Bishop William G. McCloskey appointed Father John L. Spalding, the
nephew of Archbishop Martin John Spalding of Baltimore, to organize a
parish for Black Catholics in Louisville in 1868, five years after the
Emancipation Proclamation. On February 20, 1870, St. Augustine was
established, and the new parishioners marched from the basement of the
Cathedral of the Assumption westward to their new home at Broadway and
14th Street. A school was opened under the leadership of the Sisters of
Charity in 1871. Later Josephites staffed the school.
The parish quickly outgrew its second church, which was dedicated in
1902. The current church property was purchased in 1911, and Bishop
Denis O’Donaghue formally dedicated the present church on September 10,
1912. One Sunday Mass was celebrated weekly for the neighborhood’s white
population until Sacred Heart Church was built in 1873.
As the first African-American parish in the Archdiocese of
Louisville, St. Augustine has been a center for education for most of
its history, sponsoring both an elementary school until it closed in
1967 and, for seven years, a high school, which closed in 1958. St.
Augustine maintains an outreach ministry as a Dare to Care food center
and is an active partner with West Louisville Community Ministries.
The parish continues to host important events for African-American
Catholics, including the National Convention of the Knights of Peter
Claver, the Mid-Eastern Conference of Negro Welfare, and music workshops
and retreats led by Grayson Warren Brown and recently the ‘Slice of St.
Augustine,’ a Kentucky Derby Festival event of jazz, local artists and
home-cooked food.
With almost 500 parishioners, the parish continues to serve the poor,
homeless and needy through an array of outreach ministries.