CATHOLIC IN THE MORNING, VOODOO BY NIGHT1:

AN ANALYSIS OF MARIE LAVEAU’S2 SYNCRETISTIC PRACTICE OF

ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND VOODOO

By P.T. Dolan

“Petit á petit, l´oiseau fait son nid.” — Créole Proverb

Introduction

The sound of Voodoo drums echoed from Congo Square. A half-mile down
Orleans Street directly opposite of St. Louis Cathedral, Congo Square served as a
religious meeting place for many Congolese and other African peoples living in New
Orleans in the 19th century. The Diaspora of slaves who had been dismembered from
their tribal communities would meet to join in their traditional religious practices.
Gathering on Sunday afternoons around six o’clock, they would sing and dance in
traditional Voodoo3 style.
A particular story that reappears in nearly every biography of Marie Laveau4
describes her entering Congo Square surrounded by Voodoo followers. Passing through
the crowded square, she was adorned as a Voodoo priestess. She wore gold earrings,
bracelets, a loose low-necked cotton dress, and her tignon5 standing high and in seven
points. She slipped off her shoes and entered the already bustling circle of bystanders. A
man who saw her there said, “She come walkin’ into Congo Square wit’ her head up in
the air like a queen. Her skirts swished when she walked and everybody step back to let
her pass. All the people – white and colored – start sayin’ that's she is the most powerful

1
The title of this paper was borrowed from an insightful chapter in Voodoo Queen: The Spirited
Lives of Marie Laveau by Martha Ward.
2
Scholars assert that there were several women who were called Marie Laveau during the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th century. Marie Laveau senior was born in the early 19th century and is
recorded to have died in 1881. Her daughter, also Marie Laveau—sometimes called Marie Laveau II—took
her mother’s position as New Orleans Voodoo queen in the 1870’s creating the legend that Laveau did not
age. The focus of this study is Marie Laveau I—the Widow Paris. All mentions of Marie Laveau refer to
her unless otherwise specified.
3
There are several different spellings for religious practice of Voodoo. Voudou, Voudo, Vodun.
Voudou was the spelling of the 19th century; however, throughout this paper the spelling of “voodoo” will
be used unless it is being quotated directly from a source.
4
Marie Laveau’s surname has been spelled over in a few different ways over the last century. The
most common is the spelling of “Laveau.” However, other spellings such as “Laveaux” may be used in
direct quotations.
5
A tignon is a traditional Creole hankerchief wound as a turban.

1
woman there is. They say, ‘There goes Marie Laveau!’”6 Kneeling down, she rapped on
the ground three times. As she pounded on the ground, the crowd would shout with her
either “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” or “Faith, Hope, and Charity.”7 Then, from the box
under her feet, she would lift a large snake allowing it to slither around her already
pulsating body. The snake’s name was Grand Zombi.8
There are many versions of these ceremonies. In the original African rite, the
priestess would lift a snake from a box, typically a python, and allow it to lick her face
empowering her with spiritual vision and voodoo power.9 In Louisiana, the priestess
would often stand upon the box and pass the power to the gathered people by clasping
hands with those nearest her. A cauldron filled with boiling water marked the center of
the gathering. The Voodoo priestess would drop offerings brought by the people into the
cauldron. These offerings would included live chickens, frogs, snails, and snakes. The
queen would chant these words: “L’Appé vini, le Grand Zombi, L’Appé vini, pou fe gris-
gris!” which means “He is coming, the Great Zombi, he is coming, to make gris-gris!”10
In some cases, the Grand Zombi was symbolized by a man wearing nothing but a
crimson loin cloth. At the direction of the Voodoo priestess, he would jump into the
circle holding a small coffin–the size used for an infant. After dropping the coffin at the
feet of the priestess, the man would dance to the sound of the drums, spinning and
twirling, until he fell from exhaustion. Then the crowd would dance and drink the
contents of the cauldron and tafia, a strong alcoholic beverage. Sometimes live pigeons
and cats were introduced so that they could be torn by the teeth or hands of the crowd as
they danced.11 From the perspective of an observer, the crowd was possessed, hypnotized
by the direction of the Voodoo queen often ending in a frenzy of orgiastic immorality and
further debauchery.
Who was Marie Laveau? The answer to this question is complex and many
historians have sought to answer it. To many, Laveau was the Voodoo Queen of New
Orleans in the mid-19th century. She commanded the obedience of high society and law
enforcement, leading thousands of people to worship pagan deities through Voodoo cultic

6
Robert Tallant, Voodoo in New Orleans (Gretna, La: Pelican Publishers Co., 1983), 56. The raw
transcripts from the Louisana Writer’s Project contained many first person accounts regarding Voodoo in
New Orleans and the legends surrounding Marie Laveau. The spellling and grammar errors contained in
these quotes are taken from exact quotations that attempt to provide the feeling and emotion of the actual
interview.
7
Carolyn Morrow Long, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie
Laveau, (Gainesville: University Ppress of Florida), 5.
8
The Congo supreme deity was named Nzambi Mpungu. In New Orelanian Voodoo the name for
this deity was Grand Zombi, the spirit who speaks through the snake.

