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Our Catleolic Heritage in Texas
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Friday and Saturday Timon made a house-to-house canvass and dis- tributed catechisms, manuals, and literature to all who expressed a desire for them. Timon was impressed with the cosmopolitan character of the population-Anglo-Americans, Louisiana Creoles, French and English Canadians, Spaniards, Italians, Germans, and Irishmen. The latter were well established and gave Timon and his companion the heartiest welcome. The good Vincentian could not help noting in his report that they augured well for future Catholicism in Texas. The first genuine triumph of the zealous missionary came on Sunday, December 30, when, in the warehouse of the Menards, Timon preached his first sermon in Texas during the ten o'clock Mass said by Father Llebaria. Forty-five minutes he held his motley congregation spellbound, reported Llebaria to Etienne. A still larger crowd was eagerly awaiting him at two o'clock to hear him explain Catholic doctrine further. For more than three hours the veteran missionary of Missouri spoke elo- quently, and when he ended his remarks at dusk, his captivated audience unanimously asserted that they wished he had continued. Among his listeners was Stewart Newell, recently arrived Consul of the United States. Newell declared to Timon, after this lucid exposition of the teachings of the Church, "I see things plainly now.. . . Other creeds are but figments of fancy, the invention of man, poor products of freak and passion. I can no longer resist the force of Truth's own logic, and I desire, as soon as I am sufficiently instructed, to be received in the Catholic Church." 34 Encouraged by the success of his labors, Timon called a meeting of men and women to discuss plans for erecting a church and promoting good will and solidarity. Catholics and non-Catholics alike attended and promised to get ready within a few months a spacious frame church building, 150 x 120 feet. 35 The keenly realistic Timon perceived clearly, however, that the establishment of the material foundations of religion in the far-flung pioneer state was to prove more costly than the slender means of the scattered faithful and their generous non-Catholic friends could bear. He realized only too well that these men still had to establish the foundations of their own future and that, consequently, they would be "Llebaria to Etienne, January 15, 1839 1 Bayard, op. cit., 36-37. For the name of "le consul americain," see Charles A. Gulick and Kathrine Elliot (editors), Tlie Papers of Mirabeau B. Lamar, II, 36. 15 Llebaria to Etienne, January 15, 1839. Copy in the Souvay Collection, St. Louis Seminary Archives.
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