Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church
Refugio, Refugio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This Church traces its history to Nuestra Senora del Refugio (our Lady of Refuge), a Spanish mission established in 1791 (30 mi. NE). The mission relocated here in 1795. The 1868 building was razed, and in 1901 an impressive Victorian/Romanesque sanctuary was completed here. School, convent, and auditorium facilities were added in 1946. This church, which represents the area's unique blend of Spanish and Irish heritage, continues to serve the local community. (1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This parish traces its origins to the Spanish mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio, established in 1791 and relocated to this area in 1795—among the last missions founded in Spanish Texas. After earlier buildings were razed, an impressive Victorian/Romanesque sanctuary rose here in 1901, and the church still reflects the unusual blend of Spanish and Irish Catholic heritage that settled this stretch of the coast.
Why it matters
Its roots in a late Spanish mission and its Spanish-Irish congregation embody the layered colonial and immigrant history that made the Texas Gulf Coast distinctive.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Empresario James Power
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Born in Ireland, James Power reached Mexican Texas in 1823 and, with fellow Irishman James Hewetson, won empresario contracts to plant Irish Catholic and Mexican families along the coastal plain between the Guadalupe and Nueces. His recruiting voyage from Ireland ended in sickness and shipwreck, yet the colony endured. A friend of Sam Houston, Power signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and Constitution and later served in the Republic's Senate.
Refugio County
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Refugio takes its name from Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio, the last Spanish mission founded in Texas, established in 1791 to draw Indigenous people of the coast into Catholic mission life. When Mexican Texas reorganized in 1835 and the revolution created new counties in 1836, Refugio became one of them, with the old mission town as its seat. The county was formally organized in 1837.
Irish Immigrants in Refugio
Refugio, TX
Refugio's roots reach back to Ballygarrett in County Wexford, Ireland, home of empresarios James Power and James Hewetson, who won Mexican permission to bring more than 200 Irish families to Texas in the 1830s. The first colonists arrived in 1834, surviving cholera and shipwreck-rough surf before settling near the old Spanish mission of Nuestra Señora del Refugio. Almost at once they were swept into the fight for Texas independence, and their descendants still farm land granted to their ancestors.
Mount Calvary Cemetery
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This cemetery began in grief: the burial of soldiers massacred during the Texas Revolution of 1836, among them the men of Capt. Amon King, whose bones lay scattered on the prairie until Refugio citizens gathered them. The site was later forgotten and rediscovered in 1934. Irish colonists of the Power and Hewetson grants rest here too, including empresario James Power, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.