Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Campti will be celebrating its 195th Anniversary on September 13, with Rosary at 8:30 a.m., Mass at 9:00 a.m. and will conclude with brunch immediately following. Everyone is invited to celebrate this joyous blessing bestowed upon our community. History of Nativity of BVM: In 1831, land for …
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Campti will be celebrating its 195th Anniversary on September 13, with Rosary at 8:30 a.m., Mass at 9:00 a.m. and will conclude with brunch immediately following. Everyone is invited to celebrate this joyous blessing bestowed upon our community.
History of Nativity of BVM:
In 1831, land for a chapel in the town of Campti was donated by Miss Frances Crichet. This new chapel was blessed and dedicated in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin by Father Jean Baptiste Blanc of Natchitoches on September 8, 1831.
The congregation grew and in 1850, construction began on a new church under the direction of Father Philbert Jourdain, later named as pastor on October 19, 1851. Difficulties with the contractors forced Father Jourdain to retire to a monastery in France. A mortgage was negotiated and the church remained as a mission of Natchitoches until 1856 when Father Jean Baptiste Avenard was assigned as pastor. He succeeded in paying off the debt and helped to see his parish through the dark days of war and reconstruction. Campti was burned by Federal troops in 1864, but the church survived intact.
Following their initial arrival in the Diocese of Natchitoches in the late 1880s, the Sisters of Divine Providence established localized “convent schools” or small parochial schools adjacent to rural parishes and in 1894, the sisters established St. Cecilia’s School in Campti. Under Bishop Desmond, the parish was placed under the care of the Dominican Fathers in 1940.
Facing shifting regional demographics and the consolidation of Catholic education across the Diocese of Alexandria, St. Cecilia’s School permanently shut its doors in 1965.
Today, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the last remaining wood-frame antebellum church in the diocese. In 2003, Bishop Sam Jacobs designated the church in Campti as a ‘Proto-parish’ in the Diocese of Alexandira meaning it was an original parish within the Diocese of Natchitoches before it became the Diocese of Alexandria in 1910.
Natvitiy Church also serves the mission of Our Lady of the Rosary, Black Lake.
