Just past the little tourist strip on Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis, sits a quiet oasis with a beautiful grotto. St. Augustine Seminary came to Bay St. Louis in 1923 to flee from the Klu Klux Klan in another Mississippi city.
It is notable as the first Roman Catholic Seminary to ordain black priests. In 1938, they built the Lourdes Grotto for contemplation and devotion. The scene on the outside is a young woman named Bernadette who had a vision of the blessed mother in Lourdes, France.
