St. Augustine Catholic Church

On Isle Brevelle in July 1829, Father Jean Baptiste Blanc consecrated a chapel "erected through the care and generosity" of Nicolas Augustin Metoyer, aided by his brother Louis. Parish records identify this as the founding of the Chapel of St. Augustine, established as a mission of the church of St. François in Natchitoches. The consecration report is precise: the building was dedicated to St. Augustine and placed under the protection of that saint. Tradition credits Louis Metoyer—who founded nearby Melrose Plantation—as the chapel's designer and builder. St. Augustine is the oldest surviving Black Catholic church in the United States. It was the first church in Louisiana built by and for free people of color, and remains among the oldest churches in America founded and built by and for African Americans. The Metoyer family descended from Marie Thérèse Coincoin, formerly enslaved, who built a plantation empire on the Cane River; Wikipedia reports her sons were the architect and patron families of St. Augustine. The church became the cultural center of the Cane River area's French, Spanish, Native American, and Black Creole community—the gens de couleur libres of Isle Brevelle. Surviving pew records document something almost unheard of in the antebellum South: the front seats were occupied by the Créole de couleur Metoyer family who built the chapel, with the families of prominent white planters seated behind them. In 1856, the mission was decreed a parish in its own right and assigned its first resident priest. Union forces are said to have torched the original structure in May 1864 during the Red River campaign. A second church burned in the early 1900s. The present building was completed in 1917. An oil portrait titled "Papa Augustin Metoyer" (c. 1836)—showing the founder in a Prince Albert coat—hung at Melrose Plantation until the 1970s, when it went to auction. The pastor brought the oldest descendants of Nicolas Augustin Metoyer to the auction; they pleaded to be allowed to purchase the painting for the Isle Brevelle community. It has hung in the church since. The adjacent cemetery holds generations of Cane River Creole families. St. Augustine is an active parish, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and marked as a destination on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. Visitors are welcome during non-service hours. The church is located south of Natchitoches on Highway 484.