9
According to Yoruban and Dahomeyan legend the first man and woman entered the world blind
and it was the serpent that gave them sight.
10
Tallant, 13. Gris-gris in traditional African Voodoo charms or amulets empowered with spirtual
magic by the gods. In New Orleans Voodoo and Haitian voodoo, gris-gris could be anything (animal
bones, amulet, stone, etc.) believed to have spiritual power from the gods.

11
Ibid., 13-14.

2
worship. Others assert that she was a spiritual woman who was mixed in her devotion to
both Voodoo and the religion of her youth, Roman Catholicism. The incredible amount
of mystery surrounding Marie Laveau’s legend stems from the vast amount of anti-
voodoo and anti-cultic rhetoric of her day along with the strange first person accounts of
Voodoo practices witnessed during her reign.
The mystery deepens with an examination of the historic data. The name “Marie
Laveau” first appears in the archival record of her marriage to Jacques Paris, confirmed
by Notary Hugues Laverne on July 27, 1819.12 She was recorded to be twenty-one years
of age and a free woman of color. While her domestic life is hidden in the pages of
history for the most part, the first acknowledgement of her Voodoo authority is found in
the New Orleans local newspaper, the Picayune, on July 3, 1850. She is referred to as the
‘head of the [sic] Voudou women.”13 During the mid-19th century, Voodooists were
persecuted for their religious practices. New Orleans Voodoo was different from African
and Haitian Voodoo because of its distinctly matriarchal authority structure.14 There was
always a Voodoo king associated with the queen, but the real authority lay with the
queen. Various Voodoo queens arose in the 19th century; however, many of them went
missing or refrained from leading in Voodoo gatherings. Some suspect that Marie Laveau
was the cause for these competing queens’ retreat or demise.
Marie Laveau made a lasting impact upon the practice of Voodoo in New Orleans
during the 19th century by further syncretizing Roman Catholicism and Voodoo
traditions.

Origins of New Orleans Voodoo

New Orleans Voodoo developed in stages. The Voodoo that is most often thought
of is an amalgamation of religious traditions stretching from the heart of Africa to the
Caribbean and finally to North America. While Voodoo’s basic patterns have remained
distinctly African, the religion’s transport into the Caribbean and later assimilation of
many Roman Catholic practices reveal a syncretistic evolution.

African Roots
The European African slave trade15 is responsible for the transplantation of African

12
Long, 47.
13
Ibid., xxxviii.
14
Tallent asserts that New Orleanian voodoo was matriarchical from its inception: “Voodooism
seems to have been a matriarchy almost from its first days in Louisiana. The king was always a minor
figure. Papa didn't count. Mama was the entire show. The only men of importance were the witch doctors.
The king was probably changed from year-to-year and was actually the current lover of the queen. Women
seem, too, to have a made up at least eighty percent of the cultists.” See: Tallent, 21.
15
While it is not the focus of this study, the devastating impact of the European slave traded should
be noted. The African slave trade took place between the 15th and 19th century. Africans were stolen from
their particular tribes and homes and transported to various places across the Atlantic. Because of the slave
trade, Africans became the most numerous population of Old World immigrants in both North and South
American before the late 18th century. Over 14.6 million Africans were taken from their native lands and
forced into a life of slavery. For more information on the African Slave Trade see (Curtin, Philip D. The
Atlantic Slave Trade; a Census. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.)

3
religious practices to the Caribbean region and the Americas. There was a process of
religious evolution that took place as the African peoples adapted to their plight.
Sometimes they chose to adopt religious practices and blend them with their own. In
other cases, they were forced to submit to European religious practices most often Roman
Catholicism or Protestantism. Gert Chesi notes,
Plantation owners and slave dealers had an interest in Christianizing the imported
slaves: they thought that aggressive reactions on the part of the enslaved people
would not occur. They believed the Christianized slave was easier to guide and
control and, in accordance with his [the slave] religion, compliant, subordinated and
forbearing.16

Forced conversion; however, rarely produces faithful converts. As a result, the

African practices became buried beneath the surface and the new religions foisted upon
the slaves became a religious façade of their very African spiritual understandings.
While there were significant numbers of slaves taken from Western and Central
Africa (i.e. Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast, etc.), the origins of Voodoo to a large
degree can be traced back to Dahomey, today’s Benin. People who were originally
transported from the village of Arada took their gods with them as they crossed the
Atlantic. They were called “Rada gods.”17 What began as a reminiscent religious practice
enabling slaves to maintain their African identity, soon transformed into a unifying
religious practice binding African slaves together in the New World.
As noted above, Voodoo originated in the Dahomey region which is modern day
Benin. The largest people group in this region is the Yoruba people and much of modern
Voodoo finds its root in the Yoruba’s religious tradition. Both the Yoruban religious
tradition and Caribbean/New Orleanian Voodoo believe in fetishes. Animistic religions
around the world have made use of fetishes for thousands of years. Often, a fetish is an
amulet, talisman, or stone— something believed to have magical or spiritual properties
that can bring about a blessing or curse upon the individual.
Among the Yoruba, religious fetishes are less tangible than in other animistic
religions. A fetish is not simply an object but is rather a presence or spiritual force. The
fetish can assume any form it chooses. The fetish may take the form of a god as well as a
man or it may take the form of a plant or rock. The fetish is a spiritual being that can
bring about blessing or curse.
Yorubans devote much of their religious life inviting the fetish or god to possess a
member of the community. Through possession, the community believes they will
receive messages from the god. For example, in Lome, the most powerful fetish lives
among the people in the holy forest. On important holidays, the women gather under the
trees and remove all of their clothing as instructed by their tribal leader. Ritual nudity
symbolizes their submission to the fetish and their humility to their tribal leader,
otherwise known as the “king of the forest.” They perform ritual dances for hours, pour
out holy water before the gods of the earth, and wait for the fetish to select a woman to

