HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH ACADEMY (SJA) and OUR LADY ACADEMY (OLA)
and
OUR LADY OF THE WOODS SHRINE
Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church and St. Joseph Academy (right of church) prior to the fire of 1907
OLA was founded in 1971, and was established on the grounds of another all-female school called St. Joseph Academy which provided education to young women from 1855 to 1967. Please read below for a more comprehensive account of SJA and OLA history.
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On July 28, 1847 the bishop of the Diocese of Natchez appointed Reverend Louis Stanislaus Mary Buteux, pastor of Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Pearl River, Jordan and Wolf River areas.
In 1848, the cornerstone was laid for the first Church.
In 1852, Fr. Buteux opened a school for boys and placed the Christian Brothers in charge. This school closed in 1853, due to the yellow fever epidemic,
In 1854, Fr. Buteux opened St. Stanislaus College, a school for young men, under the direction of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. The school was named after the patron saint of Fr. Buteux.
Fr. Buteux then traveled to France and obtained the Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg to commit to open a school for girls. It was on January 6, 1855, that three Sisters of St. Joseph of Bourg finally reached their destination at Bay St. Louis. On Sunday, January 7, 1855, the bishop formally installed the Sisters of St. Joseph in their new mission and first foundation in America.
In September 1855 the sisters were able to open a school. St. Joseph's Academy (SJA), with an enrollment of 33 pupils. One small room served the triple purpose of classroom, dining room, and kitchen.
There was so much work to be done, that the three sisters begged for more help from France. Fr. Buteux crossed the ocean again and requested more sisters from the Mother General, Mother St. Claude. In May 1856, three more sisters arrived from France. On August 14, 1858, another two more sisters arrived in the Bay.
Mother Esperance now erected a boarding school which opened in 1861. It soon counted 80 boarders.
Shortly after the Civil War, in 1866, SJA was flourishing. The increase in enrollment necessitated a larger building. In l871, SJA was chartered by the Legislature of Mississippi.
In the year 1905, the Sisters celebrated their Silver Jubilee. At that time, they had an enrollment of 149 girls, including both boarders and day scholars.
As time went on, the various works progressed, new buildings had to be added and more land purchased.
Then on the night of November 16, 1907, fire completely destroyed all their buildings.
In the morning, nothing but smoldering ruins remained of the school built at the cost of so much labor and sacrifice. In a few hours the work of 53 years vanished in smoke.
Like the pioneer missionaries, the Daughters of St. Joseph went to work immediately. They rented the old Von Gohrem home on North Beach Blvd (known as Point Comfort) and continued the school session. By March of the following year, a new and greater SJA was built, a three story brick building, Romanesque in style. By October it was ready for occupancy.
In 1923 the Academy was affiliated with the Catholic University at Washington, District of Columbia, and in 1924, it was necessary for Fr. Gmelch, the pastor, to build an annex on the church property to acommodate the increased enrollment,
The Sisters conducted a day school for black children until 1923.
On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, St. Joseph Memorial Hall was erected in 1930. Roman in architecture, this two story brick building included music and science departments, a gymnasium, and an auditorium
From a very modest beginning, St. Joseph Academy had grown to the status of a high school, accredited by the State of Mississippi and by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
In 1955, the enrollment at SJA was 455 students.
Due to severe damages from Hurricane Betsy in 1965, SJA struggled to recover, but had to the close at the end of the 1966-67 session, at which time the enrollment included 282 students. The school may have had a chance of reopening again, but the Bay St. Louis area suffered a further catastrophic blow from Hurricane Camille in 1969.
The impetus to establish Our Lady Academy in August 1971 was the expressed needs of the community to provide Catholic education for ladies at the junior and senior high school level. The school opened with an enrollment of 83, consisted of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders, and utilized the St. Joseph Academy gymnasium complex and annex and a new brick structure built under the leadership of Monsignor Gregory Johnson, then pastor of Our Lady of the Gulf Parish. Although administered by the Sisters of Mercy, OLA also belongs to the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi MS.
Monsignor Johnson served as the first principal of the school. During the 1972 academic year, the school was staffed by one priest and six lay teachers. The beginning enrollment for the 1972-73 school year included 113 students in the 7th through 10th grades. The 11th grade was added in 1973; and the 12th grade, in 1974.
