Nearly five years after Hurricane Ida tore apart its roof and sent water pouring into the sanctuary, St. Augustine Catholic Church in Tremé marked a long-awaited homecoming Sunday, celebrating its 185th anniversary with a Mass inside the historic building it had been forced to abandon. The congregation, recognized as the oldest Black Catholic parish in the country, gathered at 10 a.m. for the service that doubled as both a celebration of survival and a formal return to the sanctuary at the corner of Gov. Nicholls and Henriette Delille streets.
The parish’s pastor, Emmanuel Mulenga, recalled that the church held Mass the very Sunday after Ida struck in 2021, even as the storm’s damage became clear, according to NOLA.com. Hurricane Ida caused catastrophic roof damage that led to water seepage in the main sanctuary, as reported by Black Catholic Messenger. Windows were blown out and water damage crumbled plaster throughout the building, according to a 2023 report from nola.com, which found the church still shuttered two years after the storm, with repairs unfinished as of July 2023.
A Five-Year Wait Finally Ends
Mass moved into the adjoining church hall while repairs dragged on, and the congregation did not return to its historic edifice for its first Sunday service until June 7, per Black Catholic Messenger. Mulenga described the congregation’s spirit throughout the ordeal as persevering, saying the parish had been tested, NOLA.com reported. Much of the cost fell on the parish itself: the church spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on repairs, and paid out of pocket more than $500,000 for work not covered by insurance or FEMA, per Mulenga’s account to the paper, even as insurance and FEMA helped cover a portion of the hurricane repairs.
Covington-based Regal Construction carried out the repair work, the paper reported, and the church’s 180-year-old iron steeple cross was reinstalled in 2024, according to Black Catholic Messenger. A $2.5 million fundraising campaign for maintenance and upkeep, launched in 2019, has drawn support from donors including Gayle Benson, Terry and Lynette Dufrene, and Miriam Gonzales, as well as the Friends of Tremé Culture, per NOLA.com. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund separately awarded the parish a $200,000 grant, which St. Augustine Catholic Church says will support masonry and plaster repair and restoration. Black Catholic Messenger notes that further fundraising will still be needed to address peeling plaster and other age-related deterioration.
Nearly Two Centuries of Faith and Resistance
St. Augustine’s roots stretch back to 1841, when free people of color received permission from Bishop Antoine Blanc to raise money and build a new church, according to NOLA.com. The building was dedicated on Oct. 9, 1842, per Verite News, and was named in honor of St. Augustine of Hippo, rising on land that had formerly been part of the plantation redeveloped by Claude Treme, NOLA.com reported. In what became known as the War of the Pews in the 1840s, free people of color purchased pews for themselves and for enslaved people, with congregation members buying seats to raise money for the fledgling church, per the paper’s account…