A touchingly undistinguished monument
In the 1830s, free people of color in New Orleans sought and received permission from Bishop Antoine Blanc to build a church. Ursuline’s agreed to donate the property at what is now Governor Nicholls Street and St. Claude Avenue, provided the church be named after their founder, St. Angela Merici. The church was finally completed in 1842 and dedicated to St. Augustine. Maybe they forgot the deal.
St. Augustine is the oldest African American Catholic church in the country. Except for a short period in 1925, when its sanctuary was being enlarged, the church has been in continuous use since its founding.
Info
Address 1210 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, LA 70116, +1 504.525.5934 | Tip St. Augustine Church has only one mass on Sunday, at 10am. It is one of the more interesting as it’s often accompanied by gospel music and attended by people of all faiths.
In 1992, William Savoy, rector of St. Luke Episcopal Church in New York, wrote to Father Jerome LeDoux of St. Augustine suggesting that a memorial be erected on church grounds in honor of the countless slaves buried in unmarked graves in New Orleans and all over the country.
Ideas for the memorial went through many visions and revisions. Anna Ross Twichell, a historic preservationist, felt that the elaborate shrines being proposed seemed inappropriate to honor people who had nothing. A plain cross, made from chains and shackles, was chosen to best depict the reality and tragedy of slavery. A heavy rusted marine chain was salvaged locally and cut it into two pieces to form the cross. Each link weighs 45 pounds.
The massive unadorned cross is located alongside the church. The plaque at the Tomb of the Unknown Slave reads: On this October 30, 2004, we, the Faith Community of St. Augustine Catholic Church, dedicate this shrine consisting of grave crosses, chains and shackles to the memory of the nameless, faceless, turfless Africans who met an untimely death in Faubourg Treme …. The Tomb of the Unknown Slave is a constant reminder that we are walking on holy ground.
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