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.
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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.
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