About Our Lady of Bon Secour · Bon Secour, Alabama
Our Lady of Bon Secour is a small Roman Catholic mission chapel in the unincorporated fishing community of Bon Secour, Baldwin County, Alabama, on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. It is a mission of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Magnolia Springs and falls under the care of the pastor of that parish within the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mobile. The chapel offers one weekly Mass — Sunday at 11:00 AM — for the Catholic faithful of the lower Bon Secour, Foley and Gulf Shores corridor, and it is supported in part by the parish's St. Anne Guild, which cares for its altar and liturgical needs. Its story is rooted in the French-Catholic heritage of the Bon Secour River valley: the present building was originally erected across the river in 1890, then dismantled piece-by-piece and reassembled on its current site after the devastating hurricane of 1917.
- Established
- 1890
- Patron
- Our Lady of Bon Secour (the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title 'Our Lady of Good Help/Succor')
- Rector
- Rev. Nicholas Napolitano (Pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Magnolia Springs, which shepherds the Our Lady of Bon Secour mission)
- Diocese
- Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mobile
Why belong here
Our Lady of Bon Secour is one of the most historic Catholic worship sites in Baldwin County — a tiny 1890 chapel moved across the Bon Secour River after the 1917 hurricane — and offers a quiet, traditional Sunday Mass in a small coastal-mission setting. As part of the St. John the Baptist parish family, its members have access to the parish's wider sacramental life, faith formation, and outreach (including the St. Anne Guild, which explicitly tends both worship sites). For Catholics living in or visiting the Bon Secour, Gulf Shores and lower Foley area, it is a convenient Sunday Mass and a tangible link to the French-Catholic heritage of the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Mass times at Our Lady of Bon Secour
Weekly Mass schedule
Our Lady of Bon Secour — History
The mission chapel traces its roots to 1890, when the first Roman Catholic church in the Bon Secour area — originally named Our Lady of Good Health — was built on the south side of the Bon Secour River on land near the LaCoste home, generally believed to have been a gift of the LaCoste family. Before that, Mass had been celebrated privately in either the Cook or the LaCoste home. Bishop Jeremiah O'Sullivan of Mobile recorded the dedication in his diary around 1890. After the hurricane of 1917 badly damaged the small church, the faithful carefully dismantled it and carried it piece by piece across the river, reassembling it on land given by Mrs. Odile Cook Bertrand — on the very spot where the Nicholas Cook house had stood. Mrs. Bertrand asked that the rebuilt church be renamed Our Lady of Bon Secour, the name it carries today.
- Original name: Our Lady of Good Health
- Original dedication: c. 1890 by Bishop Jeremiah O'Sullivan
- Damaged in the 1917 hurricane
- Dismantled and reassembled across the Bon Secour River
- Renamed Our Lady of Bon Secour at the request of Mrs. Odile Cook Bertrand
Connection to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church
Our Lady of Bon Secour is administered as a mission of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Magnolia Springs, which is itself a parish of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mobile. The two worship sites share a pastor, parish staff and key ministries; the parish offices, staffed by Administrative Assistant Wanda Tyson, can be reached at (251) 965-7719 and [email protected]. Together the parish describes its mission as 'men and women after the Heart of Jesus, seeking to grow in virtue and holiness… the city set on a mountaintop, pointing the way to the Lord.'
- Parent parish: St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Magnolia Springs, AL
- Pastor: Rev. Nicholas Napolitano
- Parish office: (251) 965-7719
- Parish email: [email protected]
- Parent parish website: stjohnms.com
Parish Staff & Clergy
Because Our Lady of Bon Secour is a mission, it is shepherded by the clergy and staff of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Magnolia Springs. The pastor of record serving the mission is Rev. Nicholas Napolitano, a priest of the Archdiocese of Mobile ordained in 2017 who has served as pastor of St. John the Baptist since 2020. The parish Administrative Assistant, Wanda Tyson, can be reached through the parish office for matters related to the mission.
- Rev. Nicholas Napolitano — Pastor
- Wanda Tyson — Administrative Assistant (parish office)
Ministries & Groups
As a small mission, Our Lady of Bon Secour shares in the ministries of its parent parish. The most directly connected ministry is the St. Anne Guild (the successor to the parish's Ladies Altar Sodality), whose work explicitly includes 'the care of the Altars of St. John the Baptist and Our Lady of Bon Secour,' along with liturgical needs, bereavement and funeral support, and outreach to the wider community. The Guild stands on three pillars: Spiritual Motherhood, Communion of Catholic Women, and the financial care of the parish and surrounding community. Additional ministries offered at the parish level (such as faith formation, youth ministry, and outreach) are organized through St. John the Baptist and are available to mission members.
- St. Anne Guild — cares for the altars of both worship sites
- Bereavement and funeral support
- Spiritual Motherhood prayer apostolate
- Community outreach (parish-level, through St. John the Baptist)
Sacraments
Our Lady of Bon Secour does not maintain a separate online schedule for confession or other sacraments. Sacramental preparation, weddings, baptisms, and confession appointments are coordinated through St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Magnolia Springs. Visitors seeking the sacrament of Reconciliation are directed to the parent parish, where confession is available multiple days each week.
- Confession appointments: arranged through St. John the Baptist parish office
- Baptism, Marriage, Anointing: coordinated through the parent parish
Diocese & Catholic Identity
Our Lady of Bon Secour is part of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mobile, which covers much of southern Alabama and is the mother see of the Province of Mobile. As a Latin-Rite (Roman) mission chapel, it celebrates the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite in English and participates in the wider life of the archdiocese through its parent parish, St. John the Baptist.
- Diocese: Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mobile
- Rite: Roman (Latin) Rite
- Status: Mission of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church
Heritage of Bon Secour
The chapel's story cannot be separated from the village it serves. Bon Secour was named by Jacques Cook, a French Canadian from Montreal who came to the river in 1699 as part of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville's colonizing expedition and later took part in the founding of Mobile in 1702. The name 'Bon Secour' — French for 'good help' or 'safe harbor' — was given to both the river and the bay. The Spanish had earlier called the same waterway 'Rio del Socorro.' The community's salt-making during the Civil War, its French-Catholic roots, and the slow rhythms of life on the Bon Secour River all shaped the small wooden chapel that has watched over the village since 1890.
- Village named 'Bon Secour' (good help / safe harbor) by Jacques Cook, 1699
- Founded as a French fishing village
- Site of salt-making during the U.S. Civil War
- Strong French-Catholic heritage that shaped the chapel's identity