St. Benedict the Moor- Napoleonville, La

09/11/2026

New Final Deadline: Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. You can turn your order forms to St. Ben in an envelope. Cash Only orders. Last Call!!!!

09/05/2026

08/28/2026

***VENDOR LIST***
Come out to the St. Augustine Pop Up Festival this Sunday!!

08/21/2026

In 1842, free people of color in the Tremé neighborhood pulled off something almost nobody expects to hear about antebellum Louisiana: they out-bought white parishioners for pews at St. Augustine Catholic Church. ⛪ When the church was being built, free Black Creole families and white residents competed to purchase pews, and the free people of color won decisively, buying up more seats than the white families who had tried to control the parish.

Then they did something even more remarkable. Those same free families turned around and purchased an entire side aisle of pews specifically for enslaved worshippers, guaranteeing that enslaved people would have a dedicated place inside the church at a time when many congregations barred them entirely or forced them into standing room only. Locals at the time called it the War of the Pews, and it remains one of the clearest documented examples of free people of color using their limited economic power to protect enslaved members of their own community.

St. Augustine still holds Mass today, and in 2004 the church dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Slave in its courtyard, a memorial made of chains and a cross honoring enslaved people buried in unmarked graves throughout New Orleans. The congregation is still mixed, still active, and still standing on the same ground where that 1842 pew fight happened. 🕯️ Does your family have a home church with a history like this one, one that goes back further than anyone currently living can fully explain?

08/07/2026

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