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Show : In the footsteps of - Ze&a$ Wi$$iQmrk : " . (BY THOMAS O'HAGAN, M.A., PH.D, IN CATHOLIC WORLD.). ! Texas is a land of glorious skies, glorious ,lieroism, daring deeds, and high emprise. It shares in two civilizations. civili-zations. The shadow, of its beginnings reaches into Mexico, while the sun in its growing noontide pours its rays athwart the north. Men have indeed made history in Texas, in cloister, in camp, in field, in forest wherever courage, devotion, and faith sublime chose to build an altar chose to. offer sacrifice. " The history of Texas has many chap-Si chap-Si - . i ters full of thrilling adventure and incident, in-cident, but none so noble and glorious as that which records the work of the Catholic missionary. If you would behold be-hold the monument of his zealous labors, la-bors, Circumspice! it is found in the dioceses erected, the churches 'built, the convents and schools multiplied, the hospitals and asylums that bear In their bosom God's poor and afflicted; all these are the work of the Catholic Church in Texas all these are the blossoming: and fruitage of the seed i ... I sown in sacrifice and tribulation by the hand of the eany Texas missionary. The first missionaries to enter Texas were those who accompanied La Salle, the French explorer. They were five in number, and entered Espiritu Santo Bay in January, 16S5. Here La Salle built a fort on the spot subsequently occupied by the Bahia Mission. In the chapel erected in the fort the live priests offered the Holy Sacrifice and administered the Sacraments, withdrawing with-drawing from Texas to Canada at the end of two years. Then came the Franciscans from the Apostolic College of Queretaro and acatecas, Mexico, who. founded missions on the Rio Grande. The Pioneer Spanish priest was the Franciscan Father Damian Mazanet, who accompanied the expedition of Alonzo de Leon in 1689. Father Mazan-et's Mazan-et's auxiliaries were Father Michael Fontenbierto. Francis Casanas of Jesus and Mary, Anthony Borday and Anthony Pereira. The missionaries left Monclora on the 27th of March, 1690, and crossing the Rio Grande proceeded to the country of the Assinais, which they reached about the middle of May, where they established the mission of San Fraticisoo de los Tejas. The fathers who went to Texas in 1691 were Fathers Hidalgo, Estrelles, Fortuni, Garcia, Monge, Saidana, Miranda, Mi-randa, and Garoycaochea. In 1700 on the 1st of January, the Fathers Hidalgo, Hi-dalgo, Anthony de San Buenaventura y. Olivares, with Father Ysidro de Es-pinosa, Es-pinosa, crossed the Rio Grande, and steps were taken to establish four missions mis-sions there. These were maintained till i 1718. when the chief mission was transferred trans-ferred to San Antonio. . The-reeords of San' Fernando Church, in San Antonio,, show that the Mission of San .Antonio was first established in 1703, on the banks of the. . Rio Grande, under the title of Mission of San Francisco. Solano. It was afterwards after-wards transferred to the neighborhood neighbor-hood of San Yldefonso, thence to San Jose on the Rio Grande, and finally to the San Antonio River. In order to . prevent the French at Natchitoches from erecting establishments establish-ments in the 'province of Texas three expeditions left Coahuila, Mexico, in the. years 1689. 1691, and 1716. The first j and second expeditions merely went lou'to learn the designs of the French, j On the third expedition, which set out ' in 1716, nine friars of the college of Santa Cruz of Queretaro and of Our i Lady of Guadalupe of Zacatecas. together to-gether with the venerable Father Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus as superioi or president, established six missions in the most northerly part of the province, pro-vince, and a few years afterwards another was built near the Presidio ot Our Lady Del Pilar de los Adacs, seven leagues from the fort of Natchitoches, in Louisiana. In 1716 the mission of San Antonio Valero was erected not far from the capital of the province among the Indians, In-dians, the Sanes Payes, and others; the tame year the mission of Concep-cion Concep-cion was established among the Sani-paos Sani-paos and Tocanes: in 1720 the mission of San Jose de Aguaqo among the Pampopas and Mesnuites; in 1716 the missions of San Juan