281
Creation of a Secular Clergy
progressed rapidly and on September 17, 1920, classes were begun with forty students in the new quarters. Archbishop Shaw, who had labored in Texas so faithfully to found a Diocesan Seminary, came from New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day to the formal dedication of St. John's Seminary on its present location. His heart was truly thankful on that day for the favor that Providence had shown to his humble efforts of five years before. Until 1928, students had been sent to Northern seminaries for their i-tudy of Theology. Crowded conditions in the Major Seminaries in the North induced Archbishop Drossaerts to add a Theology department this year and make St. John's a full-fledged Major Seminary. This necessi- tated changes in the original building, which was not designed for the purpose, and the recruitment of a competent staff for the major studies. All the difficulties were eventually overcome and in 1930 a class of ten was at long last ordained, followed by another of seven in 1932. 63 Students came to St. John's from the Diocese of Corpus Christi since almost the beginning, and later from the Diocese of Dallas, besides those from the Archdiocese of San Antonio. It thus came to assume more and more the appearance of a truly Provincial Major Seminary. The growing enrollment and the enlargement of its curriculum to include the major 1:.tudies made additional room indispensable. A second building, Margi! Hall, was therefore added in 1935, very appropriately named after the saintly founder of San Jose, called in 1780 64 by Fray Agustin Morfi the Queen of the frontier missions of New Spain. The Vincentians Accept Direction of St. John's, 1941. The Seminary celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1940. In spite of many vicissitudes, it had grown from its beginnings on Dwyer Avenue and the primitive condi- tions of the building of old Garden Academy into a Major Seminary to which came the young men of the dioceses of Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Dallas and El Paso, besides those from the Archdiocese of San Antonio. to make their studies for the priesthood. Its rolls showed that in twenty- five years it could count among its alumni eighty-one priests. The young :md robust Seminary was effective. serving the diocese of the entire 63 Archdiocese of San Antonio, Di.amrmd Jubilee, 1874-1949, p. 185. 64 Antonio Margi! de Jesus, O.F.1'-l., was a founder of colleges of Pro-pagtJ11da Fide In America, having been instrumental in establishing one in Guatemala, one in Queretaro, Mexico, and one in Zacatecas. His cause for canonization is still pending. His virtues were declared Heroic in 1836. He anteceded Fray Junipero Serra in missionary work in the Southwest. It is hoped that his Caui;e will be reopened and that he will become the fir!lt Saint to have worked in Texas.
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