Religious Genealogy:A Vatican Trip
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Lemelle family members experienced perhaps the ultimate reunion last month as they combined a genealogical pilgrimage with a common ancestor who is the elected head of the Roman Catholic Church.
“June 17 will forever be etched in the hearts of the Lemelle family as one of the most extraordinary events in our family history,” wrote Charles Ray Richard, who organized the 53-member Lemelle family visit to Rome where they met exclusively for several minutes with Lemelle relative Pope Leo XIV.
Richard, a deacon at Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Opelousas, said the trip originated last October when he began researching his Lemelle family history in the St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court archives.
A Lemelle union event sponsored by the Clerk of Court inspired Richard to perform further research into his family’s history.
After he became more “curious” about his ancestry, Richard began working with parish archivist Larry Caillier Jr,
While tracing his lineage, Richard realized he had solid evidence that his family and Pope Leo shared a common ancestor in Francois Denis Lemelle, who married and had children with Marie Jeanne Davion, a free woman of color who was born in 1750.
Several of the children from that union, according to Clerk of Court information, owned property that fronted property on Bayou Courtableau in the Washington area.
Francois D. Lemelle is a fourth generation,maternal-side great grandfather shared by Richard and Pope Leo, Richard said during an interview.
Richard said he is descended from Louis Lemelle, who appears to be a son of Francois Lemelle and Marie Jeanne Davion.
Mildred Martinez Prevost, the mother of Pope Leo, grew up in New Orleans.
Richard wrote in a summary of his Vatican experience that the audience was also beneficial religiously as some of the worldwide Lemelle pilgrims met one another for the first time.
“It reminded us that while genealogy connects us by blood, Christ unites us in a deeper way,” Richard wrote.
Richard said he began contacting Vatican representatives and cardinals in the church in order to see if there was a chance at meeting with the Pope.
Several months later Richard received approval from members of the Holy See and the meeting with the Pope was arranged for last month.
Two separate flights — one from Houston and another from New Orleans —- carried the Lemelle family members to Rome, said Richard.
The visit with the Pope was orchestrated in an area reserved for groups and individuals who receive audiences at the Vatican.
“(Pope Leo) was very welcoming. We brought him several gifts that included a key to the City of Opelousas and a proclamation, another proclamation from the state of Louisiana, a gift basket of Tony Chachere’s seasonings, and some information and pictures of the Lemelle family,” Richard said.
In return members of the group received rosaries blessed by the Pope.
Pope Leo, who also shared several photo opportunities with the group, was informed that there is a gumbo mix in the seasoning basket, something that the Pope indicated that he might intend to sample, said Richard.
Richard wrote that the family’s continued religious connection was “a testimony to God’s ability to accomplish far more than we could ever ask or imagine.”
The trip, Richard wrote, was “a remarkable chapter in our family’s history that will inspire our children — and those yet unborn to cherish their family heritage and their faith in Jesus Christ.”
The Pope was offered by the Lemelle relatives to visit Louisiana, something the Pope seemed willing to ponder, Richard said..
