Creation of a Secular Clergy
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deacon of Lyons; Bartholomew Duperray, deacon of Lyons; Nicholas Feletan, subcleacon of Lyons; Antoine Borias of Clairemont; George Metz of Strassbourg; Jean Neraz, of Lyons, later to become Bishop of San Antonio; Louis Planchet, of Lyons; Casimir Raymond, of Toulouse; George Spedst, of Nancy; and Pierre Tarillon, of Metz. 2 On arrival the seminarians were first sent on May 21, 1852, to the Vincentian Seminary at The Barrens to wait until the Oblates got settled in Texas and could start the Seminary. They came to Galveston before the end of the year and enrolled as the first seminarians of the first diocese of Texas. One of these seminarians, Bartholomew Duperray, was professed as Oblate in later years. St. Mary's Seminary in Galveston, z852. Bishop de Mazenod had acceded to Bishop Odin's plea to help him open a Seminary under the direction of the Oblate Fathers largely because he was willing to help form a native clergy. He explained this point clearly in a letter to Father Verdet. "We can take charge of the Seminary," he said, "not necessarily competing with other academies and colleges, conducted in the United States by religious Orders who dedicate themselves primarily to the work of the education of youth, but to form clerics for the service of the diocese." 3 The idea o( a college or university for boys in connection with the proposed seminary, he considered secondary. If it could be worked out along with it, well and good. He was willing for some of the semi- narians to be used, "if necessary, as is commonly done in that country, to teach Latin to the young pupils." Under such circumstances, he had no objection to the college for boys, which was to be subordinated to the interest of the seminary for the formation of a native clergy.' The beginnings of the Seminary were helped by an unforeseen circum- stance. The three Oblate Fathers who were to proceed to Brownsville as their headquarters for work in South Texas were forced to remain in Galveston with the other three by the outbreak of the Carvajal Revolution in Matamoros, Mexico, and this gave the Seminary a larger staff then intended or expected. In a sense, then, the first six Oblate Fathers helped staff the Seminary. They were Fathers Jean Marie Verdet. O.M.I., 2 The list is incomplete. Cf. St. Mary's Seminary Register, Vol. 3A, pp. I S·I 6 i Nazareth Academy, Diammrd Jubilee, 1866-1941, pp. 41-42. 3 De Mazenod to Verdet, January 10, 1830, cited in Bernard Doyon, O.M.l., A Historical St11dy of tlte Oblate Missicns in Texas (ll(d ,Jtexico, 1849-1883, Mss. p. 65, published as Tlte Cavalry of Christ on the Rio Grande, Milwaukee, 1956. 'Ibid., 65-66.
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