A Catholic New Orleans bucket list

Catholic sites in New Orleans

New Orleans shines with that luminous Catholic maxim, "both/and." She is a city that offers a feast for the body and the soul. Along with the andouille gumbo and crawfish étoufée, uptown parades and jazz funerals, clacking streetcars and Spanish moss, New Orleans also has a deep, rich Catholic history—maybe the richest in the United States.

It's hard to walk more than a few blocks in this city without encountering a beautiful church, historic Catholic site, or a place touched by a saint. Take a weekend, a day, or just a few hours between beignets and balconies to make a pilgrimage to these sacred places.

The French Quarter and Treme

• St Louis Cathedral: The oldest continuously-operating cathedral in the United States is a place visited by saints and popes, as well as the center of Catholic faith in the Big Easy. Don’t miss the baptismal font where Pope Leo’s relatives were baptized!

• The “Touchdown Jesus” statue in St Anthony’s Gardens behind the cathedral: A beloved Sacred Heart statue whose fingers were broken during Hurricane Katrina became a symbol of the city’s healing after the devastating storm. 

• The Old Ursuline Convent: The oldest existing building in the Mississippi Valley (dating from 1752), where the French Ursulines established the first convent and Catholic school of the New World. It’s now a small museum with exhibits on the Ursulines, local Catholic culture, Catholic history, and Pope Leo’s family in New Orleans.

• St Mary’s Italian Church: Built as a chapel for the archbishops of New Orleans, the church later became the center of worship for Sicilian immigrants who lived in the French Quarter; Pope Leo XIV’s great-grandparents were also married here.

• St Louis Cemetery No 1: One of the city’s oldest cemeteries with iconic above-ground tombs that hold the remains of many New Orleans Catholic legends (accessed by tour only).

• St Louis Cemetery No 2: Contains the burial sites of Venerable Henriette Delille and her fellow founding sisters (contact the Archdiocese to schedule a visit; the cemetery is not open to the public).

• Venerable Henriette Delille’s home on Burgundy Street: The gentle Creole saint was born and raised in this little house owned by her mother (a private residence now, so just walk by the exterior).

• Mother Delille Memorial: A golden memorial medallion graces the sidewalk of Royal Street behind the cathedral.

• The Bourbon Orleans Hotel: Once the site of debaucherous balls before Mother Delille’s Sisters of the Holy Family purchased the property and reconsecrated it for their ministry.

• St Frances Cabrini’s first ministry center on St Philip Street: The tenement house Mother Cabrini bought in 1892 and  first established her ministry, including a convent, day nursery, and orphanage for Italian immigrant children amid yellow fever and violent xenophobia (a private residence now, so just walk by the exterior).

• The St Jude Shrine (Our Lady of Guadalupe/the Old Mortuary Chapel): Built as a funeral chapel for yellow fever victims, St Jude is now home to an eclectic array of devotions—you’ll find a Lourdes grotto replica; a famed statue of St Expedite connected to an inveterate devotion; and a shrine dedicated to St Jude, marked by a dinosaur-sized statue of the Apostle along with a first-class relic. 

• St Augustine Church: The first and oldest Black Catholic parish in the United States is connected to a host of significant Black Catholics like Homer Plessy. The parish campus also houses the Tomb of the Unknown Slave, a memorial dedicated to honor the enslaved Catholics who died unknown except to God.. 

The Central Business District (CBD) and Warehouse District 

13. Immaculate Conception Church (Jesuit Church): A golden jewel with unique Moorish architecture and stained glass telling the story of the early Jesuits. An altar shipped from Lyon after it won first prize at the Paris World Exposition. The statue of Our Lady belonged to the last queen of France. 

14. St Patrick Church: Established in 1833 for Irish Catholics who couldn’t understand the French spoken at St Louis Cathedral and many other parishes, St Patrick’s was the first in New Orleans to offer Mass in English. Buried here is the parish’s first pastor, Fr James Mullon, who was a cousin of the Irish martyr St Oliver Plunkett.  

The Garden District and Irish Channel

15. The National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos (St Mary’s Assumption): The parish once served by Fr Seelos that now houses his tomb, shrine, and a museum of his life. (Save time for the wonderful gift shop!) Volunteers staff the shrine to administer prayer and veneration with a first class relic contained in a cross owned by Seelos. 

16. St Mary’s Chapel: A tiny, rustic chapel marks the site where the Redemptorists established the first German Catholic parish in Louisiana.

Uptown 

• St Katharine Drexel’s home on Magazine Street: Mother Drexel and her sisters occupied the third floor while below, they opened Xavier Preparatory School to educate Black and Native American students.

• The National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor: Situated on State Street at the current Ursuline Academy campus, the shrine houses the miraculous Marian “Sweetheart” statue brought from France by the Ursulines. Our Lady of Prompt Succor is credited with saving the city from a catastrophic historic fire and securing the unlikely American victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

• St Francis of Assisi Church: A parish founded in 1890 to serve the German, French, and Irish immigrants filling the new streetcar suburbs along the river.

• St Stephen Basilica (Good Shepherd Parish): Famous for its dramatic, soaring 200-foot spire on Napoleon Avenue, this historic German/Irish masterpiece features mesmerizing stained-glass windows and an awe-inspiring, cathedral-scale interior. Look for the windows depicting St Vincent de Paul working in Paris. 

Lakeview and New Orleans East 

• University of New Orleans lakefront campus: Pope St. John Paul II famously celebrated Mass here for a sea of young people in 1987. (He also went to the Superdome downtown, so you can blend football and pilgrimage!)

• Mary, Queen of Vietnam: After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Archdiocese of New Orleans sponsored a massive wave of refugees who needed new homes. In December 1983, the Archdiocese officially established Mary Queen of Vietnam, the first Vietnamese personal parish in the United States.

Midcity 

• St Frances Cabrini Chapel and convent: Schedule a tour with Cabrini High School of Mother Cabrini’s chapel, residence area, and a small museum of her personal effects. 

• Our Lady of the Holy Rosary: Nestled near City Park on Esplanade Avenue, this beautiful, historic sanctuary is a peaceful, community-centered haven of traditional piety and architectural elegance.

• Pitot House: Another property occupied by Mother Cabrini and her sisters; one of the city's oldest Creole-colonial structures whose interesting history of owners includes the great-grandmother of painter Edgar Degas. 

• St Roch Cemetery: An active Catholic cemetery known for exquisite religious artwork like its Italian-made stations of the cross. The Gothic chapel features numerous interesting ex votos (gratitude offerings) on display. The chapel was built by a local pastor in gratitude for St Roch’s intercessory protection of his congregation during New Orleans’ 1867 yellow fever epidemic.

Go differently

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