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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 Hole 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 admirably 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.
In the spring of 1864, a company of federal soldiers from Fort Pike at Chef Menteur landed at the Bay and were met by a company of Sibley’s Cavalry. The Confederates repulsed the Yankees and took a few prisoners. About two weeks later, 200 federals from the gunboat Commodore came to rescue the captives. Captain Marshall of the Grays was in the Bay on a reconnoitering expedition, and while standing at the corner of the Front and Union streets was 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, immediately ceased firing, and in