The school graduated its first senior class in May 1975.
Dr. Michael Ryan followed Msgr. Johnson as principal from 1977-1981.
Reverend James Russell succeeded Dr. Ryan from 1981-1982.
The Sisters of Mercy assumed the administration of OLA in 1982, with Sr. Virginia Marascoas as principal from 1982-1985, followed by Sr. Jacqueline (Jackie) Howard from 1985-1991. Sr. Donella Hartman was principal in 1991-2004.
On graduation day in 1993, the foundation was laid for a new classroom building (Mercy Hall). Mercy Hall was dedicated by Bishop Howze on September 1, 1993.
The 1995-1996 enrollment was 270 students.
Due to a growing demand for Catholic education in our area of the Coast and the lack of classroom space, the adjacent Bay Catholic Elementary School and Our Lady Academy endeavored on a joint capital campaign to construct additional classroom facilities and a gymnasium.
Sr. Jackie Howard returned in 2004 to become OLA's principal again, and is currently in that role.
By 2005, OLA was really thriving. The campus consisted of 4 major buildings for classrooms, offices, and studios, (McAuley Hall, Mercy Hall, Johnson Hall, and St. Joseph Hall) as well as a cafeteria/commons area, and a gymnasium. Enrollment was not only up, but there were frequently waiting lists. The school was thriving, academics and test scores were top notch, the sports teams were playing hard and winning, and other OLA activities and community service were flourishing.
OLA sustained a major setback later in the year from Hurricane Katrina which struck Bay St. Louis hard on August 29, 2005. Like their predecessors that founded and rebuilt SJA after the fire in 1907, the OLA staff, faculty, students, parents, alumnae, and other supporters did not shy away from the catastrophic damage and the challenges that they faced. With great faith, hope, and determination, they worked together to reopen the school only 2 months later on November 1, 2005. OLA’s reopening and continued progress to rebuild and fully recover would not be possible without the help from local supporters, as well as numerous out-of-town supporters who have donated time, talent, supplies, materials, and money to OLA.
There are definite links between SJA and Our Lady Academy, in addition to the SJA graduates whose daughters also attended SJA or OLA. The very strongest bond is the Blessed Virgin Mary. While Mary, Star of the Sea, was watching over our pioneer Sisters during their voyage to America, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was declared in Rome on December 8, 1854. The Sisters of St. Joseph labored in the shadow of Mary's protection for the next 100 years. Here in Bay St. Louis, the sisters were to have a great joy of a shrine erected in Mary's honor on their own property.
The Statue of Our Lady of the Woods was erected by Reverend Stanislaus Buteux in 1858. On one of his voyages between Europe and America a violent storm arose. The boat sprang a leak; destruction was inevitable. In the face of imminent shipwreck, Fr. Buteaux fell upon his knees, invoked the protection of the Blessed Virgin, and promised, if their lives were spared, to erect a shrine in her honor. Miraculously, the vessel, destitute of mast and sail, entered safely into port.
A few months later a statue arrived from France. Gathering his parishioners about him, and accompanied by the Sisters of St Joseph and the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Father Buteux carried the statue of Our Lady in procession to the rear of the Academy grounds, then a wilderness. Here, he placed the statue upon its pedestal, the trunk of a tree felled for that purpose. Soon the sisters provided a wooden pedestal and began to plant the lovely avenue of cedars that leads to the Shrine. Many hurricanes, storms, and destructive events have come and go since this time, but the Statue of Our Lady of the Woods has never been destroyed or damaged since the shrine was erected.
The Our Lady of the Woods shrine (seen below after Hurricane Katrina) survived completely intact after the storm despite destruction all around it.
This brief history brings you from the beginning of SJA to the present-time OLA. SJA began the tradition of educating young women, and continuing the mission of the Church. OLA continues this tradition today. With the help of many supporters and benefactors, OLA hopes to continue this tradition well into the future.
We need help from many people to keep the all-female education tradition alive in Bay St. Louis. OLA is currently the only all-female school in the state of Mississippi.
From the time of SJA and OLA’s foundings to the present time, the school’s administrators and faculty have continued and are still continuing what Jesus instructed us to do:
"Go, and make disciples of all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always".
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