Alphabet File page 84

   The location  of the bay was so inviting, and its natural resources so abundant, that in December of 1699 d’Iberville sent a sergeant and 15 soldiers, together with a few families, to form a colony at Bay St. Louis.

 

   If the age of chivalry had passed, the spirit of the Crusaders yet survived; and wherever the French explores unfurled the flag of France the planted at the lame time the Cross of Christ.  Side by side with the noblest knights stood the consecrated priest, patient in suffering, fearless in danger, sublime in enthusiasm.  The expedition of d’Iberville was no exception to this rule.  Father Athanasius Douay and Father Bordenave accompanied him on this first expedition to the coast, and it is not unlikely that they occasionally visited the little colony at the bay.

 

   For many years history was silent about the names of the missionaries who visited this section.  We know, however, that missionaries from Mobile and New Orleans visited the coast occasionally during the years that followed.  In 1820, the Bay was attended by a young priest named Michael Portier, who was destined to become the first Bishop of Mobile.  After him came the Lazarist Fathers – Borgna, De Angelis and Aquatoni – and the seculars – Gallagher, Gury and Martin.

 

   Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Natchez on July 28, 1837, and Rev. John Mary Joseph Chanche, a Sulpician, who had refused the mitere at Baltimore, Boston and New York, accepted the appointment as Bishop of Natchez.  Bishop Chanche realized that Bay St. Louis needed a resident pastor, and too this office he appointed Rev. Louis Stanislaus Mary Buteux.  In the diary of Father Butex we read:  “Saturday, July 31, 1847, the feast of St. Ignatius:  Bishop Chanche told me at Natchez that he confides to me Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Pearl River, Jordan and Wolf River as far as 20 to 25 miles to the north.

 

   Father Buteux First Pastor at the Bay - Father Buteux, pastor of Bay St. Louis from July 31, 1847, to November 17, 1859, was of a family which had given a martyr to the Church in the person of Rev. F. Buteux, S. J., who was put to death by the Iroquois in Canada.  Father Buteux was born in Paris on July 2, 1808, and received his education at the Seminary of St. Sulice.  He volunteered for the missions of Indiana an was ordained by Bishop Brute in Paris in 1836.  He was the first chaplain to the Sisters of Providence when they came to found St. Mary of the Woods college near Terre Haute, Ind.  In the construction of their first academy he worked as a day laborer.  The climate of the north was too severe, and he was forced to seek a mission in the South.  Bishop Chanche welcomed him into the diocese and appointed him as first pastor of Bay St. Louis.

 

   This truly apostolic man found few attractions and much hard work.  His flock was scattered and, for the most part, ignorant.  He did not have a church, so Mass was offered in the courthouse or in the home of some private family, until finally a church was undertaken. 

 

  On March 26, 1848, Bishop Odin of Galveston blessed the cornerstone of the new church.  It was a brick structure of Gothic style, measuring 165 feet 7 inches long and 46 feet wide. From its dimensions we may well imagine that it was the largest church in the diocese at the time.  Bishop Chanche blessed the church on August 19, 1849, when Bishop Blanc of new Orleans honored the Bay with his presence on this happy occasion and performed the ceremony of blessing the bells.

 

   When the church and rectory were completed Father Buteux determined to have a school.  On September 1, 1852, he opened a school for boys and placed the Christian Brothers in charge.  The school was primarily intended for the boys of Bay St. Louis, but a few boarder from New Orleans were accepted and lodged in the rectory.  In all probability this was the first boarding school for boys in the Diocese of Natchez.  The epidemic of yellow fever in 1853 forced him to dismiss the boarders and close the school.

 

    Father Buteux, however, was a man of courage and did not lose heart.  He reopened the school in June, 1854, and place the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in charge.  In August of the same year he sailed for France and pointed out to Brother Polycarp, superior of the Brothers of the Sacred heart, the advantages of a boarding school for boys in Bay St. Louis.  St. Stanislaus college, named after the patron saint of  Father Buteux, was the result of this meeting.

 

   Sisters of St. Joseph Open School - While in France he obtained three Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg to open a school for girls in this parish.  The Sisters arrived in Bay St. Louis January 6, 1855, to begin the foundations of the present St. Joseph’s academy.  The pastor went to France a few years later to seek additional Sisters for his mission.  He went to Ars, where he petitioned Mother Claude to send more Sisters to the Bay.  Wisely enough, he had the holy priest to countersign the letter to the superior.  It is hardly necessary to add that the request was granted.  St. Joseph’s academy was the first foundation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg in the United States.

 

   Long years spent in pioneer mission work finally sapped the strength of the good pastor.  On November 17, 1859, he was relieved of this duties, and the remaining years of his life were spent as chaplain to several Catholic institutions in Boston.  Bishop Elder paid him this final tribute:  “On June 14, 1875, Rev. Louis Stanislaus Mary Buteux dided in Boston, after years of fruitful labor and others spent in patient suffering, still occupied with the service of souls.”

 

   Very Rev. Henry LeDuc, pastor from November 17, 1859, to august 27, 1897, was born in Nantes, France, January 1, 1834, and was ordained to the priesthood in Nantes on January 30, 1859.  The Holy Oils were scarcely dry on his hands when he came to Bay St. Louis.  Little did he know that this would be his one and only assignment,  that for nearly 38 years he would spend himself and be spent in the service of this parish.  True it is he found a church, a rectory, an academy for girls and a college for boys but all were in their infancy. 

 

  The ground had been broken and the seed planted, but it took a man of zeal and patience to continue the work.  Providence had amirably fitted Father LeDuc for this task.  Under his gentle guidance the church prospered and the schools flourished.  During his administration the “Sorbonne,” or free school for boys, was opened under the direction of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

 

   Soldiers Heed Father LeDuc’s Plea - In the spring of 1864, a company of federal soldiers from Fort Pike at Chef Menteur landed at the Bay and was met by a company of Sibley’s Calvary.  The Confederates repulsed the Yankees and took a few prisoners.  About two weeks later, 200 Federals form the gunboat Commodore came to rescue the captives.  Captain Marshall of the Gray was in the Bay on a reconnoitering expedition, shot by a federal soldier.  Father LeDuc rushed out and prevented the federal soldier from finishing Captain Marshall with his bayonet.  The Yankees were then determined to burn the town.  they burned several properties., and the town seemed doomed.  The people were terrified.  Father LeDuc, then a young priest, appeared on the street in the neighborhood of the church, holding aloft the cross of Christ.  The federal soldiers, who were for the most part Irish Catholics, instantly ceased firing and, in respect to the cross of the Savior, doffed their hats,  Thanks to the courage and religious influence of Father LeDuc, peace was restored and Bay St. Louis was saved from destruction.