto the secular clergy. Bishop Blanc assigned thepastor of St. Joseph’s in Baton Rouge, Fr. AugusteMartin, to Natchitoches with the title Vicar Foranefor north Louisiana. Fr. George Guy and Fr. PhilbertJourdain were assigned to assist him. Fr. Marcella F. Mazzerechelli, anative of Italy, was assigned to the Avoyelles church. Fr. RichardHardey replaced Fr. Bellier in Alexandria. In the spring of 1850,Fr. Isidore Cluny arrived to assist Fr. Martin in Natchitoches.Fr. Michael Kelly, a native of Ireland, was sent to the newly builtSt. Mary’s parish at Milliken’s Bend near Lake Providence.

In 1851, Fr. George Guy was assigned as pastor of St. John theBaptist Church in Cloutierville and Fr. Philibert Jourdain was sent toCampti to build a new church. In that same year, Fr. HyacinthTumoine was appointed pastor of St. Paul’s in Avoyelles to replaceFr. Mazzerechelli who returned to Italy. Fr. Figuri left the Vincentiancongregation and was sent to replace Fr. Hardey in Alexandria. BishopBlanc assigned Fr. Patrick Canavan to Monroe, the old Fort Miro site.Gramont Filhiol gave land for a church and work was begun but thecontractor failed and financial support dried up. Fr. Canavan returnedto New Orleans and Fr. J.J. Dougherty was assigned to the Ouachitamission. Like Fr. Canavan, Fr. Dougherty visited Catholic families inHomer, Minden, Bossier Parish and Shreveport but he did not staylong convinced that the settlement could not afford to maintain apriest. In May of 1852, Archbishop Blanc sent Fr. Pierre Felix Dicharryto Natchitoches to assist Fr. Martin.

The new church in Campti was dedicated on December 21, 1852but there was an outstanding mortgage of $1,100 still owed and theinterior remained unfinished. Fr. Jourdain left the area in January1853 and returned to New Orleans leaving the parish without a pastor.Later that year, yellow fever struck the region and devastated thepopulation. Alexandria, Shreveport, Cloutierville were ‘crushed’.Cloutierville lost half of its white population in that dreadful summer.Fr. Figuri, Fr. Guy and Fr. Dicharry all were struck down but survived.

Four Religious of the Sacred Heart died before thescourge finally lifted with the autumn frosts.Despite its own sufferings, Natchitoches collected$1,200 to send to the Howard Association’s relieffund in New Orleans for victims of the plague. In aletter to Archbishop Blanc, Fr. Martin confided, ‘Ihad many tears to mingle with the tears of thosearound me, and still how good God has been to us.”

It was in the midst of these losses that the PapalBulls of Erection and Appointment for the newDiocese of Natchitoches arrived from Rome via NewOrleans. In those documents dated July 29, 1853,Pope Pius IX dismembered the Archdiocese of NewOrleans and erected a new diocese for the northernhalf of the state of Louisiana. The Holy Father

directed that the See be established in the city of Natchitoches.St. Francis Church was raised to the dignity of a cathedral and its

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■ Pope Pius IX established the Diocese ofNatchitoches on July 29, 1853.

■ Bishop Auguste Marie Martin, 1st Bishop of Natchtioches, 1853 -1875.

■ Mother Hyacinth and the first Daughters of the Cross to serve in Louisiana, 1855.

■ Advertisement for the opening of PresentationAcademy in Cocoville, 1856.

He was assisted by Fr. Dicharry, his vicar-general, and hissecretary, Fr. Francois LeVezouet. Both of these priests also served onthe faculty of St. Joseph’s College and saw to the continual educationof the diocesan seminarians. Many outstanding priests served thepeople of the diocese in this period of growth and expansion before thewar: Fr. Jean Pierre Bellier in Alexandria; Fr. Jean Baptiste Avenard inCampti; Fr. Jean Marie Beaulieu in Cloutierville; Fr. Jules Janeau inCocoville; Fr. Thomas Rebours in Moreauville; Fr. Jean Pierre inShreveport and Fr. Louis Gergaud in Monroe. These men left lastingimpressions on their communities as they solidified the weak faith leftfrom years of benign neglect.

While other areas of the South enjoyed an economic boomduring the flush times before the war, north Louisiana suffered froma series of prolonged droughts that withered the crops and ruined itscredit. Unlike their neighbors to the south who grew rich on sugarcane most North Louisiana farmers scratched a living from less fertilesoil growing cotton and corn. While there were rich planters alongthe Mississippi and on the fertile lands along Cane River and the Redmost of the population lived on small struggling farms. There waslittle to no industry in the area and the railroad would not penetratethe region until long after the chaos of reconstruction. Steamboattraffic could not maintain a regular schedule due to the seasonal shiftsin the water table of the Red River and the navigational hazards of therapids at Alexandria. In many ways the Diocese of Natchitochesremained locked in a frontier isolation. That isolation would onlyincrease as sectional strife tore Louisiana from the Union in January1861.

