Save St. Martinville Cemetery
This site has the petition to prevent the distruction of the cemetery.
Below are pictures of the problem at the St. Martinville Cemetery in St. Martinville,
Louisiana. The Church of St. Martin De Tours is allowing graves that are hundreds
of years old to be dug up and the space to be sold again. This is an injustice to all
the pioneer Acadian/Cajun families in Louisiana. Our Ancestor Jean Charles LeBlanc baptised all
his children at this church and he with his family and son Simon should be buried at this church.
Fr. Hebert's books state that Simon was buried at the St. Martinville Church.
They are no where to be found. When I inquired about this at the office inside of the church I
was told that in the early 1900s "Most" of the bodies were moved to the new gravesite across the
river. That leaves one to assume that "some" of the bodies are still under the parking lot that
they so desperately needed for their school. What is wrong with these people?
Now if they are unable to find any living relatives to take responsibility of the graves, they are
marking them abandoned and removing the bodies (who knows what they are doing with them). They selling
the plots again.
They are doing this to graves that are 170 years old! The grave below is one of only five in the
entire state of Louisiana that has this style of stone. It is historical and a monument to the
Acadian Pioneers and the church has marked it abandoned and plans to take it down! The Church has
been confronted with this and denies that they are planning on removing this grave, but the very next
week they marked it with the removal sign as seen in the picture!
They are lying to all of us!
What makes it worse is that they even know some of the people that are responsible for the sites
and they tag them for removal ANYWAY! I met a man at the cemetery whose father spoke with the church and was
going to make any payments to catch up the fees on his great grandfather's grave. This gentleman was
told that he could not have the deed to the grave and now the grave has been marked for removal also!
All the time the church knows who this man is and he has offered to pay all of the fees due! Yet, the church
would rather remove the body and sell the plot again than catch up the fees and hand over the deed!
The church is also allowing antique stones to be tossed around the cemetery and making no effort
to preserve them or repair them. Below are two examples of the damaged stones
I encourage you to voice your opinion! Please let the powers that be know how you feel about this
situation. Below are some links for you to help get this cemetery on the correct track. Please write
your senators, congressmen, mayors, governors, societies...everyone know how you feel about this.
Also if you would email me a copy of your notes to these sites, so that I can keep track and present them
to the society that is trying to preserve this cemetery! Thank you so very much.
St. Martin de Tours church:St. Martin De Tours Catholic Church 133 South Main Street St Martinville LA 70582
Voice Phone
318-394-6021
The Honorable John Breaux D - LA
503 Hart Senate Office Building (202) 224-4623
Washington DC 20510
email: [email protected]
The Honorable Mary Landrieu D - LA
702 Hart Senate Office Building (202) 224-5824
Washington DC 20510
email: [email protected]
The Honorable Christopher John D - LA - 7th DIST
(Crowley)
1504 Longworth HOB (202) 225-2031 Washington DC 20515
The Honorable Richard H. Baker R - LA - 6th DIST
(Baton Rouge)
434 Cannon HOB (202) 225-3901 Washington DC 20515
St Martinville Parish Government Website:
Save our Cemeteries.inc (Louisiana based to help save these sacred sites)
Saving Graves Website
This website is dedicated to saving endangered cemeteries! St. Martin is featured on their front page.
Attorney General's Task Froce on Cemetery Preservation for the state of Kentucky
(This is a great Idea! Why doesn't Louisiana have this?)