Establislmze11,t of tlze D£oceses, 1847-1948
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went to Presidio del Rio Grande, where he was welcomed by the inhabitants who had not seen a bishop for forty-five years. Here was located old Mission San Juan Bautista, the point from which many expeditions had set out to found permanent missions and settlements in Texas. Regret- fully, Odin had to deny the request of hundreds for the Sacrament of Confirmation, because, as he tried to explain to them, he was outside his jurisdiction. For three days he was detained by rains. Escorted by a few citizens and fifteen Mexican soldiers, Odin finally started for Laredo on June 7. Three days later Odin crossed into Texas once more. The Co- manches still seemed to be everywhere. Shortly before his arrival in Laredo, a party of braves had killed a soldier and had wounded six others. Eagle Pass marked the farthest point north and west from San Antonio visited at this time. Odin, again following the Mexican side of the river to Guerrero, proceeded to Brownsville. The people here, too, begged of him Confirma- tion and offered to go with him to the Texas side for the purpose. But in that short distance to the river-four leagues-the Indians had, on the day before he arrived, killed three men and stolen more than sixty horses and mules from people on the outskirts of town. Odin, out of regard for the safety of the people, declined. They, however, would not be denied. "In their desire . . . they begged me to remain with them until the return of a courier whom they sent to Monterrey to request the permission I needed from their Bishop. Five days later he returned with the necessary authorization. I then began to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation in this city and in six days . .. I confirmed 2,200 odd persons." 11 Deeply impressed by the ardent demonstration of faith he met every- where, Odin set out for Brownsville, where he arrived early in August. The neighboring settlements claimed his attention for the next three weeks. Odin estimated that the territory within a radius of thirty miles contained more than eight thousand Catholics. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who had come the year before, agreeable to the arrangements made by Odin at Montreal with Father Pierre Adrien Telmon, 11 had built a modest chapel in Brownsville, decorated with "exquisite taste." 11 Odin to Blanc, Brownsville, August 12, 1850 (original in English; photostat in C. A. T.), published in Le Projagate11r Catl,olique, August 24, 1850. lJ"The Founder of the Oblate Mission in Texas," Mary Immaculate, XV, No. 5, May, 1932, pp. 140-143; Odin to Purcell, Philadelphia, September 30, 1849, C. A. T.
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