This volume is the first to record the history of Catholicism in southwest Louisiana. Beginning in the 1850s, it is a fascinating document containing story after story of priests and religious brothers & sisters who journeyed to a frontier mission from France, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Canada, and across the United States.

You will journey back to the beginning of the original Oblate Missions, the establishment of additional parishes, and finally the celebration of the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Lake Charles. Included are the struggles of faithful parishioners to recover from the great 1910 city fire, which destroyed all church properties and schools in one stroke.

Author Lloyd Barras spent years gathering newspaper clippings, pictures, and other written documentation to assure that not one opinion was accepted or recorded as history until that information was checked with the meager written records that survived or with other sources. She offered this manuscript to all with the hope that each reader will find within these pages something of the Roman Catholic faith to be cherished.

 

Wise Publications

434 Pages

8.5x11 Hardcover

Published: 2019

ISBN: 978-1-952005-01-5