16
Gert Chesi, Voodoo: Africa’s Secret Power (Cape Town: C. Struik, 1980), 5.
17
Ibid.

4
embody. The men sit around the tribe while the priests perform rituals to remove evil
spirits from their bodies by beating them under the armpits and on the back with a short-
leathered covered stick. The women paint themselves with clay to honor the fetish and
they await the arrival of the gods who will possess one of the girls. After this has taken
place, the god speaks through her to the gathered community.18
The voodoo gods of the Yoruba people are very different from the European
understanding of God. They may be evil and malicious deities wreaking havoc upon the
community. They demand sacrifice and offering. The Voodoo gods are similar to human
beings in that they desire food, drink, tobacco, and perfumes. Some desire blood
sacrifices while others demand ritualized dances and performances. The Voodoo follower
lives in a world that is typically foreign to most Western people. The physical world and
the metaphysical world are deeply connected and must always be considered during the
normal activities of life. For example, Yorubans believe that sickness is a symptom of
evil spirit possession. As a result, they do not seek out medical treatment or attempt to
visit doctors. Rather, they visit the tribal priest hoping that he will exorcise the evil spirit
through voodoo ritual.19
Voodoo magic is also a very important element in this religious tradition. There are
two forms of magic. White magic is used to communicate with good gods who will bring
about positive experiences for the worshipper or the one seeking the blessing. Black
magic is used by witchdoctors, shamans or priests to call upon violent gods, such as
Hebiessor or Soboto, who will curse and sometimes kill.
In African Voodoo, there is a multiplicity of gods. The supreme deity in the African
tradition is Mawu-Lisa, but in the Congo that diety is named Nzambi Mpungu. There are
gods for nearly every part of life. The god Dan is understood to be a sacred python or the
rainbow serpent that created the world. The god, Elegba, is believed to be a great
deceiver and desires to trick humans so that they make foolish decisions. Hu is the god of
over the ocean.
As African Voodoo was transported by slaves into the the New World, the
cosmology was reshaped. Many of the gods were invested with additional meaning
followed by new names to assimilate the new Christian ideas around them.

Haitian Influences
Because Africans came to the New World with no material possessions, they
clung to their distinctly African worldview.20 Their minds were filled with myths, rituals,
customs, traditions, cultures, and civilizations of their homeland which they incorporated
into their new life in the Caribbean region and beyond.
Christopher Columbus took possession of the island of Haiti in 1492. He named it
Insula Hispana and it was later called Hispaniola. As Spain continued to conquer new
territories in the Americas, its interest in Hispaniola waned. Regardless, the population of
the small island port grew slowly. Both the islands of Hispaniola and Tortuga were used
by traders and pirates in the early 17th century for port and re-supply stops.

18
Chesi, 26-45.

19
Ibid., 47-57.
20
Patrick Bellegarde and Claudine Michel, Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and Reality (Indiana
University Press, 2006), 1.

5
 While the Spanish interest in the small island detoriated, the French established a
colony on Hispaniola in 1665. The name of the colony was St. Dominque and its
encomony was slave-based agriculture. African slaves were imported to the colony to
work on the coffee and spice plantations. The African population grew rapidly and the
colony became one of the richest settlements in the Caribbean region. As a result, it was
nicknamed the “Pearl of the Antilles.”
The slaves who came from West Africa assimulated their African traditions with
the colonialist’s Christianity to establish a new syncretistic form of Voodoo. While slave
traders argued that the slaves they were transporting were the non-essentials of African
society, the obvious truth is that many of the slaves were religious priests who understood
the African religious practices quite well. The result was the formation of a new version
of Voodoo in Haiti. Alfred Metraux, in his elaborate history of Voodoo in Haiti, asserts
that Haitian Voodoo was not weakend by the African slave trade but rather it
metastasized into a significant new religious movement on the island:
What do we find in Haiti? Temples, organized clergy, a rather complicated ritual,
sophisticated dances in rhythms. In spite of brutal uprooting from their own social
mileu, the slaves contrive to resurrect, in exile, the religious framework in which
they had been brought up. Bokono (magicians) and vodû-no (priests), trained in
Africa, taught the following generations, born in slavery, the names and
characteristics of the gods and the sacrifices required.21

