St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

François Le Vézouët, the missionary the parish honors, was a Breton priest of Brélidy who served the Diocese of Natchitoches under Bishop Auguste Martin. In September 1873 yellow fever was killing Shreveport, which lost about a quarter of its people between August 21 and November 18. Jean-Marie Biler, himself ill, sent for him, and he arrived just before Biler died on September 26. He kept tending the dying until he caught the fever and died on October 8. His cause as one of five Servants of God drew the U.S. bishops' endorsement in 2023.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Jesup State Historic Site — 5.5 mi
  The 1822 army post Zachary Taylor built to hold the Neutral Ground between Louisiana and Spanish Texas, with the one surviving kitchen, a reconstructed officers' quarters and a museum open Friday to Sunday.
• North Toledo Bend State Park — 15 mi
  A 900-acre park on the Louisiana shore of the 186,000-acre Toledo Bend Reservoir, with trails, disc golf and cabins, near the flooded sites of Pine Flat and other Sabine Parish communities.
• Los Adaes State Historic Site — 15 mi
  The Spanish presidio that was the capital of Texas from 1729 to 1770, some 15 miles from French Natchitoches, now an archaeological site where Native pottery is the most abundant find.
• Red Hills Lake Recreation Area — 22 mi
  A 19-acre Sabine National Forest lake completed by the CCC in 1940 near Milam, a short drive from Toledo Bend Reservoir, with a swimming beach, fishing and camping from May through October.

More markers nearby

• Baldwin's Store — steps away
• Sabine High School — 0.4 mi
• Village of Fisher — 5.2 mi
• El Camino Real — 5.5 mi