Trusting God’s Will: A Priest After Jesus’ Own Heart

Fr. Andrew “Sol” Souby is a priest who may be closer to you than you realize – and one who has had an immense and lasting impact on the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.

Born in New Orleans in 1871 as Andre’ Guillaume Souby, he attended St. Mary of Archbishopric’s parochial school for his elementary education. He later attended the Jesuit College on Baronne Street in 1883 before graduating in 1889 with full honors. He was then sent to study with the Vincentian Brothers in Genoa, Italy before being ordained in 1894. After he returned to New Orleans, he was assigned to be an assistant pastor in Baton Rouge.


When he was 27, he was appointed the Pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church of Brashear City (now Morgan City). Considered a remarkable achievement for the time, the average priest usually wasn’t assigned as a pastor unless he’d been a priest for at least 5 years – usually 10 years.

His parish boundaries were massive – 25 miles in one direction, 60 miles in the other – but that didn’t stop Fr. Souby from reaching his people. To serve them, he traveled by train, car, boat, and in the earlier days, by foot! Fr. Souby would fast while he worked long hours and then walk an estimated 4 miles a day to celebrate mass at different locations. But Fr. Souby had another practice he observed during these long and hot walks; it was believed that he wrapped chains around his body for mortification. He liked to offer his penances for the lost souls within his parish boundaries.

Fr. Souby gave his money away to his own church parish and the needy, so his cassocks tended to be old and worn. People would usually hear from him that he needed only “a place to sleep and a little to eat.” During the Great Depression, Fr. Souby and the local Catholic Daughters group worked to feed the poor with Souby, who helped cook the meals himself.  His charity work including helping place children from orphan trains in New York in local homes became an important part of his legacy. He wrote to the families yearly to check on the children and share details of their previous families.
 
Fr. Souby was taken away from his people at one point because he became very sick with tuberculosis. He took healing breaks in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. When he was temporarily assigned to Las Cruces’s Fort Stanton, his holiness and character seemed to shine through in other ways: he learned Spanish and became an accredited chaplain.

Fr. Souby had a deep and personal devotion to our Lord, giving his life completely to God’s will even in suffering and illness. He wrote, “I have all the confidence in the world that God is working to preserve me for a few more years of usefulness, when I shall be perfectly satisfied to release my burden at his beck,” showing his ultimate trust in God’s plan for him. That devotion led him to serve his parish and its people with all his strength. Writing to the Bishop one day, he explained that he had “the least desire, to resign my parish, as it would kill me to think of it.”

In 1938, when Fr. Souby became so ill he needed a hospital, he was taken to Thibodaux’s hospital where he later died. On the day of his funeral, many local businesses closed and mourners lined the blocks outside of the church with flags being flown at half-mast.
Fr. Souby’s pastoral ministry is still felt up to this day. He was the pastor for Warren Boudreaux, who later became the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux’s first bishop, influencing him as a child all the way up to adulthood. As a result, when Bishop Boudreaux was looking to name the retreat buildings at Lumen Christi, the diocese’s picturesque retreat center, it was Fr. Souby he chose to honor because of his lasting impact.

Fr. Andrew Souby worked hard to serve the local people and bring them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. He was a tireless worker and brought many to God through his holiness, building churches and missions to share God’s word with the local people. Fr. Souby worked hard to push himself through pain, sickness, grief, and poverty – all for God’s glory and for serving the people entrusted to him.

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Michelle LeBlanc is the Archivist of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux’s Archives turned 40 on November 11, 2023. The Archives and Records Center contains the diocese’s historical records and maintains school and church records for the diocese. For questions or further research, please email [email protected].