St. Joseph Co-Cathedral

History & Significance

Cathedral · Est. Parish founded as a mission in 1817; present church built 1920-1923; elevated to co-cathedral in 1977

St. Joseph Co-Cathedral traces to a parish organized in the 1810s (mission founded 1817) along Bayou Lafourche, with Father Charles Menard as its noted first pastor. The present Renaissance Revival church was built 1920-1923 under Monsignor Alexander Barbier, designed by architect Joseph A. Robichaux, after an earlier church burned in 1916. On March 2, 1977 Pope Paul VI established the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, and St. Joseph in Thibodaux became its co-cathedral, sharing cathedral status with the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Houma.

Renaissance Revival; pressed brick with stone trim, twin flanking towers, rose window, terra cotta tile roof

• •Co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux (established March 2, 1977), sharing cathedral status with St. Francis de Sales Cathedral in Houma
• •Present church constructed 1920-1923 under Msgr. Alexander Barbier; designed by architect Joseph A. Robichaux
• •The oldest Catholic parish in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, rooted in an 1817 mission on Bayou Lafourche
• •Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (March 5, 1986) as part of the Thibodaux Multiple Resource Area
• •Houses relics of Saint Valerie in a glass sarcophagus; underwent a major restoration completed in 2005