This week marks a major milestone and a homecoming for St. Augustine, the Tremé landmark recognized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as the country’s oldest black Catholic church parish. It will celebrate its 185th anniversary mass and official return to its sanctuary after Hurricane Ida at 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 18.
St. Augustine was built in 1841 on the site of a plantation once owned by Claude Tremé. In the 1830s, free people of color petitioned Bishop Antoine Blanc for permission to build a church in the neighborhood. Construction began in 1839.
When it was completed and dedicated three years later, worshipers included free people of color, slaves, Creoles, Haitians, French, Spanish and Germans. Venerable Henriette Delille, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family and is a candidate for sainthood, took her religious vows at the altar of St. Augustine, and her 1862 funeral was held there…