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CATHOLIC > ACTION.,. OFv jTHE ;SOUTH.,■,
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'■-fstfc, By Rev,. J,co P. Fahey
^‘iTLong., before/the' advent of the French*explorers,, the city of Bay Stif-L’puis- was an Indian village bearing the name of Achoupoulou. In all‘probability, Robert Cavalier de. La Salle was the first white man to explore this part of the coast! Jacques de la Metairie, the official ■ historian of La Salle’s expedition, tells us that on April (7,’ 1682,-.La Salle went to recon-noiter the shores of the Gulf coast. Six'years later the faithful Tonti came as far as' the Gulf to seek tidings of hi£ lost friend.
1 'When Pierre le Moyne d’lber-ville came to plant the “Fleur de Lis”’ of France on the Gulf coast, liis attention was drawn to this little village. French, the historian, tells us: “On the 12th of 'April, 1699, d’Ibcrville set out to visit a bay about nine leagues from -Ship Island, to which he gave the name of St. Louis. But finding . the water very shallow there, he concludcd to fix his settlement at Biloxi.” This, however, was just a casual visit to sound the depths of the water, and it remained for his brother, Jean Baptiste 16 Moyne Bienville, to set-foot ;on the land and give it the-, present name. This he did on the
Our Lady of the Gulf ?
Stirring Times Seen in Early History of Seat of Coast Deanery; Fathers Buteux, Le Due Figure in Origins; Present Church of Our Lady of the Gulf, Imposing
The brick Chure.lv, of Our Lady of the Gulf looks the waters of the bay.
at Bay St. Louis over-
come the first Bishop of Mobile. After him'came the Lazarist Fathers, Borgna, De Angclis and Aquatoni, and the seculars, Gallagher, Gury and Martin.
Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Natchez on July
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
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 his 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 died in Boston, after years of fruitful labor and others spent in patient suffering, still occupied with the service of souls>”
Father LeDuc Second’ Pastor
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 scarely 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
Rev. Leo Fabian Fahey, born,
Bay St. Louis, IVIiss.; studied -	1
at St. Benedict, La.; Kcnrick , | Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.;
North American college, Rome,,.; ■ -f Italy; Sulpician Seminary, V i.-Catliolic university, Washing- * )£— ton, D. C.; ordained, May 29,'«$$rV 1926, at Bay St. Louis, for dio-cese of Natchez; successive ' appointment, May 29, 1926, ! Church of Our Lady of tlieVV Gulf, Bay St.-Louis, assistant, v-
was opened under the direction o£: . the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.' J In the spring of 1864, a com-'/>* pany of federal soldiers from Fort Pike at Chef Menteur landed■ the Bay and were met by a comK'^,*! pany of Sibley’s Cavalry, y ThSiart
Confederates repulsed the Yankees ,
academy for girls and a college for boys, but all were in their in- and took a few prisoners. About.$ fancy. The ground had been two weeks later, 200 ' federal^ broken and the seed planted, but from the gunboat Com1
1,
it took a man of zeal and patience came to rescue the cQptives-JiCap --- to continue the work. Providencr +'"ri 1vr',rc:h'’'’	ft
1852, he opened a ]ia(j admirably fitted Father Le Due for this task. Under his tie guidance the church prospered
detci mined to have a school. On to continue the work. .Providence tain Marshall of the GrnyS~^as iti\
the Bay on a reconnoitering ex-:' j
September
28, 1937, and Rev. John Mary Jos- chi^Ln^Rrothpr/in'1	Th!	Duc	for	this	task'	Under his gen
eph Chanche, a ' Sulpician,	Chustian	Brotheis	in	chaige:	The	-
enh Chanche, a1 Sulpician, who	m	t	j	,	Ue	guidance the church prospered
had refused the mitre at Balti- the	n	and	uhe	schools	flourished. Dur-
. more, Boston and New York, ac- S!,	L w	n u	h»s	administration the -“Sor-
innnintmani -ac 'Richmi ew boai dei s from New Orleans L-bohne,” or "“free school” for boys,
pedition, and while standing at the corner of Front and Union
^•AiiWew J. Grnelcli .born, Rohrbacli, Germany; 'V;studied"at St. Bernard’s, Cull-,;Tnan, Ala.t and New Orleans,’ :_!l,a.; ordained, June 14, 1901, ^iit St,’ Stephen’s, New Orleans, rfla.; came to diocese, June 16, '1901; successive appointments, .‘July '3, 1901, St. Elizabeth’s church, Clarksdale, adminis-trator; October 26, 1901, St. ,FauI’s church, Vicksburg, as- ’ ^sistant; September 30, 1902, ‘•'St.' Mary’s, Merigold, pastor; October 24, 1905, Sacred Heart ‘church, Canton, pastor; Janu-v.ary, 1918, Our Lady of the , ^Gulf church, Bay St. Louis, pastor,.