Capistran and San Francisco do la Espada among the Pamaques, Quijanes, Pecos and Maraquitas. These Franciscan missions remain today in their ruined state, a monument monu-ment to the zeal, arduous labor, and artistic taste of the early Spanish mis- sionaries. As the author of "The History His-tory of the Catholic Church in the Diocese Dio-cese of San Antonio" justly remarks. New England ha3 nothing equal to them to commemorate the passing of the Pilgrim and the Puritan. They stand out uniquely as a memorial of the self-sacrificing devotion of the . sons of St. Francis In their lofty and sanctified desire to win from savagery and sin the benight ed chi'.e'ren of the forest and prairie. The r.rmr of God relies not upon the sword, but the spirit of truth, and the footprints of the saintly Franciscan, Father Antonio Margil, will exhale in Texas the perfume of the Catholic virtues vir-tues he implanted long after the cruel memory of a Santa Anna has mingled with the dust of the Alamo. - Of the four Franciscan missions hard by Sp.n Antonio, San Jose is unquestionably unques-tionably th-J most beautiful. The celebrated cele-brated art'st Huica was sent from Spain, and spent several years in carving carv-ing the various orname itations of the building: The front doorway is thrity-flve thrity-flve feet high; the doors, solid live-oak, covered with cedar, nicely carved, have, like the statues around the doorway, long since suffered at the hands of vandals. van-dals. The spiral stairs of live-oak anj the- cedar ladders xre still the only means of getting up to the tower. What is known as the First Mission, or Mission de la Concepcion, is on the left bank of the San Antonio river, about two miles below the City of San Antonio. Its style is Christianized Moorish a style which prevails in many of the Mexican cities of today. The walls of the interior are painted with various emblems, among which are the cord of the Franciscans, a serpent, ser-pent, and the seven dolors, or sorrows, which pierced the heart of the Virgin Mother. The tnira Mission, or tne mission oi San Juan Capistrano, does not possess I the very graceful charm of architecture of . the other two, yet it is well worth the' iVisitor's attention, for from its j WjUTarked-out squares and ruined otobaildings one may judge of the general plan of these refuges and of the perseverance of those Franciscan brothers who wrought these wonders out of such unpromising materials. The fourth Mission, or the Mission of San Francisco de la Espada, is in a better condition than the third, and gives a more compl ;te idea of the purpose pur-pose and plan of the old Spanish Mis- sions of Texas. Much of the old rampart ram-part wall is intact, and on the southeast south-east corner is a well preserved bastion which is pierced with musket and cannon can-non holes. The Alamo Church is all that remains to lis of what was once the extensive Mission ""del Alamo," or Mission "San Antonio de Valero." The greater portion por-tion of the modern plaza was once enclosed en-closed within walls, as were also the barracks and convent buildings, but it was in the Church that its heroic defenders, de-fenders, on March 6. :S36. made their last desperate stand for the liberty of Texas. These Spanish Mission Churches of Texas are indeed a revelation in their splendor and massiveness. and in the architectural beauty which even "in their decay crowns them as creations of Catholic art. While Texas remained ecclesiastically subject to Mexico, it was successively cared for spiritually by the Bishops of the Sees of Guadalajara and Monterey, or, as the latter was then known, Linares. Li-nares. In 1764 the missionaries who had come from the College of Queretaro withdrew from Texas, leaving this field to the care of those from the College of Zacatecas. The Franciscan missions in Texas continued to fiourish till about the year 1813, when they were suppressed by the Spanish government. For a number of years following this, Texas was in a state of chaos as regards the Catholic faith and the ministra tions of religion. It was during this spiritually low ebb of the church in Texas, when the altars of the beautiful Spanish missions stood awaiting priests to offer the adorable Sacrifice, that the Bishop of Monterey sent to Nacogdoches the last Franciscan missionary who toiled and suffered for