Nouvel Catholic Central High School

Nouvel Catholic Central High School was named for Father Henri Nouvel, the Jesuit missionary priest who celebrated the first Mass to take place in the interior of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula on the banks of the Saginaw River.  It was during the wintery month of November 1675 that Father Nouvel set out from St. Ignace on a nearly month-long journey by canoe to the Saginaw Bay.  He paddled through fog, rain and ice-encrusted water, but eventually made it to the mouth of the Saginaw River.  On December 3, the Feast Day of St. Francis Xavier, Father Nouvel celebratedthe first Mass in the interior of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.  Nearly two centuries after Father Nouvel's visit to Saginaw, the first Catholic high school came into existence; St. Mary High School in 1868.  By the mid-1960s, Saginaw was home to nine Catholic high schools.  His visit to Saginaw is considered so significant that in 1952 the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw erected a marker on Ojibway Island to commemorate the event.