Om· C atltolic H e1·itage in Texas
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Father Baudrand replied. "How can I leave my confreres exposed to the epidemic? Obedience has placed me here; here I stay." The dreaded malady struck him like lightning and within three days he passed on to his eternal reward, the first Oblate martyr of the Foreign Mission of the Congregation in Texas. He was buried, together with four other priests and a deacon who died during the epidemic, at the door of the old Cathedral of Galveston.17 After the epidemic Father Gaye set out again for Roma, Texas, late in December, 1853, visiting en route the various ranches and settlements along the Rio Grande. He considered Roma to be in urgent need of a permanent priest. Upon his recommendation, Father Verdet, the Oblate Superior in Brownsville, sent Father Keralum to Roma as pastor. His work was eminently successful. Within a year the cornerstone of the first church for Roma, dedicated to Our Lady of Refuge, was ready for Bishop Odin to bless on September 15, 1854. The Oblates continued in charge of the parish until June 19, 1856, when Father Keralum turned the parish over to Father Louis Planchet, a secular from Laredo. The inventory taken at the time of the transfer eloquently reveals the meager resources of the early days. The property consisted of "one altar stone and another broken one; a paste statue of the Blessed Virgin; two silver plated candlesticks; six brass candlesticks; eight flower pots, eight glass vases, a censer and boat; two glass cruets, a Mexican Ritual; one Missal; a white veil for marriage; a mold for making altar breads; twelve bolts of percale for the ceiling of .the church; two womout Mexican talaches [pick-axes] ; two axes; two folding beds, a lantern, a hoe, a clock, one chair, one bench." The inventory has a notation that reads: "The Church owns three dollars and owes two hundred and thirty bricks to Mr. Chartier, a business man of Roma." Eleven years later Bishop Dubuis was to place Roma again in charge of the Oblates. 11 The first band of Oblate missionaries, under Father Cerdet, succeeded in beginning the construction of the permanent building for the church of the Immaculate Conception in Brownsville in 1856. The blessing of the cornerstone took place on July 6, with Verdet, the Superior, officiating at the ceremony. Three years later the building was completed, and was blessed by Father Augustine Gaudet on Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 1859. The simple but graceful structure was beautified during the days of the Civil War, when Brownsville experienced a remarkable bonanza, being
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11Notes f(lr Oblate Histor,i, 37. 11/bid., 24-26,
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