the faith in Texas-Father Texas-Father Diaz de Leon, who is supposed to have met his death by assassination. But a new era was soon to dawn for the Catholic Church in Texas. In the midst of this gathering darkness Pope Gregory XVI, having learned of the sad condition of affairs, addressed a letter to the Archbishop of New Orleans Or-leans requesting him to send a competent com-petent priest to examine and report on the. actual state of the Catholic Church in Texas. The Very Rev. J. Timon, who afterward became the first Bishop of Buffalo, N. Y., was selected to undertake the task. As a result of this report, forwarded to the Holy See, the Sovereign Pontiff resolved to estab-i estab-i lish a distinct jurisdiction in Texas, ana v ery itev. j. iimon ana Kev. jonn ! M. Odin were appointed in 1S39 prefect-i prefect-i apostolic and vice-prefect respectively. Rev. Father Odin started immediately for San Antonio, with an armed wagon to protect himself against any attack from the Indians. Father Odin's work I in San Antonio soon bore good fruit. He went to Austin, the capital of Tex- as, where he was successful in petitioning peti-tioning congress to confirm unto the Catholic Church its churches and missions. mis-sions. On the 10th of July. 1841. Pope Gregory Greg-ory XVI erected the Republic of Texas Tex-as into a vicariate-apostolic, and Right Rev. John M. Odin was appointed Bishop Bish-op of Claudiopolis and was assigned to the newly constituted vicariate. The t churches in Texas at this time, as we learn from Bishop Odin's journal, were: The San Fernando parochial church, San Antonio de Alamo, Church of the Concepcion, Church of San Jose, Church of San Juan, Church de la Espada. Es-pada. in Goliad a parish church, in Victoria a picket church, on the San Antonio ricer, at the ranch of Don Carlos de la Garza, the log church of Santa Gertrudis, besides two other churches :n Laredo and Isleta. In 1861, when Bishop Odin was translated trans-lated to the metropolitan see of New Orleans, there were in Texas forty-two priests, forty-six churches and chapels, one college, five schools for boys, and four academics for young ladies. In 1S47 Galveston whose present episcopal incumbent is the Right Rev. Dr. Gallagher, a prelate of great prudence pru-dence and scholarship became a bishop's bish-op's see, and two years later, at the. request of Bishop Odin, the Ursuline Nuns began their convent in Galveston. The daughters of St. Ursula have now in Galveston one of the finest educa- i tional buildings in the South. I In 1S62 Father Dubuis, who had been successively pastor of San Fernando j Church and St. Mary's Church whitch latter as- well as the Ursuline convent in . San Antonio Father Dubuis built was consecrated Bishop of Galveston. On Ser.temher 27. 1868. the foundation stone of the San Fernando cathedral was laid. From The History of the Catholic Church In the Diocese of San Antonio we learn the following facts in connection with the church: "This building as it now stands i3 a mixture of the old and new styles of architecture. .On this site originally stood the parish church of the capital town of San Fernando. That old building was distinctly different from the missions, for it was built to meet the needs of the growing settlement j around what is now known as the I Main and Military Plazas, a settlement that was eventually to combine with the Presidio and Mission del Alamo, j and at last become Saa , Antonio de I Bexar. Soon r.fter the arrival of the Canary Islanders, who had come with the grants and privileges from the King of Spain, there was a demand for a place of worship. On Feb. 17, 1738. the project pro-ject took definite shape, and the Church of San Fernando was rapidly built. The missions were rather for the use and benefit of Indian converts, although al-though they served also for a political purpose i. e., to establish firmly the frontier lines and territory of Spain. For a century and a quarter this Church fulfilled the needs of the population: pop-ulation: in the meantime the settlement settle-ment became known as San Antonio de Bexar. The town began to grow rapidly, rap-idly, and the need of greater church accommodation was felt. On Sept. 27, 1S6S, the cornerstone of a new structure was laid, and in order that there should be no Interruption jn the services, the new church was "built