The history of Catholic faith in St. Bernard Parish can be traced to the king of Spain, who sent Canary Islanders, in several waves, to Louisiana beginning in 1778. These “Isleños” established St. Bernard Catholic Church at the first settlement, said Tony Fernandez Jr., a parishioner whose heritage stems from early settler Felix Marrero. “There were several settlements along south Louisiana, but this was the most successful,” Fernandez said of Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs, which he described as “a colony within the colony of Louisiana” with its own government, subservient to the colony’s governor.

Fire, floods, yellow fever and a triple murder are all part of the history of St. John the Baptist Church in Edgard, just west of New Orleans on the Mississippi River’s west bank.A chapel named St. John the Baptist first appeared as early as 1723-24 in a farming area on the second Cote des Allemands (German Coast, named for those of German descent who settled here on high ground), according to a 1970s history written by parishioner Warren F. Caire, Ed.D., and also in “The Catholic Church in Louisiana,” written by Roger Baudier.

Singing at Mass surely had to have fostered the Catholic faith of the Ursuline nuns who came to New Orleans in 1727 as missionary educators of girls in French Louisiana. But now music historians can speculate that some of those hymns might also have helped to alleviate the sisters’ homesickness, having been set to familiar secular tunes originally composed in their native France.

By Dr. Emilie Leumas, Clarion Herald Contributing writer. River of Faith: 300 Years as a New Orleans Catholic Community: In 2015, New Orleans commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. While much of the United States overlooked the significance of the battle and its place in history, the Archdiocese of New Orleans curated an exhibit highlighting the power of prayer and the protection of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.

This article in the Clarion Herald’s “River of Faith: 300 Years as a New Orleans Catholic Community” includes a few “random facts” on the early Catholic community in New Orleans. These form a small part of Catholic historian and author Roger Baudier’s “Historic Old New Orleans” column in the early issues (1933-35) of the Catholic Action of the South, which predated the Clarion Herald and was published until 1963.

St. Louis Cathedral is the third church to stand at the head of Jackson Square. When New Orleans was laid out in 1721 according to a plan prepared by Royal Engineer Le Bland de la Tour, the site of the future cathedral was designated for a Catholic church, which under the Code Noir was the only faith legally allowed in the colony.

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