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ERATH — The sixth annual St. Joseph Altar at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Erath will be held at Pope John Paul II Parish Hall located at 700 South Broadway Street.
Father Andre Metrejean, Pastor, will bless the altar at noon (after 11:00 AM mass) on Sunday, March 18, 2018. After a brief ceremony, explaining the history and custom of the St. Joseph Altar, the traditional meatless spaghetti and Italian cookies will be served until 8:00 PM that evening.
Monday, March 19, 2018 celebrates the feast day of St. Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The altar will be on display from 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Meatless spaghetti and cookies will be served to all visitors throughout the day. The spaghetti is meatless in observance of Lenten fast.
The St. Joseph Altar was a custom that began in Sicily, Italy in the 12th century. A severe drought and famine hit the region. After the people prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph, their patron saint, the drought ended. In thanksgiving, the people began to set up altars to St. Joseph in their homes with food to feed the poor.

Traditional Meatless Spaghetti

The traditional meatless spaghetti that serves about 300 guests has been made by Kirk and Denise Soileau since the beginning of the altar in 2013. Fr. Bill Melancon, former pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes, began the tradition of the altar.
The recipe that he gave to the Soileaus came from St. Joseph Church in Rayne. Ms. Leona Poche (Denise’s mother) was president of the Ladies Altar Society at that time. She volunteered the couple to make the spaghetti sauce. She said, “I knew they could do it!” and they certainly can.
The recipe is not for the faint of heart. It is broken down into ounces so that it is easier to measure. It requires 168 oz. of tomato paste; 315 oz. of tomato sauce; 128 oz. of diced tomatoes. Twelve pounds of onions; 3 heads of celery; 8 bunches of parsley; 16 oz. of garlic and 5 bell peppers are all hand chopped. It is important that the vegetables are not put through a food processor. The hand chopped vegetables give the consistency to the meatless sauce. The Soileaus have doctored up the recipe by adding fresh rosemary and basil from their own garden.
Walking into the Soileau’s enclosed patio, one is greeted by a little bit of Italian heaven. Kirk Soileau had the sauce cooking on an outdoor burner since 6:30 AM. He said that he will stop cooking it around 6:30 PM. It takes 12 hours to cook one batch and there are three batches to do. When his wife gets back from work, she is in charge of cooling it and putting into gallon zip lock bags. He said that through trial and error they realized it was better to cook it on an outdoor burner than in their kitchen. The first two years, they had sauce all over their kitchen.
The Soileaus have been married for 29 years and they both love to cook. Kirk said that he grew up in Ville Platte and most men learn to cook at age fourteen. Kirk is a retired supervisor for the Vermilion Parish School Board. Denise is a principal in Lafayette Parish. They are both actively involved with Our Lady of Lourdes Church. When Kirk retired in 2015, he started making the sauce during the week so that the couple could have the weekend off.
This is a massive time consuming job that the Soileau team does with much generosity of spirit. They do it to help the church and to contribute to helping the poor.
When asked how long does it take just to open up all the cans, Kirk laughed and stated, “a while because now, I have to do it by hand. We burnt up three can openers the first couple of years.” Kirk was quick to say that a lot of people volunteer in the effort of making the spaghetti possible. Several people boil the spaghetti noodles; boil the dozens of eggs; and chops all the vegetables. This way they can focus on making a truly delicious marinara sauce.
The Saint Joseph Altar relies completely on the generosity of the parishioners and neighbors that bring in all homemade bread, cookies, and cakes. It takes countless volunteers and many hours to construct and decorate the altar and serve the food. All the volunteers are working toward a common goal of helping out those in need in our community. After the altar is dismantled, all the food is donated to the poor in our community.
For more information, call the church rectory at 337-937-6888.