The African slaves followed their religion at great sacrifice. The French
Colonialists punished the slaves severly for practicing their religion, which they believed
to be nothing but sorcery and witchcraft.22 Because St. Dominque existed as a significant
port city, many of the African slave ships would stop there for re-supply when sailing to
North America. The slave captains would purchase additional slaves from Haitian
plantation owners to replace those who had died crossing the Atlantic. Many of the slaves
arriving in New Orleans, therefore, originated from both Haiti and West Africa and
brought their version of Voodoo with them.
To construct Voodoo theology out of the many fragments and often contradictory
notions of spritual reality is a difficult task. The pantheon of Voodoo gods is vast and
their names and characteristics are different depending upon the culture and context. In
Haitian Voodoo, there have been theological mixtures of both African Voodoo and
Roman Catholicism; however, the Voodoo gods were never truly eclipsed in power or
prestige by the “European” Gods. The Catholic “gods;” Father, Son, and Holy Ghosts
were relegated to the background of their religious beliefs while the Voodoo gods
occupied the religious focus of the community.23
In Haitian Voodoo, gods are refered to as lao or “mysteries.” The word loa is
usually translated as ‘god’ or ‘spirit’ but is usually understood as lower gods different
from the more significant dieties in the African patheon. Metraux illustrates how Haitian

21
Alfred Metraux, Voodoo in Haiti (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), 30.
22
Ibid., 32.
23
Ibid., 82.

6
Voodoo followers have syncretized their belief system with Catholic Christianity by
explaining how a “Catholic-Voodooist” described the experience of possession:
The loa are spirits, something like winds. They are like a man who, having
received a good education in the town and [sic] learnt a trade there thanks to his
father, then rebels against him. Even if this ungrateful son is finally driven out of
the home, he still possesses much knowledge. Thus it is with the loa. God taught
them what he taught the angels, but they revolted. Now when they enter into
people, they possess them just as the Holy Ghost enters into the curé [priest]
when he sings Mass.24

The influence of Catholicism upon Haitian Voodoo is undeniable. Much of the

theological evolution experinced by Voodooists in Haiti stem from the development of
the Créole language, which is almost entirely French-based. There was also significant
room in the African deity structure to absorb many of the Catholic saints and Christian
understandings of divinty.
For example, the West African god, Mawu-Lisa became known in Haitian
Voodoo as Bondyé (Good Lord) or Gran Mét (great master). Elegba the messenger of the
gods was shortened to Legba. He was invested with the personality of the apostle Peter
and believed to be the guardian of the crossroads between the physical and spiritual
worlds. Dan, the great rainbow python who created the world in African Voodoo became
known as Dambala. He was given the character qualities of St. Patrick or Moses and
embodied the traits of wisdom, gentleness, and creativity.
The mixture of Catholicism and Voodoo became so entrenched in the minds of
Haitian people that they could not understand the inherent contradictions.25 The peasant
who sacrificed to the lao and who was possessed by them on Saturday night during the
ritualistic beating of the drums also attendended Mass at the direction of their French
masters. The personalities of saints were fused together with African dieties and even
much of the Voodoo ritual was eventually borrowed from Catholic liturgy. Services for
the lao were preceded with thanksgivings and the altars were covered by lace table
clothes, brightened with lit candles, and adorned with pictures of saints and priests.
The Haitian revloution ended in 1804 establishing the first black led republic in
the Western Hemisphere. Because of the distablization of St. Dominque, thousands of
refugees, white people and free people of color, fled to New Orleans bringing many of
their slaves with them. This influx of Haitian population accentuated a growing practice
of Voodoo in New Orleans.

Voodoo in the New Orleans

The development of the New Orleans legend began under the administration of
the French colonialists. (1682-1763). Government corruption was rampant and
immorality was ignored. Later, Spanish (1763-1800) control over the city accelerated the
city’s moral slide downward. The moral decadence of New Orleans was fully realized
from 1800-1803 when both French and Spanish masters were removed and there was a

24
Ibid., 83.
25
Ibid., 323.

7
“general relaxing of discipline and a throwing off of restraint permitted [which]
encouraged an influx of vagabonds and adventureres from all parts of the world.”26
During the Spanish administration, the inhabitants of New Orleans retained their
French culture and language. New Orleans was different from every other city in the
antebellum south. The city itself contained a wide diversity of races and nationalities:
French, Spanish, Créole, Haitian, Irish, and African.
According to a few 18th century accounts, the African religious traditions were
very much a part of the New Orleans cultural landscape. Le Page du Pratz notes this
reality in his 1758 Histoire de la Louisiane that Africans would “sometimes get together
to the number of three or four hundred, and make a kind of Sabbath.” Regarding these
newly enslaved people he asserts, “They are very superstitious and attached…to little
toys that they call gris-gris. It would be improper to take [the gris-gris] from them…for
they would believe themselves undone if they were stripped of these trinkets.”27
The Afro-Caribbean Voodoo that was transported to Louisana before and after the
Haitian revolution carried with it definite Catholic traces. After the Haitian revolution,
there was devastating confusion to the religions. Thomas Madiou, a Haitian scholar, in
his 19th century history of Haiti, Histoire d´Haiti, notes,
African and European materials converged: bags with fetishes, human bones, and
snakes were employed in Catholic rituals, while [sic] vodou practitioners, called
‘freres,’ carried out priestly functions and recited Catholic liturgy. The guyons
called ‘loup-garous’… and reputed to be cannibals, were thought to carry human
flesh in their macoutes (sacks).28