streets was shot by a fedefal sol-,’>>, dier. Father LeDuc
(Continued on Page. 40)
rushed out.^
he appointed Rev: Louis Stanis-	t
laus Mary Buteux. In the diaiy	^	HpI
of Father Buteux we read: ,'*Sat-	h	m	to	dismiss.	thei
urday, July 31, 1847, the feast of	s	®nd c °s the. school. ^
St. Ignatius: Bishop Chanche. told • Father Buteux,. .however, was a' meVat Natchez-that h.<? confides-to JJ1?1? pf, courage ,aQdi did not, lose
feast of St. Lpuis, Aug:ust 25, 1699.,
>,The location of the bay waS'so inviting, and its natural resources	,	.	.	,,	...
so'abundant that in December of He volunteered for the missions 1699,; d’lberville sent a sergeant of Indiana and was ordained hy
me Bay St..i Louis,-Pass Christian, Pearl River, Jordan and Wolf. Oliver, as .far as 20 to 25 miles to the north.” .
Father Buteux First "Pastor .
Rev.'Louis Stanislaus Mary Buteux, first pastor of Bay St. Louis, July 31, 1847, to November 47, 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. 'Sulpice.
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 explorers unfurled the flag of France they planted at the same \ time the Cross *of- Christ..
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.
heart. ' He reopened the-school in June, .1854, and placed 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.	.	,
Academy Also Begun While in France l>e 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 consulted the saintly cure, St. John Mary Vianney. From Ars he petitioned Mother Claude to send more Sisters to the
■^?°blteS]' Bishor'Ch^ncTrweic^med^him Bay. Wisely’enough, he had the nriest'	into the diocese and appointed him holy priest countersign the letter
Fess in danhl^mp in i>n(h	first	Pastor	of Bay St. Louis, to the superior. It is hardly nec-
ifatmThoS	’ This- truly apostolic man found essary to add that the request was
w	t	°	„d IbT- few attractions and much hard granted. St. Joseph’s academy
Fathpr Athathls,rH,le'	work. His flock y/as scattered and	was.	the	first foundation	of	the
lFa"	for the most part ignorant. He	Sisters	of St. Joseph	of	Bourg	in
thep Bordenave. accompanied him did t h * rhurrh so Ma« ' '	'	------:	.—
coast andrft i,"	thh1	offered in the coSthouJ? ” ®
they occasionally visited the l!tt?P in the 1101116 of some Private fam"
Sv^t tKav*	ily’ until finally a church was un-
coion^ at me aay,,.. .. .	•,	dertaken. On March 26,	1848,
*v: f..—vlsitlnj: fllissionarles ■ ^	Bishop Odin of Galveston blessed
< For many’ years history was si-	the cornerstone of the new church,
lent .’about., the .riames..of the mis*..-It'was .a. brick structure of. Gothic , sionaries who. visited this section, style, measuring 165 feet 7 inches We iljnow, however, that mission-; Jong and 46 f^et wide. From its arics^ from Mobile-and New Or- dimensions we may well imagine ; leans'visited'’the coast occasional* .that , it wpsr the largest church in lyVduring, the years that followed, the diocese’ at the time. Bishop ,
In* 1820;ithe'Bay was attended by''jChanphe blessed the church on aft'young.f’priest named Michael August 19,	1849, when Bishop.,
Portier,Twho was destined to be- Blanc of New Orleans honored the
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MAY eacii succeeding
century bring more ^ success to your Service’.of' Wu^ God and country.. 4. "
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