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BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™
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08 12 03 |
New Orleans Know-It-All
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The fleur de lis, a symbol of the French royal family
and government, shows up all over New Orleans --
even on the football field.
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Photo by Michael C. Hebert/ New Orleans Saints
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Hey Blake,
I feel kind of ashamed asking
about our most treasured and prominent symbol, but no one else seems to know
for sure. So I figured I'd ask you. What is the significance of the fleur de
lis, anyway?
Amelia Ward
Dear Amelia,
I'm glad you were not afraid to ask Old Blake
a question. And I'll be willing to bet that there are many others who will be
happy you did.
The fleur de lis is an iris, especially a
white-flowered form of iris germanica. It is also the heraldic lily, a device
consisting of a three-petaled iris flower, and is best known for having been
borne upon the royal arms of France. In addition, it referred to the French
royal family, the French flag (before 1789), and the French nation or government.
Louisiana was claimed by Sieur de la Salle
who sailed from the Great Lakes down the Mississippi River. On April 9, 1682,
at a point not far downstream from the present location of New Orleans, a cross
was erected with a column bearing the arms of France and an inscription claiming
the territory in the name of Louis XIV. And New Orleans was founded by Jean
Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who founded La Nouvelle Orleans in 1718
and named it in honor of the Regent of France, Philippe, Duc d'Orleans.
So it makes perfectly good sense that the
fleur de lis is so widely known and esteemed and seen just about everywhere
you go in our fine city.
Hey Blake,
Why is it that in the Irish
Channel two huge churches -- St. Alphonsus and St. Mary's -- were built directly
across the street from each other? Was there ever a substantial Catholic population
in that neighborhood to support both churches?
Chris Sitz
Dear Chris,
The answer is an emphatic yes. New Orleans
has always had a very large Catholic population, and the Irish Channel was no
exception.
The French who founded New Orleans in 1718
were Roman Catholic. The religious administration of the Colony was divided
among three Roman Catholic orders: the Jesuits, the Carmelites, and the Capuchins.
Care for the sick and education for girls were provided for by the Ursuline
nuns, who arrived in 1727 and founded Ursuline Convent. The first church was
the Church of St. Louis -- a Catholic church. And when the Spanish arrived in
1763, nothing changed. Catholicism in New Orleans remained the dominant religion.
Then in the 1800s, there began large-scale
immigration of German and Irish Catholics. One of the first churches built to
meet the need of the immigrants was St. Patrick's Church on Camp Street, built
first as a small wooden church in 1833. Then between 1845 and 1860, 14 more
Catholic churches were built.
The largest immigrant group in the first half
of the 19th century was the Irish. The famines of the 1840s brought thousands
to America. The next largest group of immigrants were the Germans, but many
only passed through on their way elsewhere. Those who stayed also tended to
settle in the Third and Fourth Districts with the Irish. The third largest immigrant
groups were the French-born who numbered 10,564 in 1860.
In the Irish Channel where many French, Irish,
and German immigrants lived, there were three Catholic churches. The French
went to Notre Dame de Bon Secours, the Germans to St. Mary's, and the Irish
to St. Alphonsus. The Redemptorists established St. Mary's Church for Germans
in 1845 and St. Alphonsus Church for the Irish and other English-speaking Catholics
in 1848. Notre Dame on Jackson Avenue (since demolished) was built in 1858 and
was the first Roman Catholic Church for the French in this part of the city.
The population of New Orleans in the 1860
was 168,675. Of this, 39 percent were immigrants, with 14 percent (24,398) of
those Irish and 12 percent (19,675) German. Also, just before the beginning
of the Civil War there were an estimated 65,000 Roman Catholics in the city
and its suburbs, and New Orleans was the principal Catholic center of the South.
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