Mater Dolorosa was established as a parish in 1908, but its mission, St. Dominic in Husser, has the distinction of being the oldest Catholic Church in Tangipahoa parish. This mission dates back to 1855 when Father C.M. Du Puy came occasionally from Covington to celebrate Mass in the homes of Noris Baham and Lawrence Husser.
In 1864, a church was built of logs cut and hewn by local residents. The hand wrought cross is still attached to the new church at the sacristy entrance. Due to a growing membership, the log church was replaced by a “larger box church” in 1880. St. Dominic went through several church buildings until the present brick church was dedicated in 1958. A few years later, the Diocese of Baton Rouge was formed, and St. Dominic was attached to Mater Dolorosa as a mission church. The people of Mater Dolorosa were first served by Father Columban Wenzel, O.S.B., one of the pioneers among the Benedictine monks in southeast Louisiana, who traveled from his ministry at St. Joseph in Ponchatoula. Around 1896, Father Wenzel built the first Catholic Church in Independence, and came every Sunday to celebrate Mass. The church was a small frame structure, which had to be enlarged twice because of the rapid growth of the congregation, especially the new Italian immigrants from the island of Sicily.
Mater Dolorosa has been under the direction of several religious orders over the past 100 years. First the Benedictines served the parish, followed by the Dominican Fathers of the Province of the Most Holy Rosary in Spain. The Dominican Fathers of the Province of St. Joseph, with headquarters in New York, took over the parish in 1938. In 1949, during the administration of the Dominicans, the Mater Dolorosa School was built.
The current church, built in compliance with the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, was dedicated on May 27, 1973. Since 1994, the parish has been administered by diocesan priests.