After the Anglo-American authorities took control of New Orleans in 1803, there
was a profound fear of Voodoo. The administrators were cognizant of the role that
Haitian Voodoo had played in the revolution. They saw Voodoo as a breeding ground for
descent and rebellion. As a result, they attempted to limit the gatherings of African
people and hopefully control any threats to public safety.29 For the first half of the 19th
century, Voodooists in New Orleans were harshly persecuted. Slaves were punished if
caught gathering illegallly, and their punishment was also extended to their owners by
government leaders. Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of French Louisiana, declared in
1751 that any slave owner who allowed his slaves to assemble for any purpose on his

26
Herbert Asbury, The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld
(New York: A. A. Knopf, 1936), 3.
27
Le, Page du Pratz. Histoire De La Louisiane : Contenant La Découverte De Ce Vaste Pays, Sa
Description Géographique, Un Voyage Dans Les Terres, L’Histoire Naturelle, Les Mœurs, Coûtumes &
Religion Des Naturels, Avec Leurs Origines : Deux Voyages Dans Le Nord Du Nouveau Mexique, Dont Un
Jusqu’à La Mer Du Sud : Ornée De Deux Cartes & De 40 Planches En Taille Douce. A Paris: Chez de
Bure, l’aîné., la veuve Delaguette., Lambert., 1758. Also see: Le Page du Pratz. The History of Louisiana ;
Translated From the French of M. Le Page Du Pratz. Vol. Louisiana Bicentennial reprint series. Baton
Rouge: Published for the Louisiana American Revolution Bicentennial Commission by the Louisiana State
University Press, 1975.
28
Thomas Madiou, Histoire D’Haiti (Port-au-Prince: Impr. de J. Courtois, 1847) 347.
29
Long, 97.

8
property would be forced to pay a significant fine to the Church. Any additional offenses
of this kind would send the owner to the King’s galley for life.30
It was only after the arrival of the American authorities in 1803 that many of the
restrictions upon slaves were lifted. Africans were then allowed to gather for weddings
and religious celebrations.31 Since slaves from different plantations seldom met, the
Voodoo practiced rarely cross-pollinated or gained much influence. However, the refugee
influx of Haitian Voodooists and free people of color after 1804 caused a population
boom within New Orleans itself, which encouraged a more robust culture of Voodoo to
emerge.

The Catholic-Voodoo Queen

The south experienced tremendous social upheaval after the Civil War, the
empancipation of slaves, and the legislation of the Reconstruction which engineered to
give freedom to all people regardless of their ethnicity. However, all of these issues gave
way to an even more deadly form of racial inequaility and violence.32 White landowners
sought to distinquish themselves from all other races and in New Orleans their attempts
to regain their superiority was aimed at Africans, especially those involved in the practice
of Voodoo. The rise of Marie Laveau is cloaked in mystery. She was in her early forties
when the police attempted to supress Voodoo gatherings in Congo Square. Yet, despite
persecution, eye witnesses claimed that Laveau had unusual power over the authorities
even hyptotized police officers making them crouch down on all fours and bark like
dogs.33 Long observes “even during [those] racially charged times, Marie Laveau was—
with few exceptions—untouchable.”34
While Voodoo was very much a part of the culture of New Orleans prior to the
19th century, the incredible power and influence of Voodoo found its height during the
reign of Marie Laveau—the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. According to legend
recorded in the gumbo ya-ya, Marie Laveau was the granddaughter of a Congolese
woman who passed on spiritual customs resembling those of the ngangas or mediums,
priestesses, or shamans in the Congo.35

30
Tallant,10.
31
Ibid., 11.
32
Carolyn Long explains this era more fully: “When Reconstruction ended in 1877, New Orleans
was engulfed by a backlash of racism that resulted in a rigid segregation previously unknown in the
Crescent city. The newspapers missed no opportunity to ridicule persons and institutions of African origin,
and even the more benign of the local–color writers distanced themselves from such associations. Whites
felt the need to reestablish their racial superiority and make clear the difference between themselves, as a
rational and literate authors, and the superstitious, uneducated, black “others” who were their subject.
Voudou was a favorite target of late nineteenth century writers, and evermore fantastic descriptions of
naked, drunken orgies were used to bolster claims that people of African dissent were unfit to vote, hold
office, or associate with white people.” [Carolyn Morrow Long. A New Orleans Voudou Priestess : The
Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006), xxvii.]
33
Ward, 9.
34
Ibid.
35
Zora Hurston, “Hoodoo in America.” The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 44, No. 174,

