August 29, 2025 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Like Camille in 1969, Katrina wreaked havoc on beach-front churches as well as homes and businesses along the coast. While not the deadliest in US history—the Galveston hurricane of 1920 takes that title—Katrina remains the costliest because of its sheer expanse and record setting tidal surge with subsequent flooding. The Episcopal Church on the Coast saw six of its ten church buildings reduced to slabs. While much of the Coast has recovered there are still, twenty years later, pockets of empty buildings, for sale signs on vacant lots, and ruined billboards. The toll taken by the storm was not limited to physical destruction—Katrina took an emotional toll, too. Talking with residents who stayed on the Coast after Katrina one quickly realizes that there is still residual trauma.
Each of the congregations has stories of destruction for sure, but there are also stories of recovery. Altar guilds and vestries had removed some of the liturgical vessels and linens before the storm, but stained glass windows, organs, pews, chalices, patens, and crosses were all tossed about and buried under the salty mud. Afterward parishioners returned to try to save any reminder of the church community they could find. Each discovery was a triumph. Here is the story of one such find and the value it holds for members of the parish both past and present.
In a niche in the present day St. Patrick’s office is an alabaster statue of Mother Mary. This statue is the oldest piece of the church’s history in existence and it is the only relic that survived two class 5 hurricanes.
The story begins some 55 years ago in a small seaside town of Long Beach, Mississippi. The statue of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was bought in Europe and donated to St. Patrick’s by parish members Fred Shusted and Harold Toop. It was present in the original St. Patrick’s building at 200 East Beach Blvd. when Hurricane Camille struck the Coast and destroyed the church building. In the aftermath of the storm, Harold Toop walked the church grounds trying to recover any remnant that might not have been washed out to sea. By chance he spotted Mother Mary’s praying hands sticking up out of the mud. Miracle of all miracles, he reached down and recovered the statue intact.
When the new brick and concrete church was built, a special niche was provided in the back wall of the chancel for Mary. Later, when the church moved to 452 West Beach Blvd, Mary was moved into a lighted niche carved in the reredos. By this time, the statue had become a unifying holy symbol of perseverance and resilience in the face of loss for the congregation.
Years went by, hurricanes came and hurricanes went, and St Patrick’s with Mother Mary watching from her place behind the altar flourished. In the summer of 2005 who could have known that parish life and possessions were about to be upended by the impending storm?
As Hurricane Katrina approached, altar guild directress Kitty MacCullagh organized the packing up of altar guild materials so that they could be evacuated. She included the statue of Mary in one of the Rubbermaid totes—her “go boxes”—along with the silver set. Her effort to protect the sacred vessels meant that at least some of those valuable objects would survive, Mother Mary included. A church is of course more than a building. A church is a congregation, coming together to laugh, to pray, to worship, and to share Eucharist. The small alabaster statue would come to remind those who remained on the Coast that they were and are a community of hope.
Katrina took everything to a watery grave. The only things remaining on the beachfront property now are concrete and memories. In the aftermath of the storm, St. Patrick’s relocated inland. The new buildings focused on a multipurpose parish hall and worship space, including a separate section referred to as the chapel. A reredos in the chapel, lighted from behind by large windows, included a niche for the alabaster statue of Mother Mary. However, when St. Patrick’s leased its office and classroom wing for the Emerge Center training facility for the blind, the chapel was converted to the church office. Mary is no longer easily visible to the congregation of St. Patrick’s.
The vestry and altar guild now want to create a new niche for Mary in the wall near the entrance doors so that everyone who enters will see her watching over the congregation with love. The niche design will need to protect the statue from getting accidentally bumped or dislodged. We welcome any recommendation of a craftsman willing and able to tackle the project.
Plans are in motion to pause and to remember on this 20th anniversary. More information on the details of the Service of Remembering will be available soon. It is our prayer that we never face another devasting hurricane, but it is likely that we will. If and when another storm comes Mother Mary will keep on reminding us that even in the mess left by the storm, God is present calming our fear and giving us hope.