The Hills of Texas Sing the Praises of Mary.

Roland Flores
Mar 26
7 min read

May Our Immaculate Lady, assumed into heaven, together with St. Joseph, St. Francis and St. Anthony, pray for us! On 7 March 2026, we attended the Society’s San Antonio Missions pilgrimage. The roughly seven mile walk along the San Antonio River took us to four of Texas’ oldest Churches. The old Spanish Mission-chapels of the Immaculate Concepcion, St. Joseph, St. John Capistrano and St. Francis. These missions were established by Franciscan missionaries to convert the local Indians and bring the holy faith to Texas. These missions also served as the foundation of what would become Texan culture. The notions of ranches and cowboys find their foundational infrastructure within the missions around San Antonio and Goliad. Longhorn cattle, a lasting symbol of Texas, also finds their roots in the old missions, where they were bred to survive the rough terrain. According to legend, the bluebonnet, finds its origin in the apparitions of Venerable Mother María of agreda. The Concepcionist Nun is said to have bilocated from Spain to parts of Texas and New Mexico to teach the faith to the Indians. The "Lady in Blue,” as she was called by the Indians, appeared to various tribes in Texas and instructed them to seek out missionaries. This led to mass baptisms and the earliest established missions in what is today Texas.

According to the Jumano Indians, wherever she walked and her blue cloak touched the grass, bluebonnets sprouted, marking her connection to the state flower. Lastly, the very name of Texas can trace its roots to the Spanish missions. The word Texas is an English translation of the word Tejas, which derives from the Caddo Indian “táysha” meaning allies. Spanish explorers adopted this term to describe the Hasinai-Caddo Confederacy in east Texas. In 1690, Franciscan missionaries established Mission San Francisco de Los Tejas, cementing the name in our history. Texas owes these missions so much of its culture and history. Another major element of these missions was the promulgation of devotion to the Immaculate Concepcion of Mary. Every mission was filled with images of Our Lady. Archeologists have found numerous medals and images of Our lady during their digs around the missions. One of the Missions, was dedicated to the Immaculate Concepcion in 1731, 123 years before it was even proclaimed a dogma. Today, the neighborhoods surrounding the missions are still filled with many shrines and images of Mary. In Pope Pius XII’s encyclical, Le Pelerinage de Lourdes 1957, we hear these words: “5. Every Christian land is a Marian land; there is not a nation redeemed in the blood of Christ which does not glory in proclaiming Mary its Mother and Patroness.”

There is no doubt, that the Missions succeeded in christianizing Texas and spreading devotion to the Holy Mother of God. The missions themselves however, and the faith they symbolize, did not always receive their due reverence. Starting in 1813, during the Mexican War of independence, Mission San Jose was sacked by rebel forces including US militiamen. During this tragic event, rebel forces burned all the vestments, books, images and records at Mission San Jose. They also used the devotional statues for target practice.

On for the few statues to survive the iconoclasm was the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe above the door.

Several other Missions were sacked in 1813, and left totally in ruins, like Mission Espíritu santo in Goliad and Mission Guadalupe in Nacodoges. In 1823, the revolutionary Mexican government would confiscate the lands of the San Antonio missions and by 1831 the last Mission in Texas would be secularized. These Missions lands were taken from the Church and their Catholic inhabitant and made available to Protestant US settlers. These settlers cared little for the faith and often stoled bricks from the Churches, causing most of them to collapse. In October 1833, Mission Concepcion would also be sacked during a battle between between federal Mexican troops and US settlers. The following year, the last Franciscan missionary in Texas, Father Antonio Diaz, would be killed by US settlers near San Augstin TX in 1834. This series of revolutions began a passion for the Church in Texas, that left Texas almost completely devoid of any churches or priests. In 1813, when the passion first began, there were 13 Franciscan and 12 secular priests serving the territory of today's Texas. By 1840, what was then the republic of Texas, had only two active priest in the entire state. These two very corrupt priests, who were living against their celibate vocation within the city of San Antonio. According to reports they only said Mass twice a year. Yet, despite almost a decade of this, the faith persevered. Father John Timon CM, was sent by Rome to survey the situation in Texas. He noted that the Hispanics and Indians were still “extremely fond of Church” and that “many attended his celebration of mass with only three hours of notice.” That same year, Pope Gregory XVI appointed Father Jean Marie Odin CM as Prefect Apostolic of Texas, to re-establish the Church in Texas. Father Odin, while establishing a foundation for the return of the Catholic faith to Texas, notes the role played by Our Lady. For the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, there was a very elaborate celebration lasting two days. Father Odin noted he “was very impressed with the amount of devotion which the people showed.” Besides the Hispanics, a number of Czechs, Germans and Irish Catholics came from Austin and other remote places had come to join the celebration. Despite the persecution of anti-Catholic forces, the destruction of the missions and the murder of the last Spanish missionary. Despite the only priests being two corrupt men who cared little of the faith and worked for its destruction. Despite it all, Catholicism had survived thanks to the role of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Soon after this, the Catholic presence would be bolstered again by Our Lady and her sons, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate OMI. Founded in France in 1816 by St. Eugene de Mazenod, the Oblates came to Texas in 1849 at the request of then Bishop Odin. Perhaps to circle back around, these oblates not only reestablished the faith in Texas but also the devotion to Mary Immaculate. Mission Concepcion, which was being used by US settlers as a barn, was restored to the faith by Bishop Odin in 1855.

