‘The catechism was written in their hearts’

St. Patrick Mission is one of the oldest in the state, having begun in the colony of San Patricio de Hibernia in 1830. Two years earlier, the Irish empresarios James McGloin and John McMullen contracted with the Mexican government to settle 200 families in an area on the Nueces River.  Their Catholic faith was required but their fluency in Spanish, learned from their Spanish wives, undoubtedly helped them secure the grant. McMullen was married to a widow, Esther Espadas Cummings, and McGloin married her daughter Eliza. 

“Today we celebrate 180 years of Catholic evangelization in the Lord’s vineyard,” Bishop Emeritus Edmond Carmody said as he greeted the crowd gathered in the St. Patrick Mission church at Old San Patricio last month.

Msgr. Louis F. Kihneman, III, Vicar General, Msgr. Seamus McGowan and Priest-in-Charge Father P. George Thomas concelebrated the Mass.  After Mass, Bishop Carmody dedicated a Marion grotto adjacent to the church.  Later Irish dancers and a mariachi group provided entertainment as a turkey dinner was served to the hundreds of guests. 

“Our parish is steeped in the history and traditions of many cultures but we have persevered and remained hopeful that we can help each other in true friendship and in the spirit of our Catholic faith together marching towards the same destiny—God,” parishioner and descendant of early Irish settlers Theresa Bluntzer Baucum said.

The first settlers arrived in 1829. They joined and were welcomed by the Spanish residents, their common Catholic faith served to bind the community together. A list of families with titled town lots reveals the bicultural make-up of the village. The titles included family names such as Burke, Carroll, De La Garza, De La Pena, Dwyer, Fadden, Finny, Hart, Henry, Killilea, Leal, McMurry, Molina, Moya, Murphy, O’Boyle, O’Conner, Turner, Ryan, Seguro and Zavala. These people forged ahead in faith. Their first community project was to build a church.

   Father Henry Doyle came with the Irish and immediately began a small church with available materials. The floor was packed earth, pickets made of willow poles were driven upright into the ground, a mixture of boiled moss and clay chinked the crevices, this formed the walls, and palmetto thatch provided a roof.  In 1830, it is where the community gathered for their first Mass. 

The church was the first of four built for the Catholic community during its 180 years.  They are symbols of the tenacity with which the people have clung to their faith despite hardships, wars, fire, hurricanes and disease.

The little picket church stood though the military actions of the Texas Revolution.  Historical accounts exist detailing how the remains of soldiers were brought to the site for burial after the Battle of San Patricio in 1836.  As political upheaval tore the colony apart, some citizens sided with Texas independence others wished to remain loyal to Mexico, citing their faith, which bound them.

A search of old Sacramental records reveals details of the relationships that existed.  The Irish served as Godparents for Spanish surnamed babies being baptized, and vise versa. Others witnessed at weddings. One record indicates that Bishop Claude M. Dubuis married Pedro Garza to a bride named Treviño in the home of James Grover. Grover and Matthew Kivlin served as witnesses.

The burial records also show the heavy toll of infant and child mortality that the congregation suffered.  During the postwar period, Father U. Estany, Father James Fitzgerald, who died of yellow fever in 1848, and Father James Giraudon from Victoria administered the sacraments at stated intervals. 

By mid-century the church had a new pastor, Father Bernard O’Reilly a genial Irishman had arrived. The picket church had been improved by the addition of lumber siding.  Trouble did not stay away for long though, the church burned to the ground and the fire destroyed all the church records.

In 1859, the people set out again to build a new house of worship.  By then, lumber mostly cypress, came by boat from Florida to Corpus Christi.  It was hauled overland by ox cart to the building site. Parishioners with a variety of building skills designed and constructed the new church.  It was decorated with great care; old photos show statues, Stations of the Cross, and other altar appointments in place.

It was a huge change, to be sure from the picket walls of the first church. Bishop Jean Marie Odin, the first bishop of Texas, dedicated it.  The pastor was Father Antoine Borias.

For the next 60 years, the building and the faith life it supported sustained the congregation through good times but also the misery of the civil war, yellow fever outbreaks and droughts.
As the need for new churches seemed to occur regularly so did the need for education.  In 1876, two schools were opened for parish youngsters. The Sisters of Mercy established St. Joseph’s Female Academy. 

The community built a large two-story building to accommodate the sisters and the girls who were day students.  The newspaper advertised the school’s curriculum of academic subjects that also included “plain and fancy needlework.”  Terms were such that “even the poorest child could get an excellent education.” 

Professor Robert Dougherty taught the boys at St. Paul’s Male Academy a mile and a half away on Round Lake.  Dougherty, originally from Ireland, had recently served in Corpus Christi as a teacher at the Catholic Hidalgo Seminary.  The boys received a classical education, which included English, mathematics, bookkeeping, and Spanish. 

Though they began with great hope, both schools eventually closed.  Although the schools were not long lived, they had been instrumental in evangelizing the youth.   Reflecting on the successful transmission of faith over the years, through chaos, turmoil and lack of electronic teaching aids, Father Stephen Dougherty, Parochial vicar at Sacred Heart parish in Mathis and great grandson of Robert Dougherty, said, “They didn’t need them, the catechism was written in their hearts. ”

Several pastors serve at St. Patrick, including Father Antoine Maury, Father John Biget, Father Edward Smyth, Father B. J. Donada and Father Miguel Puig. 

The high point of parish spiritual life was the mission.  A priest, usually a member of the Passionist order, came and gave a series of homilies dealing with matters of faith.  The missions lasted for an entire week, providing both spiritual and social nourishment for the people.

However, another calamity, the deadly hurricane of 1919 hit the town.   It destroyed their beautiful church; most of the altar appointments and statues were also ruined.  Father Puig had to celebrate Mass in the rectory.

After all this, rumors of moving the church to Mathis began to surface.  Members of the parish immediately wrote and signed a petition to protest to Bishop E. B. Ledvina asking that the church not be moved.  He complied with their request, and in 1922, he received money from the Catholic Extension Society to build a small frame building on the existing site.

This quaint structure was similar to many built all over the diocese by the Extension Society during the early part of the twentieth century. It served the community well. The décor was simple but adequate. 

The front piece of the altar has been placed on a side altar in the present church, which along with a painting of Christ crucified from the old church serve as reminders of the past.  

Father E. G. Bartosch served as pastor for many years.  He urged Bishop Mariano S. Garriga to build a larger and stronger church in San Patricio.  The bishop, aware of the history of the community, decided in favor of the suggestion. The present church is the result.  Bishop Adolph Marx dedicated it in 1961. 

Today, housed in a secure building with a sturdy catechetical hall close by, the mission is able to continue its evangelization. 

“Hand on your religion to your children. We all drink from wells we never dug, we are beneficiaries of the sacrifices of our ancestors, we must now become now become the benefactors and protect the faith for our children,” Bishop Carmody said.