Bio: Rt. Rev. Mgr. N. J. Roulleaux; France, then Caddo Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Date: 1999-2000 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Rt. Rev. Mon. N. J. Roulleaux. The long and consecrated service of Napoleon Joseph Roulleaux identified him with the people of Northern Louisiana for a period of thirty-seven years, and will be longest preserved and most venerated in the history of St. Vincent's College of Shreveport. Many noble souls have given their life energy to the Catholic Church and its institutions at Shreveport, but none with greater sincerity, wisdom and zeal than the late Monsignor Roulleaux. The first resident priest in Shreveport and pastor of Trinity Church was Father Pierre, who came to Shreveport in 1834, sent by Bishop Martin from Natchitoches Parish. He was ordained at St. Brieux, France. Father Pierre was one of the five priests who gave their lives to the service of the people during the yellow fever epidemic in 1873. These were Father Pierre, Father Biler, Father Quemere, Father Le Vezouet and Father Gergaud. Several beautiful windows in Trinity are dedicated to the memories of these five priests. It was in 1868, during the trying period of reconstruction, that St. Vincent's College was founded. The college has been administered by the Daughters of the Cross. In the one story building of seven rooms that comprised the first St. Vincent's school was opened on September 13, 1868. The next year the mother house was transferred to St. Vincent's. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1873 the Daughters of the Cross discontinued class room work to become nurses, and many of them contracted the malady, three of them succumbing to the disease. and thus adding their names to the list of the five martyred priests. St. Vincent's Academy had many other vicissitudes during the first twenty years of its existence, but about 1889, a new era dawned, when through the energetic cooperation of the devote chaplain, Rev. N. J. Roulleaux, a commodious three-story building was erected. In 1906 the buildings of the college were destroyed by fire, but a new and greater St. Vincent's rose from the ashes under the able leadership of Rev. Roulleaux. In the summer of 1917 the main building and boarding school and beautiful chapel were completed, and it was about eight months later, on March 9, 1918, the visitation of death removed from the community Monsignor Roulleaux, after thirty-seven years as a missionary, priest and official of the Catholic Church in Northern Louisiana. Napoleon Joseph Roulleaux was born in Normandy, France, was ordained a priest in his native land, and in 1881 took up his work in the new world at Shreveport. For two years he assisted the Rt. Rev. Father Gentile at Holy Trinity Church, and during this time gained a knowledge of the English language. Later he was assigned to St. Vincent's and adjoining missions, and from 1883 was a chaplain of St. Vincent's Academy. It was in this post that his zeal found such a fertile field. With anxious heart he deplored the danger with which youth was exposed in this section of the country, the children being raised in ignorance of God and in contempt of religion, living without his law or his love. He realized as he never did before the influence of woman for good or for evil. This knowledge it was that impelled him to consecrate his life to the fostering of Christian education in general and to the aggrandizement of St. Vincent's in particular. In his allotted tasks, no toil could exhaust his energy, no sickness deter him from his aim, and from duty's task he never swerved. In July. 1913, was celebrated at St. Vincents Academy the investiture of Father Roulleaux as a Roman or domestic prelate, raising his title to that of Monsignor. This investure followed the receipt of a brief from Pope Pius X, containing the following paragraph: "The exceptional talents and virtues fur which you are most highly recommended to us by the Rt. Rev. Bishop of Alexandria, and especially to zeal and labor, and the diligence you have constantly displayed for more than thirty years as chaplain and spiritual advisor of the City of Shreveport in order that the Sisters, together with their pupils, may produce more abundant fruits of piety and charity, all these, indeed, prove you worthy to be honored by us with a most illustrious title and reward." In the ceremony, attended by two bishops and a great many other church dignitaries and prominent officials and individuals from civic life, the Bishop of Alexandria in the course of an address said: You have been a worthy priest for forty years, with never a stain or blemish on your priestly robes. Your zeal, your hard work, your devotion to duty, Your simplicity of life and above all your unswerving loyalty to your bishops. have always marked you as a true Priest of God. For thirty years you have been the father of these Daughters of the Cross, and what you have been to them during all these years is more than any words of mine could express." A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 198-199, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.