St. Agnes Catholic Church

The Beginnings

St. Agnes is located on a stretch of land which pioneers of the early 18th Century named 'Les Chapitoulas.' The land, a strip along the east bank of the Mississippi River, was distributed to early European investors and to a handful of Canadians struggling to survive along the Gulf Coast.
This distribution was in the form of company land grants issued by John Law's Company of the West (known as the Company of the Mississippi).
Old St. Agnes ChurchThe granting of land commenced almost simultaneously with the founding of New Orleans in 1718.

St. Agnes Parish comprised the riverfront portions of the original land grants of the Dubreuil, Chauvin, and St. Reyne concessions of 1724;
and the deLaBarre, Arnoult and D'Aquin family properties as they stood in 1824.

The original area name, Chapitoulas, is a combination of three Indian words meaning, "those who resided at the river."
It referred to the Chapitoula Indians, the first inhabitants of the land, a group which had become extinct by the 18th Century

In 1915, and area referred to as Suburban Acres was opened offering residential lots for sale. By 1930 approximately 300 Catholic families resided in the area prompting the establishment of the church parish of St. Agnes on March 1, 1931. The Rev. Father Charles F. Beauvais was appointed pastor of the new parish by Archbishop John William Shaw.

The First Place of Residence

Whitehall Plantation House, constructed in 1857, was the first place of residence. This building with a long and colorful history was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War. Whitehall served as rectory and church for St. Agnes Parish until January 20, 1932, when a refurbished nightclub became the second and most versatile home for the parish. Tranchina's Nightclub on Jefferson Ground Breaking of St. AgnesHighway in the Claiborne Gateway Subdivision was known to have been alive with raucous jazz, gambling, dancing, dining and the merriment of revelers in the late 1920s.

Old Church
By 1932, the growth of the parish necessitated larger parochial accommodations and after a tour of the now vacant building,
Father Moses Habeb, St. Agnes' second pastor, set about converting the gaudy club quarters into a suitable church.
For almost thirty-five years the old Tranchina Nightclub would serve the parishioners of St. Agnes as church, rectory, school convent, meeting rooms and housekeeper quarters.

In the fall of 1954, our third pastor, Father Arthur P. Brue, commenced plans for the construction of a new church to be built in Italian Romanesque style and in cruciform shape,
with a seating capacity of 1,000. The new St. Agnes Church was dedicated on Pentecost Sunday, June 9. 1957.

The Church's Unique Features

The bell system is comprised of four bells in the campanile (bell tower). Each bell - consecrated with Chrism - is identified by its own saint's name: The largest bell in the musical key of E is St. Agnes; the next bell in the key of G is Saint Theresa; then comes Saint Francis in the key of A; lastly, is St. Maria Goretti in the key of B.

Old Church

The windows in St. Agnes Church are executed from the finest mouthblown stained glass from Germany and Czechoslovakia. The four large transept windows depict scenes from the life of St. Agnes. In the nave of the church, the lower windows on the East side depict sequences of the 'Te Deum'. The lower window on the West side depicts 'The Coming Judgment'. The Rose window over the entrance to the church has in it the representations of the seven virtues - the theological virtues of faith, hope, charity; and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. The window in the small vestibule at the Claiborne Court entrance commemorates the Battle of New Orleans, and glorifies Our Lady of Prompt Succor who "saved our city from flood, sin, war and fire." Ascending the stairs to the choir loft is a window depicting St. Cecelia, the patroness of music in the Catholic Church.

The altar stone in St. Agnes Church contains relics of the Holy Martyrs Honorius & Eugenius. The main altar with three step platforms, the side altars, the baptismal font with service table and the statues with pedestals were carved from the Finest Italian marble in Pietrasanta, Italy.

The Biography of St Agnes

Agnes, our patron Saint, comes to us in differing traditions, but the essence of her spiritual strength is the same in all accounts: complete trust in God, fidelity in time of stress, virtue despite opposing social customs-a saintly life of purity and a martyr's death in faith.

Butler's Lives of the Saints presents us with a moving account, paraphrased as follows;

Saint Agnes was a beautiful young girl of 13 years
when she suffered martyrdom for the love
of Jesus Christ.
She lived in Rome about the year 304 A.D. Her riches
and beauty excited the young noblemen of Rome,
but she rejected them because of
her vow of virginity to Jesus.

Her suitors accused her of being a Christian at a time
when all followers of Christ were being persecuted.
Agnes was threatened with torture and ordered to
pay homage to false gods.
She steadfastly refused and
was at first condemned to death by fire.
Her faith remained constant
and she would not yield to her tormentors.
Agnes was ordered to be
beheaded and died under the executioner's sword.

Saint Agnes is one of the greatest of Christian saints.
She is a special patroness of bodily purity. Her feast day is celebrated January 21st.

From Butler: "In art St. Agnes is commonly represented
with a lamb and a palm, the lamb no doubt, being originally
suggested by the resemblance of the word 'agnus' (a lamb) to the name Agnes."

ST. AGNES, VIRGIN-MARTYR,

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