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It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

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Father Stanislaus Buteux	^	a	. i _>	eP'^'
Russell Guerin	.'p	^S1-
According to articles assembled so far which tell of Fr. Buteux, his first assignment came in 1837, when he was named the first pastor of what is now Bay St. Louis and environs.
The appointment was made by Bishop Chance of Natchez.
This information conflicts with a history of St. Joseph Academy, which states that he was appointed in 1847, and was to be pastor of BSL, Pass Christian, Pearl River, Jourdan and Wolf River areas.'"')? (?fT	{
The latter seems to be more correct, as other information has Fr. Buteux in Indiana in March 1840. He is mentioned in a letter from Bishop Celestin of Indiana to Bishop Blancq of New Orleans. The letter indicates that Buteux was to send Blancqj?~ishop Porter?s note for $200, and that Buteux had borrowed that amount from another source.
The problem might be connected with the mention of Buteux?s church at Thralls,having just burned. c~
Later that year, in October, other documents describe Buteux as he accompanied six nuns
by stagecoach ?through thick forests on a nonexistent road? to Indiana. The nuns, who
did not speak English, had come from France by way of Brooklyn and Philadelphia and
Evansville. When they arrived in Vincennes, they were met by Fr. Buteux who had been
? assigned as their chaplain.
o
The nun in charge became the founder of the Sisters of Providence, which now ministers in twenty states. Her name was Mother Theodore Guerin. She was canonized as St.
Thedora in 2006.
The next evidence about Buteux is the appointment as pastor in our area in 1847. He must have gone right to work, as the next year, he laid the cornerstone for a new church. Thus was created Our Lady of the Gulf.
The Hancock County census of 1850 clearly lists a Catholic priest as occupying house #44-47, although the name appears to be written ?Buleaux.?
In 1852, he opened a boys school, calling upon the Christian Bothers order to stall it. The yellow fever epidemic of 1853, one of the worst in history, forced a closing of the first school, but it was followed in 1854|/vith the opening of St. Stanislaus College for young men. vf * S?.//.