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CHAPTER VI
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES OF MEN IN TEXAS*
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The Religious were the pioneers in Texas from the beginning of its recorded history. Under Spain and Mexico, it was the Franciscan missionaries who first sowed the seed of Christianity in the fertile soil of Texas and carried the comforting knowledge of religion to the untutored children of the plains. After the attainment of independence from Mexico in 1836, the field lay fallow for a short period before the sons of St. Vincent de Paul, at the request of the Most Reverend Anthony Blanc, Bishop of New Orleans, undertook to renew missionary work in the Lone Star State. Their early labors under John Timon, C.M., and J. M. Odin, C.M., have been described in the first chapters of this volume. Odin retained the office of superior of the Vincentians in his Vicariate Apostolic of Texas, but his apointment as Ordinary of the new Diocese of Galveston kept him from continuing in this position. He hoped that the good fathers of the Congregation of the Mission would continue to work in his vast diocese. While in Europe in 1846, the Bishop-elect discussed with the Superior General of the Vincentians in Paris his plans for the two houses in Galveston and San Antonio. "I shall endeavor," he assured Father Etienne, "to give stability to these two establishments before thinking of forming others.m Father Timon, recently made Visitor (Superior) of the first American Province of Vincentians in the United States, was even then seriously considering how he could meet the increasing demands made upon the undermanned Congregation of the Mission at The Barrens, (Perryville) Missouri. He feared that his overworked missionaries could not continue their labors in the distant diocese of Texas. By 1847, when he became Bishop of Buffalo and Father Mariano Maller, C.M., succeeded him as Visitor, the ability of the Province of the Barrens to maintain two houses in Texas had grown more doubtful. Visitor Maller found the ranks of *The religious communities of men who have and are laboring in Texas are sketched chronologically in this chapter as fully as the information made available to the author permitted. The teaching communities are discussed in the chapter on "Catholic Educational Endeavors." Communities that have come to work in Texas .since 1936 are not included. Religious communities and orders of men are treated according to the sequence in which they put in their appearance on the Texas scene. lQdin to Etienne, April 6, 1 846, C. A. T. [206]
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