Although the church building dates back to 1871 when the parish was established, origins of Catholic life can be traced back to the early 1700s when missionaries came under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec, Canada.

Spanish Capuchins, a branch of the Franciscan Order, established a church in 1730 in the civil parish of Pointe Coupee across the Mississippi River. It was known as St. Francis Church. It remains today as a chapel. Because of the floodwater which occurred every year, and there were no levies, burial of the dead was impossible. So they brought the dead to be buried on the higher bluffs, above Bayou Sara, a thriving port town. They established a graveyard just beyond the hill. The settlement that grew around the graveyard took its name from the ‘church’ and was called St. Francisville.

It was on a visit to St. Francisville that the Archbishop of New Orleans, the Most Reverend N.J. Perche urged the people of the community to build a church. He established the parish in 1871.

Prior to this time, a priest who came once a month from Jackson and Clinton served the Catholic community. Mass was said on these occasions in different homes and sometimes in the courthouse.

Mount Carmel church was built exclusively of native woods, with cypress doors, window and doorframes, while the beams and columns are solid longleaf pine. It is said that General P. T. G. Beauregard designed the plans. A local family donated the semi-circular window with the church’s title over the main entrance in 1951.

Other church appointments and dates are:

• Tabernacle, resting in the cove in the sanctuary was built in Smoke Bend in 1930.
• The Sisters of Christian Charity donated the Stations of the Cross, as they were too large for their convent chapel in New Orleans. They are delicately detailed in oil. Brought over from Germany for their chapel, these are said to be over 200 years old.
• The oak pews replaced the original pews in 1950. Some of the original pews can be seen in the front of the church in the choir area.
• The two angels in the loft are from the chapel in the former motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph on Ursuline Avenue in New Orleans. In the early 1960s the convent was sold and moved to modern buildings. No one seems to know how they got here, but a plaque notes they were the gift of Fr. Myles Kearney, pastor from 1955-1973.
• Although the church has an electronic carillon system that strikes the hour, the hand rung bell that called parishioners to worship for over 100 years is still intact and usable in the bell tower.
• Credence table and pulpit were acquired in 1979 when the church was remodeled. The pulpit dates from 1860. It came from a church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Another stand with the lectionary was made from a small table taken from a very early church in Bayou Sara that washed away in a flood.
• The wood altar, made of mahogany, came from a craftsman in Mississippi.

Other Buildings on the Hill