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Our Catholic Heritage in T exa.s
time the secular clergy were left without direction, and the missionaries in Texas-all regulars-formerly paid by the royal treasury, were destitute. Governor Martinez reported their pitiful condition and pleaded for relief if for no other reason than that the missions at La Bahia were important posts of observation against foreign aggression along the coast and consequently should be maintained. That the missionaries were not discouraged by the almost unbear- able conditions they faced fills the modem mind with astonishment. We admire their constancy and zeal, which were kept burning by their boundless love for the ungrateful natives of Texas. Amid all this dejection, Father Diaz de Leon, destined ultimately to die a martyr to the Faith in the woods of East Texas, wrote Martinez that he had just been apprised of the appointment of a new president of the missions and of additional missionaries. He requested the return of the San Jose, San Juan, and San Francisco property entrusted to the Governor. But before Martinez complied with the request, the old Royalist was replaced by Jose Felix Trespalacios, a veteran revolutionary leader and colleague .of Long, who took up his duties in August, 1822. Father de Leon was an old friend of the new Governor. He hastened to congratulate him and to assure him that San Fernando Church would be made ready for his inauguration. Trespalacios immediately sent fifty dollars to La Bahia to aid the missionary of Refugio until he could secure permanent relief. 2 Ctvil-ecclesiastical difficulties. The Te Deum sung in San Fernando on the occasion of' the Governor's inauguration almost disrupted the friendly civil-ecclesiastical relations. During the ceremony, attended by the Governor and the City Council, a statue of the Blessed Virgin was carried in procession. The bearers halted before the Governor, who knelt and kissed it, but at the instigation of the disgruntled Zambrano, who was no longer a member of the Council, they passed up the Councilors. After a rather heated argument Zambrano assumed all responsibility for the slight, and apologized to both the Council and Father de Le6n. 3 The hero of the counter-revolution against Casas, nevertheless, could not resist the temptation to embarrass the Council again a week later during a Mass offered to commemorate the birth- day of Emperor Iturbide. The Council lodged a formal complaint this !Governor Martinez to Lopez, June 29, 1822; de Leon to Martinez, August 5, 1822; Martinez to de Leon, August 10, 1822; de Leon to Trespalacios, August 23, 18:.12; Trespalacios to Alcalde of La Bahia, August 27, 1822, Be:rar Ard,rv4s. lJuan Manuel Zambrano to de Leon, August 29, 1822, Be:rar ,t4rchrv4s.
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