The Concepcion stone church, which was completed in 1755, is considered to be the oldest unrestored church in the United States. Mission Concepcion was the first San Antonio Mission to be restored and a telling sign for the revival of the Church in Texas. By the 1930s, Catholicism was flourishing in Texas and perhaps symbolically, the missions had been structurally restored. However, something worse than any persecution was headed for the flourishing church in Texas. Vatican II and the ensuing revolution of the 1970s wrecked, not only the interior renovations of the missions but the church as a whole. It should be no surprise then that the central site for the SSPX in Texas is Queen of Angels Church which was dedicated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1977. The beautiful Spanish-mission style church, originally the shrine of the Holy Cross consecrated in 1940. The Society’s first Mass celebrated on the property was on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 1976. Queen of Angels’ first pastor was Father Carl Pulvermacher, a capuchin priest who entered the Capuchin Order in 1945 and was ordained a priest in 1952. Father Pulvermacher also served the Crowe Indians on the Crowe Reservation in Montana from Mission to Mission. At the foundation of the restoration of the faith in Texas, yet again we find Our Lady and Franciscans. Let finish this discussion with the some excerpts from Pope Pius XII’ encyclical, Le Pelerinage de Lourdes: “9. In many ways the nineteenth century was to become, after the turmoil of the Revolution, a century of Marian favors. To mention but a single instance, everyone is familiar today with the “miraculous medal.” This medal, with its image of “Mary conceived without sin,” was revealed to a humble daughter of Saint Vincent de Paul whom We had the joy of inscribing in the catalogue of Saints, and it has spread its spiritual and material wonders everywhere.” The Holy Father continues: “35. In a society which is barely conscious of the ills which assail it, which conceals its miseries and injustices beneath a prosperous, glittering, and trouble-free exterior, the Immaculate Virgin, whom sin has never touched, manifests herself to an innocent child. With a mother’s compassion she looks upon this world redeemed by her Son’s blood, where sin accomplishes so much ruin daily, and three times makes her urgent appeal: “Penance, penance, penance!” She even appeals for outward expressions: “Go kiss the earth in penance for sinners.” And to this gesture must be added a prayer: “Pray to God for sinners.” 49. To a society which in its public life often contests the supreme rights of God, to a society which would gain the whole world at the expense of its own soul[25] and thus hasten to its own destruction, the Virgin Mother has sent a cry of alarm. 62. We are confident, Dear Sons and Venerable Brothers, that Mary will hear your prayer and Ours. We ask her this on the feast of the Visitation, which fittingly honors her who a century ago visited the land of France. 63. And in inviting you to sing to God together with the Immaculate Virgin the Magnificat of your gratitude, We invoke upon you and your faithful, on the shrine of Lourdes and its pilgrims, on all those who bear the responsibilities of the centenary celebration, the most bounteous outpouring of grace. In token of which We impart with all Our heart, and with Our constant and paternal best wishes, the Apostolic Benediction.

References:

LE PELERINAGE DE LOURDES- ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII.

https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_02071957_le-pelerinage-de-lourdes.html

San Antonio Missions Pilgrimage – SSPX (Society of Saint Pius X)

https://missionspilgrimage.com