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St. Rose of Lima Church. Bay St. Louis
ST. ROSE OF LIMA CHURCH
’ BAY ST. LOUIS
THOUGH the parish of St. Rose of Lima at Bay St. Louis was established only a little over 10 years ago, it does not mean that the Colored people of the Bay had been neglected till that time.
In 1868 Pere LeDuc mentions in a letter to his Bishop his Colored school numbering 24 children. Slowly the number increased, and in 1886 we find 35 boys and 50 girls. The year before, the good Sisters of St. Joseph had taken charge of the school, which accounts for the increase. For the next few years the number of children varied only slightly, and the total Catholic Colored population of Bay St. Louis amounted to about 400.
A change came in 1921. Very Rev. A. J. Gmelch, realizing that his parish was too large and that the Colored parishioners needed more care, contacted the Society of the Divine Word. In July of the same year a contract was signed that the society would take charge of St. Rose school immediately and that after five years a new parish would be formed. Rev. A. P. Heick, S. V. D., took up residence in Bay St. Louis, but the Sisters remained in charge of St. Rose school. When, in 1922, Father Christmann, S. V. D., bought property at the Bay for the future St. Augustine’s Seminary he became acting principal of the school.
In 1923 the Mission House for the Colored was moved from Greenville to Bay St. Louis. Rev. F. X. Baltes, S. V. D., a teacher at the Mission House, was appointed head of St. Rose school. Today he still tells with his usual good humor how he had to “step on” the old “Lizzie” to do justice to both his positions. From the beginning it became evident to him that the school needed resident Sisters. In 1924 the first four Missionary Sisters, Servants of the Holy Ghost, arrived. The school attendance increased from 65 pupils to 155. That brought a new problem. A new school building had to be provided. Donations were solicited. Mother Katherine Drexel gave $4000, the Society of the Divine Word
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