Our Catlu,lic Heritage in T e:xas
stituted the Province of Texas under the Mexican regime, not the limits claimed by the Texas Republic. Timon concluded, therefore, that Rome, in setting up the Prefecture, had formally removed Texas from the jurisdiction of the Mexican Diocese of Monterrey. 12 Appoint111ent of a vice-prefect. Shortly after the receipt of the Papal Bulls, Timon, in accord with the powers granted him, named his old friend and companion Father John Mary Odin Vice-Prefect Apostolic of Texas, giving him the necessary credentials and instructions for his immediate departure to the distant, long-neglected missionary field. Unable to go himself, Timon had selected the best man in the Vincentian Province as his substitute. Odin was at this time Procurator and Consultant of the American Vincentian Province and professor of Belles-Lettres in St. Mary's Col- lege of the Barrens. For almost twenty years he had labored faith- fully in southern Missouri and upper Louisiana. His varied experience had effectively prepared him for the arduous task that now faced him. Born February 25, 1800, in the little village of Hauteville, near Lyons, France, Odin had shown a marked inclination for the priest- hood at a very early age and had entered the seminary at Lyons. One day in 1822 Bishop Louis William DuBourg of Louisiana visited the seminary and made an ardent appeal for volunteers to work among the native tribes of America. The young subdeacon was immediately fired with a desire to answer the call and went to New Orleans before the end of the summer of 1822. In October of that year he enrolled in the college at the Barrens, just a few weeks after John Timon entered. He was ordained a Vincentian priest on May. 4, 1823, and appointed to teach theology in the seminary. But his heart burned with a desire to work among the Indians. In spite of his teaching duties, he found opportunities to visit the sur- rounding tribes. His health, however, broke under the strain and he had to curtail his activities. His first great opportunity came in 1833, when he accompanied Bishop Rosati as theologian to the Second Council of Baltimore, which commissioned him to take the decrees of the Council to Rome for ap- proval. Thus he was enabled to visit his family ten years after his ordination. He, nevertheless, did not tarry long with his relatives in Hauteville but continued his trip to Lyons within a few days, and thence to Rome. In the Eternal City he was overcome by the cordial reception given llBayard, op. cu., 103-108.
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