LAND OF EVANGELINE.

New Zealand Tablet, 18 August 1921, Page 45

LAND OF EVANGELINE.

Down in the land of Evangeline, of which Longfellow wrote that “they who dwell there have named it the Eden of Louisiana,” is situated one of the most romantic and preponderantly Catholic dioceses of the United States. Although established only three years ago, when the present Bishop of Lafayette, the Right Rev. Jules B. Jeanmard, was consecrated, the traditions of its parishes date back to a time more remote than that of the unfortunate Acadians, who driven from their lands in Nova Scotia, in 1787, took refuge on its fertile plains. Forty thousand of their descendants dwell within the confines of the diocese, and many of its quaint customs and most edifying stories have come down from the days of the eviction. Lafayette diocese is 60 per cent. Catholic in population. Of 300,000 souls within its confines 180,000 hold to the ancient Faith. Of these, some are descendants of the hardy adventurers who came with, or in the wake of, Bienville, and almost all are sprung from the stock of France, although here and there are names and records that speak of the days of Spanish domination, In some of the parishes, the number of non-Catholic families can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Last year’s census reports showed that among one Catholic community of 3500 there were only 15 non-Catholics, and in another parish with a similar population, there were only three or four non-Catholic families. • ' ■ • • -100 Per Cent. Catholic. In St. Martinville, the oldest parish in the diocese, situated on the Bay our Teche, where the historic “Evan-

geline oak” is located, the population is almost 100 per ■cent. Catholic. It is around St. Martinville, which is mentioned in Longfellow’s poem as St. Martin, the place where Basil Lajeunesse, the stalwart blacksmith of Grand Pre, settled after being driven from his home, that many of the most romantic traditions of the diocese cling. Here it was • i 0 that Evangeline finally found the father of her fiance after many months of weary wandering, only to learn that Gabriel, her beloved, had passed on his way up the stream while she'slept beneath the shadow of the oak.—Exchange.