About Sacred Heart · Pecan Island, Louisiana
Sacred Heart Mission is a small Roman Catholic mission chapel located in the unincorporated Cajun community of Pecan Island, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, in the Diocese of Lafayette. It is a mission church of St. Anne Parish in Cow Island, and serves the predominantly Cajun Catholic population of this remote Gulf-coast chenier community about ten miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Saturday evening Mass is celebrated at the chapel, which sits along West Highway 82 on the island's main road. Like its parent parish, Sacred Heart is part of the West Deanery of the Diocese of Lafayette.
- Patron
- Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Rector
- Rev. Suresh Mathangi (Pastor of St. Anne Church, Cow Island, which administers Sacred Heart Mission)
- Diocese
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana
Why belong here
Sacred Heart Mission offers a small, tight-knit Catholic worship community for the residents of Pecan Island and the surrounding marshlands. As a mission of St. Anne Parish in Cow Island, it brings the Mass and the sacraments to a remote Gulf-coast community that would otherwise be a long drive from the nearest parish church. For Cajun families on the chenier — many of them multi-generational parishioners — Sacred Heart is the parish home where they keep the faith alive in one of Louisiana's most distinctive and storm-tested landscapes.
Mass times at Sacred Heart
Weekly Mass schedule
Overview
Sacred Heart Mission is a small Roman Catholic mission chapel in Pecan Island, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. It is part of the West Deanery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette and serves as a mission of St. Anne Catholic Church in nearby Cow Island. The chapel is located at 28220 West Highway 82 in the heart of Pecan Island, the unincorporated Cajun community that sits on a chenier ridge in the marsh roughly ten miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
- Type: Mission chapel
- Diocese: Lafayette
- Deanery: West
- Parent parish: St. Anne, Cow Island (est. 1933)
History
The Pecan Island community (French: La Pacanière) was settled largely by families of Cajun ancestry who worked the surrounding marsh and cattle range. Sacred Heart Mission grew up alongside the community as one of the worship sites administered from St. Anne Parish in Cow Island, which was established in 1933. For decades the chapel has been the spiritual home of multi-generational Cajun Catholic families on the chenier — Veazey, Bourque, Stelly, Guidry, Choate, Broussard, Lege, Harrington and many more. The community has twice been devastated by Gulf hurricanes, in 1957 (Audrey) and 2005 (Rita), and Sacred Heart has remained a constant presence through those recoveries.
- Parent parish St. Anne, Cow Island, established 1933
- Hurricane Audrey, 1957
- Hurricane Rita, 2005
Mass & Worship Schedule
Because Sacred Heart is a small mission chapel without full-time resident clergy, public worship is offered on a limited weekly schedule. Mass is celebrated on Saturday evening, with the Saturday 6:30 PM Mass the primary weekly liturgy. Visitors are encouraged to call the parish office (St. Anne, Cow Island) to confirm times, especially during severe weather or hurricane season. The Discover Mass directory and the Diocese of Lafayette's Parish Finder list the Saturday 6:30 PM Mass as the chapel's regular weekly schedule.
- Saturday 6:30 PM Mass (English)
Parent Parish: St. Anne, Cow Island
Sacred Heart Mission is administered by the pastor of St. Anne Catholic Church in Cow Island, located at 17315 Lionel Road (Cow Island), Abbeville, LA 70510. St. Anne's parish office phone is 337-643-7714. In addition to Sacred Heart in Pecan Island, St. Anne also oversees Immaculate Conception Chapel at Forked Island. Pastoral care, sacramental records, baptisms, marriages, and funerals for Sacred Heart parishioners are coordinated through the St. Anne parish office.
- St. Anne Parish address: 17315 Lionel Road, Abbeville, LA 70510
- Phone: 337-643-7714
- Sibling mission: Immaculate Conception Chapel, Forked Island
Clergy & Pastoral Care
Sacred Heart Mission has no priest of its own and is shepherded by the pastor of St. Anne, Cow Island. Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of the Diocese of Lafayette appointed Rev. Matthew Barzare as pastor of St. Anne Church in Cow Island and its mission, Sacred Heart in Pecan Island, effective June 27, 2018, for a six-year term. The Diocese of Lafayette's Priests Directory currently lists Rev. Suresh Mathangi as Pastor of St. Anne Church, Cow Island. Fr. Bill Rogallo, who served St. Anne, Immaculate Conception in Forked Island, and Sacred Heart in Pecan Island earlier in his priestly ministry, is remembered by the parish community.
- Rev. Suresh Mathangi — current Pastor, St. Anne Church, Cow Island
- Rev. Matthew Barzare — appointed pastor 2018 (six-year term)
- Rev. Michael Keith Landry — earlier pastor of St. Anne / Sacred Heart
The Community of Pecan Island
Pecan Island is a tiny unincorporated community of roughly 300 people perched on a shell-and-sand chenier ridge in the marshlands of Vermilion Parish. The town is inhabited largely by persons of Cajun ancestry, and alongside Sacred Heart Mission there is also a Baptist church and a Methodist church serving the community. The island has been repeatedly tested by Gulf storms, most devastatingly by Hurricane Audrey in 1957 and Hurricane Rita in 2005, the latter of which destroyed most of the homes and forced the closure of Pecan Island High School. Today only one general store remains, selling fuel, groceries, and hunting supplies.
- Population ~300
- Sits on a chenier ridge (shell-and-sand ridge in coastal marsh)
- Predominantly Cajun ancestry
Notable Moments
In December 2020, Father Matthew Barzare — then pastor of St. Anne / Sacred Heart — coordinated an unusual aerial blessing of the community. Working with a local crop-dusting service, about 70 parishioners, and a young parishioner, approximately 100 gallons of holy water blessed by Father Barzare were sprayed over Pecan Island and the surrounding farms on December 21. The imaginative blessing drew media attention as a creative pastoral response during the pandemic era.
- December 21, 2020 — aerial blessing of Pecan Island with holy water via crop-duster
Diocese & Deanery
Sacred Heart Mission belongs to the West Deanery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. The West Deanery includes all church parishes in Acadia Civil Parish and Vermilion Civil Parish — 30 parishes and 11 mission chapels in total — and serves an estimated Catholic population of about 65,184 across roughly 1,968 square miles. Other West Deanery communities include Abbeville, Crowley, Church Point, Cow Island, Delcambre, Erath, Gueydan, Kaplan, Maurice, and Rayne, among others.
- Diocese of Lafayette — West Deanery
- 30 parishes, 11 mission chapels in West Deanery
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Rev. Michael Keith Landry
Listed as pastor of St. Anne Church, Cow Island (with Sacred Heart as a mission) in earlier parish directory.
- Rev. Matthew Barzare2018-2024 (six-year term)
Appointed by Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel effective June 27, 2018, as Pastor of St. Anne Catholic Church in Cow Island and its mission, Sacred Heart in Pecan Island.
- Rev. Suresh MathangiCurrent
Listed as Pastor, St. Anne Church, Cow Island, on the Diocese of Lafayette priests directory.