Catholic Encyclopedia is available online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11005b.htm I copied the following history of Catholicism in New Orleans in the mid 19th century, according to them, and present it here: In 1843, anxious to provide for the wants of the increasing German and Irish immigration, Bishop Blanc had summoned the Congregation of the Redemptorists to the diocese and the German parish of St. Mary's Assumption was founded by Rev. Czackert of that congregation. In 1847 the work of the Society of Jesus in the diocese, which had been temporarily suspended, was resumed under Father Maisounabe as superior, and a college building was started on 10 June. In the following year Father Maisounabe and a brilliant young Irish associate, Father Blackney, fell victims to yellow fever. The population of New Orleans now numbered over fifty thousand, among whom were many German immigrants. Bishop Blanc turned over the old Ursuline chapel to the Germans of the lower portion of the city, and a church was erected which finally resulted in the foundation of the Holy Trinity parish on 26 October, 1847. In 1849 the College of St. Paul was opened at Baton Rouge. On 13 July, 1852, St. Charles College became a corporate institution with with Rev. A. J. Jourdan, S.J., as president. In 1849 Bishop Blanc attended the seventh council of Baltimore at which the bishops expressed their desire that the See of New Orleans be raised to metropolitan rank. On 19 July, 1850, Pius X established the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Bishop Blanc being raised to the Archiepiscopal dignity. The Province of New Orleans was to embrace New Orleans with Mobile, Natchez, Little Rock, and Galveston as suffragan sees. The spirit of Knownothingism invaded New Orleans as other parts of the United States, and Archbishop Blanc found himself in the thick of the battle. Public debates were held, conspicuous among those who did yeoman service in crushing the efforts of the party in Louisiana being Hon. Thos. J. Semmes, a distinguished advocate, Rev. Francis Xavier Leray and Rev. N. J. Perche, both afterwards Archbishop of New Orleans. Father Perche founded (1844) a French diocesan journal "Le Propagateur Catholique", which vigorously assailed the Knownothing doctrines. On June 6 a mob attacked the office of the paper, and also made a fierce attack on the Ursuline convent, breaking doors and windows and hurling insults at the nuns. In 1853 New Orleans was decimated by the worst outbreak of yellow fever in its history, seven priests and five sisters being among its victims. On 6 March, 1854, the School Sisters of Notre Dame arrived in New Orleans to take charge of St. Joseph's Asylum, founded to furnish homes for those orphaned by the epidemic. St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum was also opened as a home for foundling and infant orphans, and entrusted to the Sisters of Charity. On 29 July, 1853, the Holy See divided the Diocese of New Orleans, which at that time embraced all of Louisiana, and established the See of Natchitoches. The new diocese contained about twenty-five thousand Catholics, chiefly a rural population, for whom there were only seven churches. The Convent of the Sacred Heart at Natchitoches was the only religious institution in the new diocese. In 1854 Archbishop Blanc went to Rome and was present at the solemn definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. In his report to Propaganda he describes his diocese as containing forty quasi-churches, each with a church and one or two priests and a residence for the clergy; the city had eighteen churches. The diocese had a seminary under the Priests of the Mission with an average of nine students; the religious orders at work were the Jesuits with three establishments, Priests of the Mission with three, and the Redemptorists with two. The Catholic population of 95,000 was made up of natives of French, Spanish, Irish, or American origin, French, Germans, Spaniards, and Italians. Distinctive Catholic schools were increasing. The Ursulines, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Sisters of Holy Charity, Marianites of the Holy Cross, Tertiary Carmelites, School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Coloured Sisters of the Holy Family were doing excellent work. Many abuses had crept in especially with regard to marriage, but after the erection of the new churches with smaller parochial school districts, religion had gained steadily and the frequentation of the sacraments was increasing. In 1855 the Fathers of the Congregation of the Holy Cross came to New Orleans to establish a manual industrial school for the training of the orphan boys who had bee rendered homeless by the terrible epidemic of 1853. They established themselves in the lower portion of New Orleans and became inseparably identified with religious and educational progress. In 1879 they opened their college, which is now one of the leading institutions of Louisiana. On 20 January, 1856, the First Provincial Council of New Orleans was held, and in January, 1858, Archbishop Blanc held the fourth diocesan synod. In 1859 the Sisters of the Good Shepherd were called by Archbishop Blanc to New Orleans to open a reformatory for girls. Bishop Blanc opened another diocesan seminary in the same year, and placed it in charge of the Lazarist Fathers. He convoked the second provincial council on 22 January, 1860. Just before the second session opened he was taken so seriously ill that he could no longer attend the meetings. He rallied and seemed to regain his usual health, but he died 20 June following. Right Rev. John Mary Odin, Bishop of Galveston, was appointed successor to Archbishop Blanc, and arrived in New Orleans on the Feat of Pentecost, 1861. The Civil War had already begun and excitement was intense. All the prudence and charity of the Archbishop were needed as the war progressed. An earnest maintainer of discipline, Bishop Odin found it necessary, on 1 January, 1863, to issue regulations regarding the recklessness and carelessness that had prevailed in the temporal management of the churches the indebtedness of which he had been compelled to assume to save them from bankruptcy. The regulations were not favourably received, and the archbishop visited Rome, returning in the spring of 1863, when he had obtained the permission of the Holy See for his course of action. It was not until some time later that through his charity and zeal he obtained the cordial support he desired. His appeals for priests while in Europe were not unheeded and early in 1863 forty seminarians and five Ursulines arrived with Bishop Dubuis of Galveston. Among the priests were Fathers Gustave A. Rouxel, later Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans under Archbishop Chapelle, Thomas Heslin, afterwards Bishop of Natchez, and J. R. Bogaerts, vice-general under Archbishop Janssens. In 1860 the Dominican Nuns from Cabra, Ireland came to New Orleans to take charge of St. John the Baptist School and open an academy. In 1864 the Sisters of Mercy came to the city to assume charge of St. Alphonsus' School and Asylum and open a convent and boarding school, and the Marists were offered the Church of St. Michael at Convent, La. On 12 July, 1864, they assumed charge of Jefferson College founded by the state in 1835 and donated to them by Valcour Aime, a wealthy planter. The diocese was incorporated on 15 August, 1866, the legal name being "The Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of New Orleans". In 1867 during a terrible epidemic of yellow fever and cholera, Fathers Speesberger and Seelos of the Redemptorists died martyrs of charity. Father Seelos was regarded as a saint and the cause of his beatification was introduced in Rome (1905). In 1866, owing to financial trials throughout the South, the diocesan seminary was closed. In February, 1868, Archbishop Odin founded "The Morning Star" as the official organ of the diocese, which it has continued to be.

Hi Joan, Thank you for the history, it was interesting. I will probably be making what is my last trip to New Orleans next month for my son's graduation from Tulane University. My Dad loved history and often spoke of New Orelans and the Battle of New Orleans. As a young child, New Orleans was one of the few places I had a deep desire to visit. Little did I imagine that when I grew up and had a family that a son of mine would choose New Orleans for his place of college. New Orleans holds a very special place in our hearts and pray that in our life time that its sorrows can be healed and New Orleanians who wish can return to their homes and a semblance of normalacy will once again prevail. The yellow fever outbreak of 1853 killed many Irish Famine immigrants. It is interesting to note that St. Louis Catholic Cathedral is the U.S.'s oldest cathedral, built about 1796. Beannachtai, (Blessings in Gaelige) Margaret K.