Religio,es Commtmities of Men in Texas
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Fathers Miguel Vidal, T.O.R., and Gabriel Tous, T.O.R., arrived in Waco. The Spanish pioneer Franciscans who had abandoned Texas in r833, had returned to labor again on the banks of the Brazos. The ground for their new labors among the Spanish-speaking had been prepared by the Reverend P.A. Heckman, pastor of Assumption Church, who as early as 1921 had organized Catechetical classes, taught by the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur. The Catholic Daughters of America had also done their part, obtaining the services and defraying the expenses of Father P. J. O'Reilly, C.S.C., who came from Austin once a month to minister to the Spanish-speaking of the area. These activities had demon- strated to Bishop Byrne the need of a new parish to care for these people and prompted him to invite the Franciscans from Spain to return to Texas. Waco was selected by the Franciscans as the center of their new mis- sions for the Spanish-speaking. These soon sprung up wherever a sufficient number warranted building a church or chapel. Using temporarily the Church of the Assumption for religious services and its basement for Catechism instructions, Father Vidal and Tous, T.O.R., officially estab- lished the parish of St. Francis on the Brazos on July 20, 1924. They were soon joined by two other regulars, Fathers Sebastian Rubi and Pablo Puigserver, with whose help the work was zealously extended. Fortunately, their labors found a generous benefactor in Miss Fanny G. Smith, who made possible the purchase of the old Dr. W. H. Clifton residence, into which the grateful Franciscan missionaries moved on November 11, 1924. With the Catholic Daughters of America assisting them financially, they were able to put up a frame building next to the rectory to serve as church and school. The dual purpose structure, blessed on February 12, 1925, was seriously damaged by fire in 1927. In the meantime a two-story parochial school had been built and placed in charge of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur of the Sacred Heart Academy in Waco. After the Academy was closed in 1946, the Daughters <.•f Charity of St. Vincent de Paul from Providence Hospital took over catechism instruction in the school. Since the partial destruction of the old frame building in 1927 made the erection of a new church imperative, the Franciscans decided to erect c,ne that would be a fitting memorial to the first missionaries of Texas, the Franciscans of the Order of Friars Minor. After some thought, Father Vidal, T.O.R., agreed to erect a reproduction of the famous Mission Church of San Jose in San Antonio, originally designed and built by the saintly Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus. O.F.M., and aptly called the
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