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Father Buteux First Pastor
Rev. Louis Stanislaus Mary Buteux, first pastor of Bay St. Louis, 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. Sulpice. He volunteered for the missions of Indiana and was ordained by Bishop Brute in Paris in 1836. He was the first chaplain to the Sister 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 boarders from New Orleans were accepted