In 1896, a group of French monks of the Augustinian order arrived in the Bayou Lafourche region to minister to the African-Americans of the area. Mission chapels were established at Bertrandville and Klotzville. A letter to Archbishop Janssens published in The Colored Harvest in 1889 speaks to the zeal of the Catholics in Klotzville: “All seemed full of enthusiasm. They have a really strong religious sentiment, and once it is touched, the effect is as if an electric shock has passed through the audience. A few evenings ago their voices made the very windows ring.” The Augustinian ministry was short-lived, however, and they left the bayou in 1899.
After ten years without a priest, this small group wanted their own church to serve God in peace and harmony. Their cry was, “Give us a priest and we will build the church.” In answer to this plea, the Josephite Fathers took charge of the Black Missions along Bayou Lafourche. On October 11, 1911, Father Favard, S.S.J. arrived as the first pastor of St. Benedict. From there, he ministered to the mission parish of St. Augustine. The first priority was the opening of a school at St. Benedict.
In 1918, a zealous missionary named Father Joseph Van Baast, S.S.J., arrived on the bayou. He established good, strong Catholic communities all along the upper Lafourche region, from St. Catherine of Siena in Donaldsonville to as far south as St. Luke in Thibodaux.
He was followed by Father Harry J. Maloney whose legacy was the construction of a fine church in Klotzville and a modern and complete school at St. Benedict in Bertrandville. He was a fearless champion of justice for his parishioners, and he inaugurated many reforms.