around and over the old, which was removed when the new was sufficiently completed. The curious polygonal western liortion facing fac-ing Military Plaza, with its moresque dome, is all that remains of San Antonio's An-tonio's pioneer church." The first Bishop of San Antonio, the Right Rev. A. D. Pellicer, was installed in the new cathedral on Christmaa Eve, 1874. The new diocese contained about -lO.O(ti) Catholics, who were spiritually cared for by some thirty-five Priests. Bish .p PeU'cer fore the mitre in the; new see of S;.n Antonio till April 14. l.VSO, when he passed away at his residence res-idence adjoining St. Mary's Church. Upon the death of Monseigneur I'elli-cer, I'elli-cer, Vicar General Xeraz. who, in the meantime became administrator, was appointed Bishop. Hi-ht Rev. Dr. Xeraz was imbued with the most earnest ear-nest zeal for the propagation of the. faith. After four years of progressive and benign episcopal rule, this good Bishon laid down in death his crozier. and was succeeded by the present energetic en-ergetic and self-sacrificing Bishop of San Antonio. Right Rev. Dr. Forest. In December of las year was cele- brated at Brownsville, Texas, of which vicariate Right Rev. P. Verdaguer is Vicar Apostolic, the golden jubilee of the first arrival of the Oblate Fathers as missionaries in Texas. It was assuredly as-suredly a worthy commemoration. That was indeed a memorable day in March. 1.S52. when' the beautiful French sailing vessel La Belle Assise opened its snowy wings to the strong breath of ocean and streamed out from Havre, having on board, bound for Texas, six Oblate Fathers and one lay brother, four Nunts of the Incarnate-Word, Incarnate-Word, two Ursu-line Sisters, four Brothers of Mary and eighteen Seminarians. Semi-narians. But one of this Oblate '.Missionary '.Mis-sionary band now .-survives Rev. Father Parisot. O. M. I., of St. Mary's Church, San Antonio, author of a valuable val-uable contribution to the history of the Catholic Church in -America, entitled en-titled "Reminiscences of a Texas Missionary." Mis-sionary." What these good and zealous Oblate Missionaries have done for the Catholic faith in Texas can alone be read in the records of heaven. When Father Parisot Pari-sot and his five companions reached the shores of Texas there were but nine priests in the whole state. Fitting, indeed, in-deed, was it that the center, the magnet mag-net of the Oblate Golden Jubilee celebration cele-bration at Brownsville should have been the venerable and genial Father Parisot. whose life and labors in the mission fields of Texas are inseparably bound up with fifty years of the history his-tory of the Catholic Church in the "Lone Star" state. Canadians know something of the great work of the Oblate Fathers in educational and mission fields,, for with . truth it may be said that the whole of Canada, from Atlantic to Pacific, is . their sacred vineyard of labor, while , at the capital of the Dominion the t it v of Ottawa they have maintained for half a century one of the leading Catholic Cath-olic universities of America. Besides conducting St. Joseph's College Col-lege in Brownsville, the Oblates have charge of a number of important parishes par-ishes in several of the dioceses of Texas, chief amongst these being St. Mary's Church. San Antonio, whose pastor, Rev. C. J. Smith, O.M.I.. is one of the greatest factors of progress pro-gress in the historic city of the Alamo. But "In the Footsteps of the Texan Misisonary" should be a record of something more than the toil, privations, priva-tions, and tribulations, the sacrifice, zeal, and piety of the priest and prelate pre-late who forded rivers, slept under the starry dome of a Texas sky, in order to plant the seedling of Catholic faith in the hearts of these children of the illimitable plains and wilderness. What of the gentle hearts and cultured cul-tured minds who left their sweet home of childhood in La Belle France, in the emerald vales of beloved Erin. j or, mayhap, where the Rhine dreams its legends, fringed by the blossoming orchards of Alsace and Lorraine to tend a humble little altar of learning upon the banks of the San Antonio or Rio Grande? These too are assuredly assured-ly missionaries whose footsteps are holy, and the labor of whose hearts and hand;? has b'essed Texas within the sanctuary of its homes. The