The War Between The StatesThe election of the Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln, to the

presidency in November of 1860 set off a powder keg of emotions inthe Southern states including Louisiana. Following the lead of SouthCarolina the ‘cotton states’ of the Deep South voted to separatethemselves from the Union. A new provisional government was setup in Montgomery, Alabama where representatives from the separatedstates elected Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederate States ofAmerica.

Archbishop Odin of New Orleans and Bishop Martin ofNatchitoches, together with many southern bishops, believed thepeoples of the South were acting in defense of their constitutionalrights and they supported the Southern cause but with reservations.They condemned the abuses found on many southern plantations butthey refrained from condemning slavery outright as an absolute evil.Above all else, Bishop Martin feared the prospects of a war he thought

inevitable. Having grown up in France under the reign of Napoleon heknew how destructive war could be and he feared for the future of hisinfant diocese. Support for secession was not universal and many innorth Louisiana believed they were facing ruin.

Enthusiasm climbed after the assault on Fort Sumter in April of1861 as the two nations went to war. During one of Bishop Martin’sabsences, Fr. Dicharry gave an impassioned speech in defense of theSouthern cause from the steps of the Natchitoches Court House andvolunteered as chaplain for the 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regimentforming in the city. Short of clergy, Bishop Martin reluctantly gavehis young vicar permission to follow the troops Company aftercompany formed in every town and village in the Natchitoches diocese.Bishop Martin and his clergy heard their confessions and blessed theirflags in emotional farewells passing out Miraculous Medals andscapulars.

The realities of war were quickly felt on the home front -particularly in rural north Louisiana. Most farms in north Louisianawere planted in corn and cotton. Groceries and food stuffs wereshipped in on steamboats. Supplies quickly ran low and by 1862

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Antebellum GrowthFrom the time of his consecration as bishop in 1853 to the

outbreak of the War Between the States in 1861, Bishop Martinlabored to provide a regular religious life for the scattered Catholics ofnorth Louisiana. In 1853, the Diocese of Natchitoches had 5 priestsand 6 parishes; by 1860 the numbers had grown to 15 priests serving17 parishes. Thirty-five mission chapels and mass stations dotted thecountryside. Opportunities for Catholic education had expanded aswell. In addition to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Natchitoches,girls’ schools were established in Shreveport, Isle Brevelle, Alexandriaand Cocoville. A boys’ ‘college’ was established by the cathedral clergyin Natchitoches. Like the early missionaries, parish priests taught theclassics as well as the catechism in their rectories and sacristies.

Life was not easy for Bishop Martin’s young recruits. Duringtheir first summer in Louisiana they endured a severe drought andfood shortages in a strange land trying to learn English and continuetheir theological studies in living conditions little better than thecramped slave cabins on nearby plantations. It required all the energyand generosity of their youthful faith to survive and even thrive underthe hard conditions of their voluntary exile. In an effort to fill thevacant posts throughout his diocese, Bishop Martin ordained and

assigned young men in their early 20's who could barely speakEnglish to serve in isolated missions in the midst of a foreign

culture with little to no practical pastoral experience.

The difficulties of missionary life, the poverty of their station andthe unending labors and responsibilities of the ministry taxed Martin’sclergy, aged the young men of Brittany and drained them of theiryouth. At times, their inexperience and frustrations were a cause ofconcern for their chief shepherd who cherished his priests. To correctabuses and safeguard the future conduct of the mission, BishopMartin gathered his priests together for a diocesan synod in 1858 toformulate rules and guidelines for the clergy and laity of the diocese.Financial difficulties hindered the work and zeal of the bishop’sministers and religious in every area of the diocese and yet remarkableprogress was made in the face of such difficulties. With aid from theSociety of the Propagation of the Faith, headquartered in Paris, newchurches and chapels were erected. In December 1857, plans wereapproved for the construction of a new cathedral in Natchitoches andconstruction on the new church began in 1858.

New parishes were organized in the growing communities ofShreveport, Monroe, Lake Providence, Isle Brevelle and Moreauville.Bishop Martin spent himself as selflessly as did his priests. He taughtcatechism, gave instruction to converts, baptized babies and heard theconfessions of his parishioners at the cathedral and served as spiritualdirector to the Religious of the Sacred Heart. He toured his dioceseregularly on horseback and in his small buggy confirming largecrowds; instructing and preaching throughout the northern half ofthe state. Because of his endless travels it is said that he spentas much time in the saddle as in his cathedral.

■ St. Hyacinth’s Church, Moreauville, 1860.

■ 19th century French censor, Bishop Martin Museum.

The History of the D

iocese of Alexandria - A Time of Hope

‘A Time of Hope’The Diocese of Natchitoches���