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OUR LADY OF THE GULF
Stirring Times Seen in Early History of Seat of Coast Deanery; Fathers Buteux, LeDuc Figure in Origins; Present Church of Our Lady of the Gulf, Imposing
By Rev. Leo F. Fahey
Long before the advent of the French explorers, the city of Bay St. Louis was an Indian village bearing the name of Achoupoulou. In all probability, Robert Cavalier de La Salle was the first white man to explore this part of the coast. Jacques de la Metairie, the official historian of La Salle’s expedition, tells us that on April 7,1682, La Salle went to reconnoiter the shores of the Gulf coast. Six years later the faithful Tonti came as far as the Gulf to seek tidings of his lost friend.
When Pierre le Moyne d’lberville came to plant the “Fleur de Lis” of France on the Gulf coast, his attention was drawn to this little village. French, the historian, tells us: “On the 12th day of April, 1699, dlberville set out to visit a bay about nine leagues from Ship Island, to which he gave the name of St. Louis. But finding the water very shallow there he concluded to fix his settlement at Biloxi.” This, however, was just a casual visit to sound the depths of the water, and it remained for his brother, Jean Baptist le Moyne Bienville, to set foot on the land and give it the present name. This he did on the feast of St. Louis, August 25, 1699.