On Feb. 25, 1854, missionary Father Jean Martin recorded baptisms he performed in Pointe-à-la-Hache. For more than 10 years afterward, St. Thomas Church continued to share the services of priests with St. Bernard Church, Terre-Aux-Boeufs. Among the pastors residing there was Fr. J. Girault de la Corgnais, who for over a decade visited all parts of Plaquemines Parish in his boat named "The St. Thomas." Since his death in 1927, Fathers of the Society of the Divine Word have served the church, which succeeded the one originally built on an Indian mound near the river bank by Fr. Nicholas Savelli, the first resident pastor, from 1845 to 1857.