Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/606

 TEXAS

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TEXAS

dral church of the Diocese of San Antonio. The spiritual jurisdiction of the Diocese of Guadalajara extended over Texas until the erection, in Mexico, of the Diocese of Nuevo Lt>6n, now Monterey, under the title of Linares, in 1777, and Texas formed part of its territorj-. The Franciscan missions were immediately under a president of missions. One of these at this date (1777), by an Indult of Pope Clement XIV, was empowered to administer confirmation in all parts of Texas. Don Pedro de Nava, commandant-general of Chihuahua, whose jurisdiction included part of Texas, issued a decree in 179-1 by which the temporalities of all the missions of his two provinces "were placed in the hands of the civil authorities". It also "directed the division of their lands in severalty among the inhabitants of these estabhshments". In Texas, how- ever, the process of secularization went on very slowly. In 1813 the missions in some parts of Texas were still flourishing when the Spanish Cortes secular- ized all the missions in Texas. Not until 1823 did the last of the missions at San Antonio become extinct, when the Government of Mexico put into execution the decree of the Cortes. It was not until 1827 that the last of the mission lands were distributed among the individual Indios reducidos, who formerh' had possessed them in common. Diocesan priests took the places of the Franciscan friars as they departed, when the population required it. The archives of the missions went with their keepers to Queretaro and Zacatecas. These with the various reports sent from time to time, during the century and a quarter of mis- sionarj- activity, would be a most interesting field for the historian, while furnishing imboimded pathos for the poet.

The experiment of 1728 proved too expensive to be repeated and so the population of European extraction remained small, as we have seen. Later, however (1805), when the boundary dispute with the Ignited States seemed likely to assiune a warlike aspect, besides troops to occujiy military posts Spain hurried hundreds of famihes of settlers to take possession of the country. These were of course provided with priests and in 1805-1806 we find Don Primo Fehciano Marin, Bishop of Nuevo Le6n, making a visitation in the province, setting chiu-ch affairs in order, and mak- ing a circumstantial report of the spiritual condition of the people.

When Capt. Zebulon M. Pike visited Texas on his famous expedition (180.5-06), he remarked the holy lives and refinement of the priests he had met, their blessed influence upon their flocks, and the genera! happiness and morality of the people. The European population of course remained small (7000 in 1806), and the revolutionary period beginning in 1810 and lasting fully a decade lowered the general standard both of morals and religion. After settlements from the United States began to be made (1820), we find in the correspondence of the settlers occasional men- tion of priests stiU serv'ing some of the old mission churches and in the towns. In the official documents regulating the laying-out of colonial towns provision is always made for the site of a church and priest's house on one of the public squares, though of course most of these colonists were Protestant. The Irish settlements, largely Cathohc, made near Refugio and on the Nueces River, San Patricio, were served by priests, one of whom. Father Henry Doyle (1830), is mentioned by non-Catholic historians. A Father Michael Muldoon was an especialfavouriteof the old settlers from the United States, non-Catholic as well as C'atholic. His visits and those of his colleagues were events in the settlements, his ministrations longed for. He is mentioned as participating in some of the stirring events immediately preceding the Texas Revolution. When not from ^lexico these priests were from Kentucky, the Diocese of St. Louis, or that of New Orleans. Even in the accounts of the

Texas Revolution there is mention of the intervention of priests between the contending parties, to arrange for the burial of the dead after a battle or otherwise provide for human needs, corporal as well as spiritual. Yet when the Republic of Texas was established(1836) very few priests were in Texas: Father J. M. Odin and Father John Timon, of the Congregation of the Mis- sion, from their seminary at theBarrens, Perry County, Missouri, in the Diocese of St. Louis, had visited in Texas territory previous to its independence, and con- tinued to visit there with other priests of their congre- gation. In June, 1838, Archbishop Blanc of New Or- leans ^Tote to Bishop Rosati (q. v.) of St. Louis and to Father John Timon, then visitor of the Congregation of the Mission in the United States, declaring that it was the wish of the Holy See that a trustworthy person be sent to examine into the condition of reli- gion in Texas and to report to Rome. The Bishop of New Orleans wished Father Timon to undertake this work. Father Timon accordingly went to Texas, landing at Galveston in December, 1838, accompanied by M. L'Eberia. On the feast of the Holy Innocents the visitor celebrated in Galveston what was probably the first Mass ever said in the city. Many ministra- tions to Catholics were required of him, both there and in Houston, then the capital of the RepubUc, whither he went on 31 December, where he preached in the hall of Congress in the presence of many legislators. On his return to Galveston (9 Januan,-, 1839) after his tour through the Republic, a committee whom he had appointed to pro\-ide ways and means for acquiring a lot whereon to build a church, met him and reported favourably. On his visit through the countrj- he had found the care of religion in anything but a good state, although there were not a few Cathohcs. He made an official report of his findings to Bishop Blanc, who forwarded it to Rome. Although Father Timon had previously refused to be made Coadjutor Bishop of St. Louis with the right of succession (7 September, 1839), he was prevailed upon to accept the honour of Prefect Apostolic of Texas with power to administer confirmation (12 April, 1840). He immediately dis- patched Mgr Odin (q. v.) to Texas as vice-prefect and Father Douterlounge as assistant, and a httle later obtained for the vice-prefect the power of conferring the Sacrament of Confirmation. On 5 December, 1840, Father Timon reached Galveston for the second time. He at once urged forward the efforts of the people to build a church there and provide means to support a priest, disi)laying the same energ\- at Hous- ton. Pushing on to Austin, now the capital, he pre- sented letters from Cardinal Fransoni of Propaganda, addressed to President Mirabeau G. Lamar, which letters were virtually a recognition by the papal gov- ernment of the independence of the RepubUc. The Texas executive, Vice-President David G. Burnet, acting for President Lamar, then absent, was greatly pleased to receive these letters. On 23 December, 1840, the first Mass was celebrated in Austin. Mgr Timon was well received by the legislators as well as by the executive. He preached in the capitol more than once, and in conversation with acting- President Burnet and a few prominent members of Congress created a very favourable estimate of the Catholic Faith. With the diplomatic aid of M. de SaUgny, minister from France to the Republic of Texas, Mgr Odin's bill for the restoration of church property was spontaneously endorsed by the legislators to whom it was first read in private, was then introduced to Congress, and pass(Ki. Thus by Act of Congress were restored to "the Chief Pastor of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Texas", the churches of San Fernando, the "Alamo" (San Antonio de Valero), La Purissima Concejicion, San Josf, San Juan Capis- trano, San Francisco de la Espada, Goliad, \'ictoria and Refugio, with their lots, tlie latter not to exceed fifteen acres. Returning to Galveston Father Timon