St. Joseph, Paulina

Prior to 1849, the residents of the large plantation areas around Convent were served by the priests of St. Michael Church, which had been founded in 1812. This situation was a problem for the Catholics of the area, since there was an extreme shortage of roads and those in existence were often impassable. To help solve this problem two mission churches were established 10 miles on either side of St. Michael Church, St. Mary at Union and St. Joseph at Paulina.

The Paulina area began to experience rapid growth, which led in part to the replacement of the original small chapel with a larger church in 1877. In 1900, the mission was raised to the status of an independent parish. Father Raymond Plasmans, S.M. was appointed the first pastor of the new parish. In 1904, a mission chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Prompt Succor was established at Lutcher. The assistant priest at St. Joseph, Father Emile Fages S.M., preached in Italian as well as French at the mission chapel, which endeared him to the large Italian population in Lutcher.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Gramercy was established as a mission of St. Joseph in 1920.

Fire broke out at 11:15 a.m. on June 26, 1920, and completely burnt down the parish buildings, including the rectory, church and parish hall. The fire was caused by the over-heating of a newly installed gasoline hot water heater. One of the tragic losses of the fire was the complete loss of parish records. St. Joseph’s resident priest, Father Constantin Chauve, S.M., realized the importance of these sacramental records, and began a house-to house canvass to collect affidavits of these important events. He succeeded in reconstructing two volumes of baptismal records.

The church was soon rebuilt and was blessed on Dec. 10, 1921 by Archbishop Shaw. Eventually the need for a parochial school became evident, and in 1934 the parish hall was remodeled into a school building. The Dominican Sisters of New Orleans agreed to teach at the St. Joseph Parochial School, and in 1935 Archbishop Rummel blessed the building.

Recent years have been good to the people of St. Joseph. In 1997, the parish was clustered with Sacred Heart in Gramercy. St. Michael the Archangel joined the cluster in 2002. The benefits of
working together have been plentiful, and the future is bright for the Catholic Church on the east bank of St. James Parish.