‘As BIG as TEXAS’

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Having served as Vicar Apostolic of the area of Texas for only a few years, Bishop John Mary Odin prepared to set sail for his native France in search of priests and religious in March of 1845.  During his first years as bishop, the Republic of Texas had experienced numerous challenges—multiple brief occupations by Mexican forces, the threat of bankruptcy, the regular rounds of disease, serious crop failures and the usual Gulf storms.  The fate of Texas and the church in Texas seemed still in doubt so the area had only been designated a vicariate.

While Bishop Odin and the Catholic community also questioned their future, the bishop realized that an immediate need was for clergy and religious to serve the Catholic population struggling to maintain and grow in their faith.  On the first leg of his journey that March 1845, Bishop Odin had just arrived in New Orleans and was preparing to take the train for New York in route to his European visit when he learned that Texas had been annexed by the United States.

The annexation precipitated a dispute and war between Mexico and the United States.  However, it ultimately gave Texas the promise of greater stability.  As a result, the former vicariate of Galveston was raised to the status of diocese on May 4, 1847, with Bishop Odin named as the first ordinary.

The papal bull that established the new diocese simply stated that the boundaries were the same as the state of Texas so the bishop had to travel miles upon miles to cover a diocese that stretched from Nacogdoches to Laredo. From 1847 to 1874 the Diocese of Galveston was the same area as the state of Texas.  The territory saw growth in multiple corners of the diocese, leading to its first synod (a regional church council) in June 1858.

Bishop Odin found help from his French countrymen. The Ursuline Sisters in New Orleans and the Incarnate Word congregation in Lyon, France established the first non-parochial Catholic schools and the first Catholic hospitals in the new diocese.

The bishop, religious and laity of the church in Texas were seeking to answer some very real needs—for education, religious formation and medical services—in a frontier area that was rapidly growing.  Beginning with only four priests when he first took charge of the spiritual care of Texas, Bishop Odin had some 20 priests ministering in the mission field of Texas by the close of 1852.

That same year Bishop Odin had obtained six priests from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, four sisters from the Congregation of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, two Ursuline Sisters from New Orleans and four Marianist Brothers who were the pioneers of St. Mary’s College (now University) of San Antonio.

The ways of these missionaries changed in Texas.  The Incarnate Word sisters made modifications in both the habits they wore (heavy wool garments were too hot in south Texas) and in their religious habit of cloister (not going out in public) as they changed to meet the demands of this land and the people’s needs.

The bishop also recruited eight seminarians to study for the people of Texas here in the United States.  Texas was not an easy assignment, however, and the new harsh mission field claimed the lives of seven of the Oblates between 1853 and 1862, to which their founder exclaimed, “Cruel Texas mission!”  The Oblate priests were known as the “Cavalry of Christ” as they made their rounds on horseback to serve the scattered ranches and rural communities throughout south Texas.

During this period Bishop Odin had also shared those hardships as he visited his flock.  He told the story of traveling from Brownsville to Corpus Christi in 1850, making his journey by way of Padre Island to avoid hostile natives.  He recounted his experiences on the island where he dug a well in the sand each night to water the horses and for use in making coffee.

He left Brownsville on Aug. 28 and arrived on Sept. 4 in Corpus Christi where he spent two days ministering to the spiritual needs of about 30 Catholic families, primarily Mexicans.  He spent another day or two in the nearby town of San Patricio, much reduced in population since the War for Independence.

In 1858 he made another tour of the south Texas area during which he confirmed 3,415 individuals over a period of five months and he celebrated daily Mass and preached in several locations.  Bishop Odin and Bishop Claude Dubuis, who succeeded him as bishop of the Diocese of Galveston in 1862, both faced many challenges as they attempted to serve the needs of a diocese that was literally “as big as Texas” in those days.

It was a time marked by the threat of attacks by hostile Indians and bandits, the ravages of epidemics such as cholera and yellow fever and the consequences of the Civil War.  The small village of Corpus Christi that became the cathedral city of the Diocese of Corpus Christi was a reflection of what most of the ranches and towns in south Texas were experiencing during these years when Texas was one diocese.

