St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle

St. Augustine is the church of Isle Brevelle, the Cane River community of Creoles of color descended from Marie Thérèse Coincoin and Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer. The Diocese of Alexandria says their eldest son, Augustin Metoyer, came home from France in 1801 determined to build a church, and that with his brother Louis he built the first chapel on his plantation in 1803. The parish registers, though, document the chapel's founding in July 1829 as a mission of St. François of Natchitoches, and 1803 is tradition. Either way, the National Park Service describes it as the first church in the country funded, built and run by free people of color.

The Metoyer family, free people of color, also held enslaved people. In 1836 Augustin announced he would give the land, church and cemetery for his family and other Catholics. In March 1856 Bishop Auguste Martin made it a parish, and Augustin died in December of that year. The present church was completed in 1917 after earlier buildings were lost, and it was rededicated on February 24, 2001.

The church is at 2262 Highway 484 and is a working parish. Mass is Saturday at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m.; groups can call the office at 318-379-2521.