Outside the 9-by-9-foot chapel across from the levee, congregants sweated and prayed, clad in the most formal churchgoing clothes that can be expected in a Louisiana August.

Many worshippers drove in from different parishes, some even from out of state. What brought them together Friday morning is both a stop on Iberville’s Great River Road Driving Tour and a sacred occasion: the annual Mass held at the Madonna Chapel, one of the smallest churches in the world.

“I came across it on the internet one day a handful of years ago, and it had never left my mind,” said Kim McElhaney, who traveled with her husband from Dry Branch, Georgia, to attend. “The service is once a year on my birthday. This is my 60th birthday, and I wanted to be here.”

The tiny chapel, situated several miles north of N

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