First Mass

June 16, 1720

Photos

Documentation

• Rev. Celestin M. Chambon, In and Around the Old St. Louis Cathedral of New Orleans (pp. 35, 96)

Notes

Services in what's now New Orleans go back further, though earlier records are murkier, attested mostly through letter-writing turf wars between Jesuits and Franciscans. This is specifically about the site of today's St. Louis Cathedral. Some sources cite 1718, when the first (surely simple, wooden) church was built on the site. Wikipedia's own article can't seem to make up its mind between 1718 and 1720 either. But the first surviving sacramental record -a nuptial Mass- is 1720, and I've verified this directly against Chambon's In and Around the Old St. Louis Cathedral of New Orleans. P. 35 lists "Father Prothay Boyer, 1720, a Recollet" as the first rector, serving from the city's founding to 1788. P. 96 quotes the actual parish register entry: a marriage record from July 1, 1720, referencing banns published at a parochial Mass on June 16, 1720, signed by Boyer as "missionary and acting pastor." I also checked every 1718 mention in the book — all three refer to Bienville founding the city, none to a church or Mass. No 1718 church/Mass date turns up in this source. So: 1718 has support elsewhere as a construction date, but 1720 is the attested date directly from the cited work, and it's what I'd list. The Old Ursuline Convent calls Boyer the "first rector," which I take as loose phrasing rather than a claim to more precise records. They also place it in the Diocese of Quebec at the time. He was a Recollet, and within a couple years the parish was handed to the Capuchins.