Sts. Anthony of Padua & Emmanuel Le Van Phung, Baton Rouge

Sts. Anthony of Padua and Emmanuel Le Van Phung Church is a parish with a unique name and a unique makeup. With humble beginnings and a spirit of loyalty, love, endeavor and faith, this parish has undergone tremendous change during its almost 100-year history.

It remains a welcoming place of refuge and prayer. It began in 1915 when the St. Anthony Society was established to assist the Italian immigrants coming to Baton Rouge. The society made a donation for the construction of a chapel to serve the needs of these immigrants. St. Anthony was a mission of St. Joseph, Baton Rouge in an area north of the city limits, covering neighborhoods known as Suburb Istrouma, Standard Heights and Fairfields. In 1920, Archbishop Shaw appointed Father Ralph Vincent Lawrence as the first pastor of St. Anthony of Padua, a parish of about 225 families. The original parish boundaries extended from the Mississippi River to the Amite River and northward to the East Baton Rouge Parish line with the exception of Port Hudson. Tremendous growth was experienced during the early years, and a larger church was constructed in 1922. Three missions were attached to St. Anthony: St. John in the Plains, Zachary, St. Isidore, Baker and St. Francis, Greenwell Springs (now St. Alphonsus).

By 1937, St. Anthony Parish had 2800 Catholics. The area was booming with new industrial plants, drawing new residents into the already crowded north Baton Rouge suburbs. A third church and a school were constructed to handle the growing congregation. The school was administered by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Over the years, the boundaries of St. Anthony Parish changed as new parishes were established within the city, including St. Gerard, Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Mercy and St. Charles Borromeo. In 1946, a high school was added, which became a high school for girls in 1948. In the late 1940s, a cafeteria, gymnasium and new schoolrooms were constructed, and a new convent completed in 1952. A new church was finally completed in 1953.

Several factors were at work in the 1960s which changed the area around St. Anthony Church: a zoning shift from residential to industrial, construction of the I-110 expressway for which many homes were leveled, and a new wave of suburbs toward the south and east of Baton Rouge. St. Anthony high school closed in 1967 and in 1985 the elementary school closed.

A rebirth for St. Anthony occurred in 1988 when the Vietnamese community became a part of St. Anthony Parish and an Incarnatio ConsecratioMissio Society Seminary was opened there. Soon after, the parish was renamed Sts. Anthony of Padua and Emmanuel Le Van Phung. Canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II, St. Emmanuel Le Van Phung is one of the Holy Martrys of Vietnam. The buildings and grounds have been transformed and a new, energetic spirit is evident in this multicultural community.