One of those early priests who served in south Texas and wrestled with the problems of the frontier was the community’s pastor Father John Gonnard.

Father Gonnard came to Galveston as a seminarian in 1852 on the Belle Assize and was ordained in his newly adopted country in 1854.  After serving near the Brazos in east Texas, he was assigned to Corpus Christi in 1863.

The little community had first become an official parish (originally named St. Patrick’s parish) about 1853 according to the earliest sacramental records of its present incarnation, the Corpus Christi Cathedral.  Priests out of the older and larger city of Victoria had initially served the parish.  One previous visiting priest was Father Fitzgerald who had survived one case of yellow fever only to be stricken a second time after getting caught in a rainstorm that weakened his health.  He died on July 28, 1849 at the age of 28.

Father Gonnard faced the same hazards.  He worked hard to erect a two-story schoolhouse on the corner of Leopard and Carancahua streets, near the little church that had been completed under Father Bernard O’Reilly in 1857.  All these projects and programs required the help of the whole community, which reflected a diverse immigrant population, unified by faith and need.

Bloze Mathias Baldeschwiler from Switzerland carved much of the woodwork of the little church, and Irishman James McBride helped with the construction of the actual building, originally designed by Canadian architect Charles G. Bryant.

To help in economically depressed times, others gave whatever they could contribute.  Gilbert McGloin had bequeathed a sizeable tract of land to Father O’Reilly to sell or use by the church.

The widow Bridget Kelly left her home to the church.  Others gave as needs arose, and from this generosity the parish was able to grow in its life of faith and service.  This was true of all the small communities and ranches of the area from Laredo in the west to Brownsville in the south to Goliad in the north and Corpus Christi in the east.

The Civil War meant limited supplies with the blockade imposed by the Union.  Travel and communication also changed as well as sources of many groceries.  Nevertheless life and the church went on.  With the end of the Civil War, Bishop Dubuis brought 12 missionary priests from France, departing from Le Havre in 1866.  Among them was the young Father Claude Jaillet who served most of his priesthood in south Texas in multiple roles of pastoral and administrative leadership.  

In February of 1867 Bishop Dubuis left Galveston to visit Corpus Christi and the lower Rio Grande Valley.  He found the population in the valley had increased by the thousands due to those fleeing the war in Mexico between the supporters of Maximilian and Benito Juarez.  The bishop could only find two extra priests to send to a territory that needed many more.

By early March he had planned to travel to Europe for the commemoration of the 1800th anniversary of the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul as well as to seek more priests and religious.  However, his plans were interrupted by the dreaded yellow fever that was raging in Cuba by June 1867.

While many had survived the epidemic in 1864, new immigrants to Texas meant a huge supply of new victims.

By the time the epidemic had run its course throughout the Gulf Coast, patients overran the new hospitals run by the Ursulines and the Incarnate Word sisters, depleting their funds.

In Corpus Christi more than 300 (roughly a third of the total population) died.  Among the victims was Father Gonnard who died in September 1867.  The Catholic victims were buried in the newly established Holy Cross Cemetery in Corpus Christi while the living addressed the needs of those widowed or orphaned.

The Cahills, still grieving the loss of their two children, adopted two nieces and a nephew who had been orphaned.  Mayor J. B. Murphy and his wife, Mary Margaret Healy Murphy, adopted two girls who were not related.

Father Peter Berthet, who also had suffered from the fever, took over responsibilities as pastor after his recovery.

Similar stories of sacrifice and hard work, sustained by faith, marked the communities throughout the area that became the Diocese of Corpus Christi in 1912.

Meanwhile the area of Texas continued to grow as both lay and religious populations increased, with new schools and hospitals established after the Civil War and the ravages of the 1867 epidemic.

The growth was to such an extent that the Holy Father decided it was time to acknowledge this expansion as well as plan for future growth as he began a division of the original Diocese of Galveston.

In 1874 the Holy Father split off the western section of Texas to establish the new Diocese of San Antonio.  The southern area of that diocese he designated the Vicariate of Brownville in anticipation of the growth that would lead to that territory also becoming a new diocese.  The bounds of that vicariate remained essentially the same boundaries of the Diocese of Corpus Christi when it was erected in 1912.