A Quick Foray to Tremé Lightens our Souls
From New Orleans Cemetery #1, we walk a block to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, which originally was the Mortuary of Saint Anthony of Padua and housed those dead from yellow fever before their burial.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
Stumbling upon Our Lady of Guadalupe after a loop around St. Louis Cemetery #1, a scary trip even on a sunny day, we are grateful for the sanctuary this space is about to offer us. This brightly colored church will be no less strange than the rest of our visit to New Orleans has been, with our trip to the past at Preservation Hall, our brush with spirits at Reverend Zombie’s, a splash of the South dripping down us while we sip champagne and Sazeracs at the Hotel Roosevelt and watch a horse race on the television.
Our Lady lets us know right away that this place isn’t the very formal Saint Louis Cathedral, oh no, but the doubly named and rainbow-painted Guadalupe and Shrine of Saint Jude. In a city where so many people have visions, why not name a sacred space for an apparition of the Virgin Mary and a saint known for assisting with lost causes? Known once as the Mortuary Chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua, it briefly housed those dead from yellow fever. There will likely be a few ghosts lingering no matter what this place is called. It has been housing them since its construction in 1826.
Altar at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Treme, New Orleans
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
On a steamy bright morning we enter the dimly lit space to find a true sanctuary, a church that doesn’t ward the homeless off its steps or limit the visibility of learning disabled assistants responsible for maintaining the candles lit by the offerings of the faithful. If Esmeralda and Quasimodo were to appear in the nave, we wouldn’t be surprised. This is a church as church, as relief, as peace. The spirit is here as everywhere in New Orleans, around that cemetery and up Conti Street to this place on North Rampart. The homeless reach out to us, the learning disabled man speaks, the statues grab at us, the color swirls. Why are the spirits so close here? Is it the water, that this city is below sea level?
At New Orleans Cemetery #1
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
There is not time to ponder. We make our own offerings to the dead, say prayers for the living, watch the man tinker with the candles, try not to notice the homeless men sleeping in the pews but feel grateful that they are not shooed away. We take in the bright art, the sanctuary of this space. We’ve forgiven and released, let in help and protection and understanding, and so we can get on with our day in the steamy outside.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Church, 411 North Rampart Street, New Orleans, La., at the corner of Conti Street.
St. Louis Cemetery #1, on Basin Street between Conti and St. Louis Streets. To enter, visitors must be accompanied by a tour guide.
—Lori Tripoli
Crypts in New Orleans Cemetery #1
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
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