9
 As noted above, the first archival record of Marie Laveau is the marriage contract
of Laveau and Jacques Paris in 1819. They were maried on August 4, 1819 at the St.
Louis Cathedral by Fray Anonio de Sedella, also known as Pére Antoine. According to
church records, Laveau and Paris never had any children, but were committed Roman
Catholics. Their marriage in the Catholic church signifies this, but archival evidence also
reveals that in 1820, one year after they were married, Marie and Jacques stood as
godparents at the St. Louis Cathedral baptism of a free mulatto child, Eugene Foucher.
The fact that they were able to stand in as godparents indicates that they were baptized
and confirmed Roman Catholics according to canon law.36
Jacques Paris died sometime between 1822 and 1824. The cause of his death
remains a mystery. Marie Laveau was henceforth known as “the Widow Paris.” Much of
the history of Laveau is cloaked in legend, including her occcupation. According to
legend, Laveau worked as a hairdresser for wealthy white women in New Orleans. It is
believed that during this period in her life she collected information about the upper-class
which she used later on to establish much of her power and influence within New
Orleans.
At some point, after the disappearance of Paris, Laveau entered into a domestic
relationship with Louis Christophe Dominc Duminy de Glapion. Their relationship lasted
until his death in 1855. Glapion is believed to have been a free mulatto man of French
dessent. He fought in the Battle of New Orleans under Andrew Jackson in the Ninth
Native Regiment.37 Glapion and Laveau produced fifteen children together, yet never
married. 38
Of these children, Laveau had a daughter who would later become the heir to her
Voodoo throne. It is speculated that Marie Laveau groomed her daughter to take her
place in order to maintain control of the cult as well as to imply her ability to live forever.
Historians believe that there were at least two Marie Laveaus and possibly a third. The
last Marie Laveau lived until the 1930’s. Drawing upon the Laveau legend, Carolyn Long
notes, “Marie was not only beautiful and charismatic, she was also shrewd, powerful, and
rich. It is said that through blackmail she exercised control over the white elite and that
city officials, the police, the sheriff, and the courts acquiesced to her in everything.”39
Laveau began her Voodoo career in the 1820’s,40 and reigned for approximately
fifty years. It is believed she was incapictated by the 1870’s due to illness and age. She
died in 1881, abdicating her throne to her daughter, Marie Laveau II.41 The Voodoo

(1931): pp. 317-417.

36
Ward, 48.
37
Ibid., 51.
38
This number of children is likely an exaggeration. Most of the sources regarding Marie Laveau’s
children assert this number; however, there is very little archival proof to warrant it. Most sources assume
this through oral histories. See: Long, 53.
39
Long, 83.
40
Ibid., 98.
41
Marie Laveau II took on many of the duties of her mother prior to 1881. Laveau II led the

10
practiced by Marie Laveau was highly influenced by her understanding and commitment
to Roman Catholicism. Her relationship with Pére Antonie and her Catholic upbringing
shaped the way that she understood Voodoo and sought to lead the people of New
Orleans.
Roman Catholicism provided sensory experiences during religious rituals.
Sacramentalism, such as the Eucharist, the burning of incense and the veneration of saints
allowed, for a broader acceptance by African peoples. Because of this, the African and
Haitian forms of Voodoo seemed a natural fit for syncretistic adaptations of Catholicism.
Marie Laveau’s further sycretization of Roman Catholicism and Voodoo can be observed
by an examination of her relationship with Pére Antoine—St. Louis Cathedral parish
priest. The prayers and curses she developed and disseminated to her followers, her
inclusion of Mary among the voodoo patheon, her charitable work among the
impoverished and imprisoned, and her production and sale of gris-gris.

A Priestly Influence
Marie Laveau was a member in good standing at the St. Louis Cathedral, which sat
at the heart of the French Quarter and was one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the
New World.42 Marie spent much of her religious life beneath its vaulted ceilings. She and
her children were baptized there,43 and she made her vows to Jacques Paris before its
altar.44 However, many Catholics over the past century have ridiculed her commitment to
Catholicism asserting that she corrupted the faith and turned the veneration of Mary into
a sacrilege. But her daughter Philoméne attested that “besides being charitable, Marie
was also very pious and took delight in strengthening the allegiance of souls to the
church.”45
Part of the confusion about what constitutes a faithful Catholic is owed to the
unorthodox Catholic practices of the parish priest at St. Louis Cathedral during Marie’s
lifetime. Pére Antoine is believed to have come to the New World approximately twenty
years before Marie Laveau was born. He was a not a strict Catholic minister and refused

Voodoo public rituals beginning in the 1870’s because of her mother’s illness.

42
Martha Ward, Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau, (Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 2004), 23.
43
In the church register on September 16, 1801, a six day old infant named Marie with no surname
was baptized by Fray Antonio de Sedella at the St. Louis Cathedral as “una niña mulata libre, que nacio el
dia dies de este presente mes, hija de Margarita, mulata libre, y de un padre no conocido.” (a free mulatto
girl born the tenth day of this present month, daughter of Marguerite, free mulatress, and an unknwn
father.) See: Carolyn Morrow Long, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess : The Legend and Reality of Marie
Laveau. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006),22.
44
Long notes, “The Spanish Capuchin Fray Antnio de Sedella, known as “Pére Antoine,”
served…as priest of the cathedral. Over 3,500 baptism, marriages, and funerals were performed by Pére
Antoine and entered, in Spanish, into the sacramental registers in his tiny, almost medieval script. He
officiated at many of the important rites of passage for Marie Laveau and her kin.” See: Carolyn Morrow
Long, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess : The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau. (Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 2006),13.
45
Ward, 23.

