St. Augustine Catholic Church was dedicated in 1842 under Bishop Antoine Blanc and is the oldest African-American parish in the nation. The Church is named for Saint Augustine of Hippo, an African bishop who lived from 354 to 430 A.D. A few months before the dedication of St. Augustine Church in 1842, Free People of Color began to purchase pews for their families.

When white people in the area heard about this, they began a campaign to buy more pews than the Free People of Color. The “War of the Pews,” as it became known, was won by the Free People of Color who not only bought three pews to every one purchased by the whites but in an unprecedented social, political and religious move, they also bought all the pews on both side aisles for use by the enslaved as their exclusive place of worship. This mix of the pews resulted in the most integrated congregation in the entire country. St. Augustine continues to celebrate its history by integrating traditional New Orleans elements into its services.

The church was designed by the French architect J.N.B. de Pouilly, who also designed St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. The Tomb of the Unknown Slave is on the grounds of St. Augustine. The tomb commemorates the remains of slaves buried in unmarked graves. Considering that the slaves had little or nothing, plain crosses in the ground depict the stark fact that numerous unknown slaves are buried at random here and in many locales around the nation. *Sunday Mass is at 10AM.