Corpus Christi, the base of operations for the new Vicariate

Under Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis, the Catholic population of Texas grew to 180,000 by 1873.^[1] Although the need for another ecclesiastical split had been evident since 1860, it wasn’t until 1872 that the plan for the division of the Diocese of Galveston was proposed. Following Pope Pius IX’s Papal Bull In Futuram Rei Memoriam on September 18, 1874, new boundaries were finally drawn, splitting the Apostolic Sees of Galveston, San Antonio, and Brownsville.^[2] 
 
Thus, the Vicariate Apostolic of Brownsville was born, not yet ready to be elevated to its own Diocese. The boundaries were finalized in 1879 to include the current Dioceses of Corpus Christi, Laredo, and Brownsville, as well as Goliad County.^[3] For funds, the Vicariate depended heavily on the Propagation of the Faith, an international association founded by Bl. Pauline Jaricot to support Catholic missions. Newly appointed Bishop Dominic Manucy was installed as Bishop of the Vicariate of Brownsville at Immaculate Conception Church in Brownsville on February 14, 1875. Shortly after that, he moved to Corpus Christi, making it his base of operations and the See City of the Vicariate. 

Bishop Manucy, like his predecessors, was a tireless pioneer for the Faith. He came to the Vicariate from the Diocese of Mobile, where he was ordained a priest and then a bishop. His first role as a bishop was in the Vicariate of Brownsville. For the exhausting, dangerous, but extremely important confirmation tours the bishop needed to make, Fr. Jaillet rode with him as he had done with Dubuis. At this point, Jaillet was serving in Corpus Christi as assistant priest of Old St. Patrick’s Church. “He (Manucy) was traveling durinOld St. Patrick's Church, built 1881 by Bishop Manucyg the hottest day fully dressed as in winter.... I never heard him complain of the heat,” wrote Jaillet.^[4] 

 Manucy would spend hours hearing confessions, instructing children, and visiting with his flock. Nothing could make the bishop happier than working among the poor and sharing tortillas and frijoles with the rancheros. Where the salvation of souls was concerned, he was a prolific father, confirming 2,862 people on just one of his confirmation tours from Corpus Christi to Laredo. Today, we can still see evidence of their travels in the sacramental registers, where each entry is carefully inscribed and copied from the notebook Jaillet kept in his saddlebag as they visited rural communities and ranches. Despite being smaller than the former Diocese of Galveston, the Vicariate was still so enormous that the faithful would go for years without seeing a bishop or priest. The confirmation tours, along with Manucy’s push to bring in religious sisters to teach in schools, played an integral role in holding the Vicariate together.^[5] 
 
In 1883, when Bishop Manucy was appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Mobile, he entrusted the Vicariate of 40,000 “frontier Catholics,” 12 priests, and 24 churches and chapels to the care of Fr. Jaillet as Vicar General and Administrator. After a year, Manucy tried to return to the Vicariate but died before he could do so.^[6] The bishop’s seat was empty for five years, and the responsibilities of its administration fell both on Fr. Jaillet and Bishop John Claudius Neraz of the Diocese of San Antonio. 
 
During his first confirmation tour in the Vicariate, Bishop Neraz faced great hardship while visiting missions and parishes along the Rio Grande.”^[7] By the time he made his first visit to Brownsville, ten years had elapsed since the last bishop had done confirmations there. The sheer amount of work Neraz faced compelled him to appoint Jaillet as his Vicar General, whose years of serving the poor South Texas missions under the two previous bishops made him more than capable of the job. Jaillet was a humble priest, but his devotion to bringing Christ to the Texas wilderness was unmistakable. 
 First clergy retreat with Bishop Verdaguer in 1904
On one quest, he rode three days with no food or water; on another, he persisted despite being plagued with sores and burning with fever.^[8] Along with acting as Vicar General and Administrator, Jaillet was parish priest of Old St. Patrick’s Church, the only Catholic church in Corpus Christi. He filled that role for 40 years, seeing it elevated from parish church to the Diocese of Corpus Christi’s first cathedral while being involved in civic matters and education. Sr. Xavier, IWBS, diocesan archivist and historian of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, credited Jaillet’s efficient administration of the parish with Corpus Christi being chosen as the See City at the Vicariate’s elevation to a Diocese. “Corpus Christi,” she wrote, “was found to be the best-organized parish in the vast territory and was, consequently, selected as the bishopric seat to be henceforth known as the Diocese of Corpus Christi.”^[9] He served God’s Church faithfully until he died in 1929. 
 
To cement the tale of the pioneering bishops, it is necessary to tell of the works of the man who came to fill the vacant seat of the Vicariate of Brownsville in 1890,^[10] relieving Jaillet and Neraz of their administrative posts. Bishop Peter Verdaguer was born in Spain but was ordained in San Francisco, California. He was pastor of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California, when appointed to the Vicariate of Brownsville. He traveled to Barcelona for Our Lady of Victory, Beeville, 1908his consecration and then visited several seminaries, where he recruited six seminarians in 1891^[11]. Because no house suited a bishop’s residence in Corpus Christi, Verdaguer lived in Laredo, which had a bigger population and better accommodations.^[12] 

 The Vicariate was still very much an impoverished one, and even with the support of the Propagation of the Faith, Verdaguer struggled greatly to maintain churches and support his priests.^[13] Regardless, he, too, made long journeys, visiting the faithful throughout the Vicariate. Under Verdaguer’s leadership, churches, schools, and orphanages were built. Spohn Hospital was established. Many parishes were raised in places like Kingsville, Rockport, and Skidmore, and they were assigned resident priests rather than having to rely on traveling ones.^[14] 
 
Verdageur was a true missionary, devoting himself to preaching on the ranches and being among the poor, earning himself the affectionate nickname “Padre Pedro.”^[15] His odds-defying bishopric ended on the mission field, as an existing illness worsened during a confirmation tour he insisted on doing, believing to the last that his flock should be allowed to hear their shepherd’s voice, no matter what it might cost him. He died in 1911, a year before the Vicariate was raised to a Diocese.^[16] 
 
The clergy, religious, and faithful of the Vicariate would go on to overcome many challenges in the ravages of yellow fever, the difficulty of poverty, devastating storms, and even opposition from other faiths. Despite it all, for the last 150 years in South Texas, brave bishops have taken up the mantle in obedience to the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And beholFirst Spohn Sanitarium built in 1905d, I am with you always until the end of the age.”^[17] 

 Today, the Diocese of Corpus Christi looks vastly different from the pre-Vicariate days of Bishop Odin’s scattered flock and scanty clergy: There are 125 priests, 100 permanent deacons, 231 sisters, 69 parishes, 29 missions,^[18] and a Catholic population of 395,000.^[19] Even amid this abundance, God still desires to see missionary zeal in us all; He is still calling the hearts and souls of the Catholics of South Texas. With such a heritage of courage, perseverance, and faith to inspire us, may we also answer God’s call to serve Him and grow His Church!