11
to carry out the inquistion of heretics that was commonplace around Europe during this
period.46 He is remembered for protecting people of color and Voodoo women from the
authorities. He is also thought to have embraced the Freemason community in New
Orleans and allowed them to wear their regalia to Mass on Sundays.
Marie and Pére are believed to have been close friends. They visited the sick and
the imprisoned together. Marie’s daughter offers this recollection about their relationship,
“[Marie] knew Father Antoine better than any living in those days—for he the priest and
she the nurse met at the dying bedside of hundreds of people—she to close the faded eyes
in death, and he to waft the soul over the river to the realms of eternal joy.”47

Prayers & Curses

Voodoo songs and prayers have been commonplace for centuries. They are
believed to have served both educational and liturgical functions. Michel Laguerre
asserts,
Voodoo ritual, songs help create a favorable atmosphere for possession-trance to
occur: they play an important part in the invitation, salutation, welcome, and
communication with the spirits. In addition, songs have a magical function in that
they can be used to force a spirit to come down to possess someone.48

Voodoo songs are often a dialogue between spirits and their human worshipers.
They are written so that they can be easily memorized. Laguerre notes, “[Songs and
prayers are repetitive], concise compact, and full of imagery, parables, and proverbs.”49
Voodoo prayers and songs are very diverse. They can be classified as preparation songs,
invocation songs, responsorial songs, prayers, and farewell songs.50 Laveau provided her
followers a blending of Catholic liturgical prayers with Voodoo prayers and songs.
Traditionally, it is believed that Marie Laveau passed down many works of poetry that
have been called Psalms of Voodoo each echoing the normal call and reponse poetry
found among African peoples. Martha Ward gives an example of such prayers, “The
Lady Who Wishes to Cross Her Enemies:”
[The prayer begins with a petition. “O good mother, I come to you with my heart
bow down and my shoulders drooping and my spirit broken for an enemy has
sorely tried me.” [the worshipper continues] “on my knees I pray to you, good
mother, that you will cause confusion to reign in my enemies’ house, and that you
will take their power from them and cause them to be unsuccessful.” [the
supplication ends with the words of the priestess] “Oh my daughter, go you in
peace and do the works required of you so that you will have rest and comfort from
your enemies, and that they will have not the power to harm you and lower you in

46
Ibid.
47
Ibid., 24.
48
Michel S. Laguerre, Voodoo Heritage (Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1980), 30.
49
Ibid., 31.
50
Ibid., 33.

12
 the sight of your people and belittle you in the eyes of your friends. So Be It.51

While much of the prayer described above is reminiscent of Roman Catholicism, it

is obviously infused with Voodoo theology. The matriarchal focus of a Voodoo goddess
is combined with the Roman Catholic veneration of Mary.

Marie-ology
Marie Laveau significantly reshaped the Voodoo theological pantheon by including
Mary and other Saints. Instead of using African or Haitian terms like Mawu-Lisa and
Bondyé or Gran Mét, she opted to use the term God. Probably the most significant
deviation from traditional Voodoo deities was her inclusion of the “Blessed Mother
Mary” who was universally venerated and believed to be “Our Lady of Prompt Succor”
protecting her people from hurricanes.52
Growing up in the shadow of the St. Louis Cathedral under the leadership of Pére
Antoine, Laveau undoubtedly heard the singing of the Ursuline nuns chanting the
Apostles Creed, the Our Father, and the Ave Maria. Martha Ward asserts that Laveau’s
spiritual life centered upon the mother of Jesus,
Maria the Madonna, Sainte Marie, the Holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, the Good
Mother, the Great Goddess of Chance, and the Great One, child of Mother Earth.
Woman – a goddess, a female spirit – has many names, many tasks, many faces. In
Christian traditions, she conceived a child without intercourse, carried the
pregnancy through personal difficulties, and gave birth to a god. She spoke with
Angel spirits and pondered things in her heart. She comforts mothers whose babies,
like those of women in New Orleans, died too young and too often. She witnessed a
public execution of her first-born son. In African traditions, she is Oshun, goddess
of love; Oya, goddess of lightning and wind; or Yemaya, goddess of the
ocean…She is also the Holy Spirit, the Grace of God, Isis of the South.”53

Laveau’s focus upon the goddess, Mary, was central to many of her rites and
prayers. Laveau’s adoption of Mary aptly blended the two religious faiths by creating a
divine female diety from her understanding of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Laveau’s
gravitation toward Mariology is one of her most signficant theological innovations.

Charitable Work & Visiting the Imprisoned

Visiting the imprisoned and caring for the impoverished have always been
Christian practices. From the early church period to modern day, these activities have
been practiced by Christian people from diverse denominational backgrounds. It should
not come as a surprise that Marie Laveau made this a regular practice in her life since she
was so deeply influenced by Roman Catholicism.
Prior to Marie abidcating her Voodoo leadership, legend tells of her charitable work

