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Our Catholic IIeritage in Texas
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The spring of 1851 saw the Vincentians abandon Texas after ten years of fruitful labor. The Fathers of the Congregation of the Mission were destined to return. In September 1941, St. John's Archdiocesan Seminary in San Antonio was placed in the care of the Vincentian Fathers. Members of the Congregation are also engaged in parochial work in the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the dioceses of Amarillo, Dallas, and Austin. Oblates of Mary lmmawlate, 0.ilf.l., 1849. The other community that Bishop Odin had invited, to the apparent displeasure of the new Vincentian Visitor, was the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Imma- culate. Having attended the Seventh Provincial Council in Baltimore, Odin had gone to Canada in 1849 in search of desperately needed priests for his vast diocese. While in Montreal he met Father Adrien Pierre Telmon, O.M.I. This ardent missionary had come to Canada in 1841. In the short space of eight years he had built a church destined to become the Cathedral of Ottawa; he had founded the College which today is the University of Ottawa; and he had attempted to establish a seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The stirring appeal for laborers made by Bishop Odin decided Father Telmon to dispatch some Oblates to Texas. Consulting only his zeal for the spread of the Faith, and without awaiting the formal consent of his Superior General, Telmon immediately made arrangements to go to Texas. 5 Together with Fathers Alexander Soulerin, O.M.I., and Augustin Gaudet, O.M.I., Coadjutor Brother Henri Menthe, and Subdeacon Paul Gelot, Telmon left Canada in October, 1849 to join Bishop Odi1; in Cincinnati and continue in his company to New Orleans and Galveston. In the course of the month-long trip Telmon and his companions learned much about the field of endeavor they were about to enter. After ten days in New Orleans they set out for Texas on November 29. Fathers Telmon, Soulerin, and Brother Menthe sailed directly to the mouth of the Rio Grande, reaching Point Isabel on December 2, 1849, to be warmly welcomed by Lt. Julius Garesche, "an excellent Catholic and a perfect 5 Notes for Oblate Hist01',Y, p. I, furnished to the author by the Superior of De Mazenod's Scholasticate, San Antonio, Texas, the Very Rev. Nicholas J. Tanascovic. Odin to Bishop Mazenod, March 18, 1851, C. A. T. Bishop Mazenod noted in his diary on November Io, I849: "Father Telmon takes upon himself the Mission of Texas ... not taking into account that .. . he was now de it1re under the Provincial of Canada." See also Bernard Doyon, 0.M.I., The Cavalry of Christ on the Rio Grande, 19-28.
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