Catholic college is a corollary of the Catholic mission, ami so we learn from Father Parisot's "Reminiscences of a Texas Missionary" that one of his first tasks on reaching Texas was to collect money for a college to b; opened in Galveston. This is now the well-known seat of learning, St. Mary's University. This, we believe, was th-? pioneer college for the education of J: 'Catholic young men in Texas. In 1S81 the foundation of St. Ed-I Ed-I ward's College in Austin, Texas, was laid. Within the nineteen years of the scholastic lift of St. Edward's College has steadily grown materially, intellectually intel-lectually and financially, till now it is one of the foremost Catholic colleges j in the south. When it is said that this popular seat of learning grew out of the brain and heart of Notre Dame University, Indiana, -and is conducted by the scholarly . Fathers of the Holy Cross, it will b ereadily understood why St. Edward's has ever a large en- rollment of Catholic young men. Right Rev. P. J. Hurth, C.S.C., Bishop of the see of Dacca, Eastern Bengal, India, was for some years - president of St. Edward's. The present popular and progressive head is the Rev. John T. Boland. C.S.C. Hard by the college is St. Mary's Academy for the education of young ladies, conducted by the Sisters Sis-ters of the Holy Cross, whose name is a synonym for thorough academic work in art and letters wherever the ! true value of culture and scholarship obtains. The Ursuline Nuns first found their way into Texas through Galxeston. where, at the invitation of Bishop Odin, they established an academy to which reference has already been made. Four years later the Ursulines established a convent in San Antonio, being the first school opened in that city and the second in the state for the education of young girls, both rich and poor. For well-nigh fifty years this institution has sustained a reputation repu-tation in the departments of letters, music and painting which has attracted attract-ed to its academic halls daughters of the best families in Mexico and the leading states of the south. The good and pious daughters of St. Ursula had much to endure during their pioneer years in San Antonio, but the love, affection af-fection and gratitude of their -pupils as it flowed into them Trom the world, and the spirit of holy sacrifice which was a very cardinal virtue in their great founder, bore them joyously through every difficulty. Today, wheth- j er you visit the cities of Xew Mexico, j old Mexico. California. Texas or Lou- ! isiana. you will hear praise for the Ur- j J (Continued on Page i.) , j i In t&e.Teetstops Cexas missionaries (Continued From Page 1.) sulines of San Antonio, whose good work in Catholic education has descended de-scended as a benediction upon countless hearts and homes. In the city of Dallas, Dal-las, which was erected into an episcopal episco-pal see in the beginning of the nineties, nine-ties, the present progressive prelate being be-ing .Bishop Dunne, the Ursulines havB also been established a convent. : No sketch of the Catholic church in Texas that would leave out the labors of the Sisters of the. Incarnate Word and the Brothers of Mary would be complete. Both were' "pioneers- in the good work which they undertook to do ynwi i. in in 1 1 ii n ' winmmi i. wiiiimji m .111111 mi n. the education of Catholic boys and girls and the care of the sick and afflicted. St. Louis college, recently built ;by the Brothers of Mary in San Antonio, is one of the finest structures struc-tures and best equipped educational institutions in-stitutions to be found in any city of the south. Nor should the convent of Our Lady of the Lake in San Antonio, ponducted by the Sisters of Providence, pass unheeded or without commendation. commenda-tion. These good sisters are a very bulwark bul-wark of Catholic education in Texas. The town of Victoria has also an excellent excel-lent Catholic college and convent, and the Basilian Fathers from Toronto, Ontario, whose good work for Catholic education is so widely known, have lately opened a college at Waco. Texas is indeed starred with the heroic he-roic deeds of pioneer prelate and priest, of gentle nun and zealous brother, the ; perfume of whose labors makes fragrant frag-rant today the flowers of Catholic faith in the hearts and homes of the beauti- i ful southland. |