51
Ward, 28.

52
Long., 114.
53
Ward, 29.

13
in the New Orleans community. Laveau is said to have taken a special interest in the lives
of those imprisoned in the New Orleans Parish Prision. According to legend, many
people owed their lives to Marie Laveau’s power to stay executions and change the minds
of judges.
Herbert Asbury describes Marie Laveau’s ministry to convicted murderer James
Mullen. She is said to have “brought a coffin into his cell and helped him decorate it,
inside and out, with religious [sic] mottoes and pictures of angels and saints, all enclosed
in a border of metallic fringe. Until he was hanged on July 30, 1859, Mullen slept in the
coffin, using for a pillow a dress which had been worn by his three-year-old daughter.”54
Laveau’s New York Times obituary reported that she would often “visit the cells of
the condemned, and turn the thoughts of those soon to be led out to atone for their crimes
to their Savior. Her coming was considered a blessing by the prisoners, because if they
could only excite her pity, her powerful influence would often obtain their pardon.”55
Marie Laveau is remembered for nursing soldiers, both friend and foe, after the
Battle of New Orleans, for caring for yellow fever patients without fear, and for sharing
provisions with those less fortunate.

Gris-gris & Relics

Gris-gris is not specific to Marie Laveau nor to New Orleans Voodoo.The use of
gris-gris is ubiquitous throughout the voodoo literature. The meaning of the term changes
based upon the particular people group or setting. It can literally refer to almost anything.
In the oral records of the Gumba Ya-Ya, gris-gris may be something as insignificant as
marking an “x” on the ground with your foot when you arrive somewhere and wiping that
“x” out when you depart.56 It could be the act of setting up a cross and placing something
small on top to ward off evil spirits from your residence. Long notes that Marie Laveau’s
gris-gris was similar to charms used in Africa and Haiti. They may have included: “Roots
and herbs, hot peppers, sugar, salt, flavorings, animal parts and byproducts, graveyard
dirt, gunpowder, pins and needles, nails, dolls, candles, incense, holy water, and images
of the saints.”57
Marie Laveau provided private consultations from her cottage on St. Anne Street
where she made and sold gris-gris. Men and women from every class in New Orleans
were reported to line up in front of her home seeking a private meeting. They would
leave with some form of gris-gris, many times an animal bone tucked away in their
pocket where their money once resided.
In similar fashion to that of Christian relics, Marie Laveau fashioned and sold
gris-gris claiming that the item was blessed by the gods and was sure to bring about
positive events in one’s life. In other cases, she would assert that a particular item (i.e. a
dead chicken, cat, or snake left on their porch) was cursed and she would remove the
curse for a price.

54
Asbury, 274.
55
“The Dead Voudou Queen: Marie Laveau’s Place in the History of New Orleans.”
New York Times, 1881.

56
Gumbo Ya-Ya. ed. Louisiana Writers Project. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1945.

Long, 117.
57

14
 Conclusion
Marie Laveau’s version of Voodoo was noticeably tainted with Roman
Catholicism. Whether she syncretized African and Haitian forms of Voodoo more
completely with Catholicism than others and created a distinctly new form of Voodoo is
debateable. Syncretism implies the blending of spiritual expressions into a religious
tradition that essentially is mixed. Many scholars question whether or not Voodoo,
African, Haitian, or New Orleanian, is truly the product of syncretism or is it merely a
façade placed over top traditional Voodooism. As Nathaniel Murrell notes, perhaps “the
Catholic face of Vodou is just a veil that provided some measure of protection for its
followers during periods of repression.”58
Herbert Asbury’s portrait of the New Orleans in his important history, The French
Quarter, describes Laveau in this way:
Marie Laveau was born a Roman Catholic, and appears to have returned to the
church – if, indeed, she ever left it – a decade or so after she became the head of
Voodooism in New Orleans. Throughout the remainder of her life she was
extraordinarily devout and attended mass almost daily at the Cathedral. At the
same time she retained her office as queen of the voodoos, and in this guise sold
vast quantities of “gris-gris” and other charms and conducted an extensive
practice in sorcery so successfully that even among otherwise intelligent whites
the belief was widespread that she possessed supernatural powers. So great was
the fear in which she was held by the Negroes that her open allegiance to two
faiths was never questioned. Nor did the Voodoos protest when she revised the
ritual of the cult to include worship of the Virgin Mary and the Catholic saints, so
that Voodooism became a curious mixture of West Indian fetish-worship and
perverted Catholicism.59

The evidence supports that Marie Laveau’s leadership altered the practice of
Voodoo in New Orleans during the 19th century. Because of her commitment to Roman
Catholicism, the version of Voodoo that she chose to create went beyond the Haitian
Voodoo that was already convoluted with Roman Catholicism. Her life long ties to the St.
Louis Cathedral and Pére Antoine shaped her understanding of spiritual realities. The
evidence of her prayers and curses, her emphasis upon Mariology, her charitable work,
and even her prodcution and sale of gris-gris reveal a metamorphosis of traditional
Voodoo into something else, a form of Voodoo uniquely stamped with Marie Laveau’s
image. Gradually and methodically, Marie Laveau built for herself a different kind of
Voodoo, echoing the tone of an old Créole proverb which says: “Little by little, the bird
builds it’s nest.”60

58
Nathaniel Murrell, Afro-Caribbeann Religions: An Introduction to Their Historical, Cultural,
and Sacred Traditions (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010), 71.
59
Asbury, 268.

60
“Petit á petit, l´oiseau fait son nid.” — Créole Proverb

15
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18