Our Catholic Heritage in T e:ras
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In the depositions made by the witnesses but not forwarded to the chief at Nacogdoches until May of 1835, and then only after repeated and insistent requests, it is made to appear that the aging missionary committed suicide in a moment of despondency. Philip Miller, Samuel G. Hirams, Manrico Garcia and Peter J. Menard, each either states or implies broadly that Father Diaz de Leon was seized by an uncon- trollable fear of being killed, that he acted as a person mentally de- ranged, that he repeatedly asserted before setting out for Nac~gdoches his determination to commit suicide in order to escape being murdered. The contradictory character of their testimony on significant details in the depositions, however, leaves a serious doubt as to their allega• tions. 11 Everything indicates Father Diaz de Leon was normal before he left Nacogdoches and that he was normal until his death. A veteran missionary would never have preferred suicide to martyrdom. The in- habitants of Nacogdoches commonly believed that he was assassinated, and such was the tradition found in the area nineteen years later by Father Parisot when he visited Nacogdoches in 1853. The records which had escaped detection by investigators until now support the tradition of his martyrdom. It was in January, 1831, that Austin, who was living with Father Antonio Mus- quiz in Saltillo while attending the legislative sessions, received a call from Father Michael Muldoon. The genial priest made a deep im· pression on Austin. "He is a very intelligent . . . man, and quite liberal in his ideas," Austin penned Williams the next day. He wrote that Muldoon, who had introduced himself as new curate and vicar general for all the colonies, was staying at Governor Augustin Viesca's home; that he was a bosom friend of General Manuel de Mier y Teran and Lucas Alaman, and a man accustomed to the best society in Europe and Mexico. Austin suggested to Williams that it would be wise to lodge the Padre in his San Felipe home until permanent' quarters could be found. 73 It appears that at this time Muldoon had no such The Austin colony and tlie Reverend Michael Muldoon. 71 Parisot, op. cit., 59. For the full text of the depositions made before Judge William Hardin, see Copy of the enquiry into the circumstances attending the Death of the Catholic Priest of Nacogdoches Jose Antonio Diaz From the Primary Judge of the Jurisdiction of Liberty to the Political Chief of the Department of Nacog• doches, Nacogdoches Archives, Vol. 79, pp. I 36-156. "Austin to S. M. Williams, A11.stin Papers, II, 585, edited by Barker. Houston Wade in The Forgotten Man of Tera.s Hi.stor,y, Father Miguel Muldoon states that Muldoon had met Austin in Mexico City in 182:a, taught him Spanish and
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