St. Patrick's Church (New Orleans, Louisiana) - History

History

The first major development in New Orleans outside of the Vieux Carré was Faubourg St. Mary, begun after 1788; the area is now the core of the Central Business District and Warehouse District. The Faubourg came to be known as the "American Quarter," as differentiated from the French Quarter. Irish immigration in the early nineteenth century brought English-speaking Catholics to the city, many of whom settled in the new commercial district of Faubourg St. Mary. The religious and linguistic demographics of the city were changing; Catholicism in New Orleans had been dominated by the Creoles, descendants of the French and Spanish settlers of the previous century. By the 1830s, a church was needed for those who did not speak French.

In 1833, Bishop Leo-Raymond de Neckere established a new parish in Faubourg St. Mary, St. Patrick's Church. Construction of a permanent church building began later in the decade and was completed in 1840. During the 1849-1851 rebuilding of St. Louis Cathedral, the church was named pro-cathedral of the diocese.

The decades after the church's establishment saw anti-immigrant violence involving the Know Nothing Party. Father James Mullon, whose portrait hangs in the back of the church, was pastor at the time and held significant clout in the city. Many nativists feared that he and the Irish were taking control of New Orleans from the establishment. St. Patrick's remained an anchor of the local Church throughout the events of the tumultuous decades that followed, including the infamous occupation of the city by Union troops under the unpopular Major General Benjamin Butler during the American Civil War. During the war, the outspoken Mullon, who had been pastor by then for decades, was accosted by Butler for refusing to preside at the funeral of a Union soldier. Mullon responded, in a moment of local lore, by apologizing and remarking that he would gladly preside at the funerals of Butler and all the Union troops.

The church building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1975. A major restoration, lasting from 1978 to 1990, preserved the structure so that the parish could continue to serve the people of New Orleans as it had for 150 years.