Rosaryville, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Aug., 2000

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From Tangipahoa Centenial Book, 1869-1969: 
Donated to the archives by the Tangipahoa Parish Tourist Commission

Rosaryville.

Slightly over four miles west of Ponchatoula on La. Highway 22 is
a sign designating the road to Rosaryville.  Turning south off
the highway, one goes about one mile to find it at the point where
the little road veers east.

In 1902 the Benedictine priests left this place, which they had 
originally settled and called Gessen; in 1911 the Dominican priests
of Spain possessed the place under the name of Rosaryville.  The 
Spanish Dominicans had been searching for a place in America at
which to establish a school of philosophy for their aspirants
to Far Eastern missionary work.  Father Thomas Lorente, O.P., Vice
Provincial of the Spanish Dominican Fathers in Louisiana, negotiated
with the Benedictines and acquired Gessen.

At the request of Father Lorente, Mother Mary de Ricci (Mother Prioress 
of the Dominican Sisters in New Orleans) suggested Rosaryville for
two reasons as an appropriate name for the Dominican house of 
studies.  Since tradition says that St. Dominic, the founder of the
order, inititated the special devotion called the rosary at the
behest of the Virgin Mary and since the Spanish priests were coming
to Louisiana from the Holy Rosary Province of Spain, Rosaryville 
would be an apt name to replace Gessen.

The name was accepted, of course, and the Spanish priests continued at 
Rosaryville until 1938.  At this time the war in Spain demanded that
most of the religious groups be recalled, but their work extended in
southeast Louisiana under the American Dominican priests of St.
Albert's Province.

In 1989 the Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of St. Mary moved 
their novitiate out of New Orleans to Rosaryville, it becoming
their first permanent one.

The name of the novitiate has remained Rosaryville, since the sisters
were also followers of St. Dominic.