Msgr. Luminais' passion for Jesus, gumbo, built a parish

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Msgr. Joseph Anthony Luminais, the retired longtime pastor of Holy Guardian Angels Parish in Bridge City, was remembered at his Funeral Mass April 20 as a priest who used south Louisiana’s unbridled passion for gumbo to feed both body and soul.

  “He often said, at the appropriate time, that there are only two things to live for – Jesus and gumbo,” said Father Wayne Paysse, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Slidell who served as an altar boy at Holy Guardian Angels for Msgr. Luminais, founder of the annual Gumbo Festival whose proceeds funded the building of a new church and other parish facilities. “We always say that our church – Holy Guardian Angels – is the church that was built by gumbo.”

Msgr. Luminais, who retired in 2008 after 41 years as pastor, died April 11 – Divine Mercy Sunday – at age 93 at his retirement home in Hanceville, Alabama. He had suffered a stroke on Easter Sunday.

“He taught us to love the saints, especially the holy guardian angels,” Father Paysse said. “He was always reminding us to have recourse to our holy guardian angels and to love our Blessed Lady, to pray the rosary. He embodied the beautiful simple things that are very profound and very Catholic.”

Father Paysse remembered his former pastor as a loving mentor, always pointing to Jesus. Prior to his pastorate, he was a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church in Westwego, where his Funeral Mass was celebrated. He also was an associate at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in New Orleans, and he also served as a chaplain at Southern Baptist Hospital.

“Monsignor loved to say, ‘All I ask of you is forever to remember me as loving you,’” Father Paysse said.  

“Very often we are reminded that a priest is to be a man for others,” said Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who celebrated the Funeral Mass. “We are called to empty our lives for the people entrusted to our pastoral care. We know that Msgr. Luminais did that.”

Msgr. Luminais became pastor of Holy Guardian Angels in 1967 and launched the Gumbo Festival in October 1973 as a way not only to build community in Bridge City but also to make money for his burgeoning parish. The festival expanded from a small church fair, and like a good salesman, he claimed that it annually fed more than 100,000 people over a three-day weekend.

“He was like a walking billboard for the Gumbo Festival,” said Elaine Boatwright, a Catholic convert and dedicated parishioner who was part of the annual Gumbo Festival team with her late husband. “Everywhere he went, he promoted it. He loved to eat, period, but gumbo was his favorite. He was instrumental in everything.”

In a 1993 contribution to the Clarion Herald, Msgr. Luminais recounted how he got Gov. Edwin Edwards to proclaim Bridge City the “Gumbo Capital of the World,” due to its serving up 2,000 gallons of gumbo, red beans and rice, jambalaya, potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, continuous live Cajun, country and ’50s music to 130,000 guests.

“Years of successful Gumbo Festivals helped pay for our top priority – an educational activities building with classrooms, a stage, auditorium, kitchen and meeting room,” Msgr. Luminais wrote.

The parish later added a fully equipped Gumbo Festival Park with permanent booths, a complete outdoor cooking and serving area, a covered stage and a concrete fais-do-do dance floor.

On the occasion of his 40th anniversary as a priest, Msgr. Luminais declared that chicken andouille and oyster gumbo was his favorite.

“And he entered the gumbo cooking contest with his own gumbo recipe, and he won,” Boatwright said.

It’s fair to say the new parish church, in the planning stages for 25 years, was built on dark roux and “the trinity” (onion, bell pepper and celery). The church was designed with Spanish mission-style architecture because the historic Old Spanish Trail winds through Bridge City. It was dedicated by Archbishop Philip Hannan in 1987.

Later, a rectory, rosary walk, a huge quincentennial cross and youth center were built, all with gumbo proceeds. Msgr. Luminais said since the holy guardian angels “guided us along the way, we proudly named the eight-acre complex AngelSquare.”

Msgr. Luminais also was known as a no-nonsense pastor. Irritated by seeing men and women wearing shorts to Mass during the summer, he boldly posted a sign near the front doors of the church – essentially his Ten Commandments of proper church attire.

“If someone wore shorts to Mass, he would greet them after Mass and let them know they shouldn’t do it,” Boatwright said. “He would let them know they should ‘dress for Jesus.’

“He was old school and he didn't hurry the Mass. If you were in a hurry, you went someplace else. His Masses were beautiful. He encouraged a lot of music, and his homilies were always so relative to us.”

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