The Catholic Patriotic Minute #65: The Shreveport Martyrs
Catholics For Catholics Special Edition | September 28th, 2026
The Shreveport Martyrs: Louisiana’s Servants of God
Between the months of August and November in 1873, yellow fever raged through Shreveport, Louisiana, ending the lives of one-quarter of the city’s population. Now, it is known as the third worst yellow fever epidemic in the history of the United States. Among the dead, there were five Catholic priests, who were courageous in their selfless care for the sick until their last days.
The people of Shreveport were, in large part, Protestant and Jewish in the year 1873. Bishop Auguste Marie Martin invited priests from France to serve and grow a larger Catholic presence in the Diocese of Natchitoches. One of these priests was Father Jean Pierre.
On September 29, 1831, Jean Pierre was born in Lanloup, Brittany, France. He grew up attending a parish, which cultivated particular devotions to Saints Giles and Blaise, two of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of plague victims. Pierre left France and was ordained a priest in Natchitoches, Louisiana, on September 22, 1855.
First, Father Pierre befriended and connected with the people of Northwest Louisiana, reaching them by foot and horseback. He reserved the community at Holy Apostles Parish Church in modern-day Carmel, Louisiana, and established a mission there. Then, Father Pierre settled in Shreveport to build the city’s first Catholic church. To fund the costs of the Holy Trinity Church, he tutored children. In particular, he was remembered for his care of the orphans and the poor in his community.
By the time the yellow fever began spreading through Shreveport, Father Isidore Quemerais joined Father Pierre at Holy Trinity in 1873. Isidore Quemerais was born in Pleine-Fougères, Brittany, France, on September 9, 1847. After he attended the Seminary of Saint-Meen in the Diocese of Rennes, Father Quemerais was ordained in Natchitoches in January of 1871.
Both Father Pierre and Father Quemerais volunteered to care for the yellow-fever patients in the quarantine, with the full knowledge that their decision was a fatal one. On September 9, 1873, Father Pierre contacted Fr. Jean-Marie Biler, asking for help with tending to the sick, and Father Biler quickly joined them.
On November 18, 1839, Jean-Marie Biler was born in Plourivo, Brittany, France. He studied at the Seminary at St. Brieuc, and he was ordained there on December 17, 1864. In 1871, Father Biler was recruited by Bishop Martin to be the chaplain for the Convent and Novitiate of the Daughters of the Cross in Shreveport. Once he received Father Pierre’s message, Father Biler immediately went to the quarantine to care for the sick, without reservation.
In addition to nursing the sick, the priests administered Anointing of the Sick and Last Rites to patients. Eventually, Father Quemerais and Father Pierre contracted yellow fever and received Last Rites from Father Biler before dying on September 15 and 16, respectively.
Father Biler was the only Catholic priest left. He tended to more than 900 patients, responding to their physical pain as well as their spiritual questions. Believing his own death to be soon, Father Biler sent messages to Father Louis Gergaud in Monroe and Father Francois LeVezouet in Natchitoches, requesting their help in the quarantine, before becoming ill on September 18.
On the same day, Father Gergaud departed for Shreveport, after telling another priest, “Write to the bishop and tell him I go to my death; it is my duty and I must go.”
Louis Gergaud–born in Héric, France, on March 22, 1832–attended the Grand Seminary in Nantes, and he was ordained a priest there on September 23, 1854. First, he served in Monroe, Louisiana, as the founding priest at St. Matthew Church. He founded Catholic schools and connected specifically with slaves and former slaves.
Father Gergaud overcame disdain from Protestants and never tired from his attempts to befriend them. Before he left for Shreveport, both Catholics and Protestants tried to convince him to stay. But, he was determined to fulfill his duty. Father Gergaud arrived at the quarantine on September 20, quickly tending to Father Biler and the others. He also became sick by September 24.
On September 26, Father LeVezouet arrived just in time to administer Last Rites to Father Biler, who exclaimed before his death, “I am going to Heaven! Je vais au Ciel! Chan d’or Baradoz!”. With Father Gergaud so ill that he was bedridden, Father LeVezouet nursed the sick and administered the Sacraments, alone.
Born in Brélidy, Brittany, France, on August 10, 1833, François LeVezouet attended the Seminary of St. Brieuc before his ordination to the priesthood on May 3, 1856, in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Father LeVezouet founded the first church, known today as the parish of St. John the Baptist, in Many, Louisiana. He was the president of St. Joseph’s College and the diocesan Director of the Propagation of the Faith.
After he had learned of Father Biler’s message asking for more priests in Shreveport, Father LeVezouet told his bishop, “I want to go so much that if you left the decision up to me, I would believe that in going I was acting according to my own will. I do not want to do anything but the will of God.”
His community demanded that he stay, crowding around him before he left. One told Father LeVezouet, “You are going to your death.” His response was: “I believe it, but I know that I am taking the surest and shortest path to heaven.”
Father LeVezouet was at the bedside of Father Gergaud, giving him Last Rites right before his death on October 1. Shortly thereafter, Father LeVezouet contracted yellow fever. While Bishop Martin was recruiting priests from New Orleans that had previously survived yellow fever and therefore more immune to the deadly disease, Father LeVezouet was the sole Catholic priest at the quarantine. Two priests arrived just in time to administer Last Rites to Father LeVezouet right before his death on October 8.
Of the five martyrs, Bishop Auguste Marie Martin wrote, “Pray gentlemen, that before my own death, I may find worthy successors to the ministry and the admirable virtues of these saintly priests.” Each one of the five priests understood the cost of tending to the yellow-fever patients was his own life. But, heaven was the reward for the Shreveport Martyrs.
On December 8, 2020, the Bishop of Shreveport, Francis I. Malone, opened the Shreveport martyrs’ cause of canonization for the offering of their lives for others, naming them Servants of God. After five years of studying the martyrs’ cause, the commission sent the full documentation of their investigation to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome on August 28, 2025.
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