Our Catlzolic lleritage in Texas
304
Fo,mdati<m i1t Vict01-ia, Texas, I866. After the war, the successor of Bishop Odin proved to be a great friend of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament. Anxious to extend their blessings to other sections of Texas and bring them suitable educational facilities, Bishop Dubuis applied in 1865 to the convent in Brownsville to undertake the establishment of a foundation in Victoria. Mother St. Ange, who had succeeded Mother Claire, took a determined stand. The Brownsville house could not spare the personnel. She decided, therefore, to send Mother St. Claire to Europe to secure additional recruits for the new foundation pro- posed. To save expenses, Mother St. Claire set out on her great mission alone. In Ireland she secured four volunteers who went with her to Lyons, France, to receive the habit. The little band of volunteers, reinforced by three Sisters from Belmont and five more from Lyons convent, set out for Texas on January 31, 1866. They secured passage somehow on a Bateau de G1terre ( ship of war), a French transport on its way to Mexico. The trip of these twelve missionary Sisters of Catholic education to Brownsville, led by the veteran Mother St. Claire, proved to be a veritable Odyssey. First, they went to Paris, where on February 2, they heard Mass and received Holy Communion before taking the train for Brest; there they were detained for a week before embarking; then they sailed for Algiers on the North African coast to take troops for Maximilian in Mexico. The sailors were amazed at the courage of the brave women, who were accompanied by Father John C. Narez, later Bishop of San Antonio. The Sisters and Mother St. Claire were placed in one large compartment until they arrived in Algiers. For eight days they were the guests of the Sisters of the Christian Schools and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Algiers; then they sailed again for Martinique and there spent another eight days. It was mid-April by now. Once again they boarded their ship of war for Veracruz, Mexico, where they expected to transfer to the packet boat that took passengers to Bagdad, the Mexican port below Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville. Now their troubles began. They arrived in Veracruz too late for the Bagdad boat, which had left the day before. For a month they had to wait in Veracruz. The Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, brought to Mexico by Empress Carlota, made them welcome. They could not, however, keep the epidemic of yellow fever then raging from reaching their guests. Seven Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament took sick before the noble pioneers set out for their destination; two succumbed : Sisters Mary and Irene. The boat for Bagdad finally sailed, but yellow
Powered by FlippingBook