Jules Jeanmard

Jules Jeanmard was born in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, to Jules and Frances Maria (née Brown) Jeanmard.[1] He received his early education at the parochial school of St. Bernard Parish in Breaux Bridge.[2] He then attended St. Joseph Seminary in Gessen, Louisiana and Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans.[2] He studied for the priesthood at St. Louis Diocesan Seminary in New Orleans and at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.[1]

Jeanmard was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans on June 10, 1903.[3] His first assignment was as a curate at St. Louis Cathedral, where he served through the yellow fever epidemic of 1905.[2] He served as secretary to Archbishop James Blenk from 1906 to 1914, and chancellor of the archdiocese from 1914 to 1917.[1] He also served as vicar general for spiritual affairs of the archdiocese.[2] Following the death of Archbishop Blenk, he served as apostolic administrator of New Orleans from 1917 to 1918.[4] He then served as apostolic administrator of the newly erected Diocese of Lafayette.[4]

On July 18, 1918, Jeanmard was appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette by Pope Benedict XV.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on December 8, 1918, from Archbishop Giovanni Bonzano, with Bishops Theophile Meerschaert and John Laval serving as co-consecrators.[3] He was the first native Louisianan to become a Catholic bishop.[5]

During his 38-year tenure, Jeanmard established Immaculata Seminary, St. Mary's Orphan Home, Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House, the Catholic Student Center at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, a retreat wing of the Most Holy Sacrament Convent, a Carmelite monastery, and numerous schools and churches.[6] He encouraged diocesan-sponsored television programs, religious radio programs in both English and French, and a diocesan newspaper The Southwest Louisiana Register.[6] Jeanmard also issued pastoral letters in support of the rights of labor to organize.[6] In 1943, he was named an assistant at the pontifical throne by Pope Pius XII.[2]

In March 1923, when the citizens of Lafayette were on the verge of rioting following a public reading of members of the Ku Klux Klan, Jeanmard encouraged the people to return to their homes.[4][7] In 1934, he welcomed the first African-American priests into the diocese, a group of men educated and ordained at St. Augustine Seminary (Bay St. Louis).[2] Jeanmard also established a number of separate parishes for African-Americans, whom he did not want intimidated or infringed upon by whites.[6] With financial assistance from Katharine Drexel, he helped establish a number of rural parochial schools for African-Americans.[6] In 1952, he became the first bishop in the Deep South to ordain an African-American man to diocesan priesthood when he conferred holy orders upon Louis Ledoux, also a graduate of St. Augustine's. In November 1955, Jeanmard excommunicated two women in Erath, Louisiana, after they beat another woman who taught an integrated catechism class.[4][5]

On March 13, 1956, Jeanmard retired as Bishop of Lafayette; he was appointed titular bishop of Bareta by Pope Pius XII on the same date.[3] He later died at a hospital in Lake Charles, at age 77.[4] He is interred at St. John Cathedral in Lafayette.[2]