St. Louis Catholic Church
Castroville, Medina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Planned, according to tradition, by the Rev. Peter Richard, pastor who came from Loire, France, 1868. First (1847-51) resident pastor, the Most Rev. Claude Dubuis, returned as Bishop of Texas to lay cornerstone on July 2, 1868. Locally quarried limestone and labor of men of Parish went into the construction. First Mass was celebrated in this church by Father Richard on Aug. 25, 1870, Feast Day of St. Louis, Patron of the Parish. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1970.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the Alsatian colony town of Castroville, this limestone church was planned by the Rev. Peter Richard, who came from France's Loire, and built from locally quarried stone by the labor of the parish's own men. The Most Rev. Claude Dubuis, an early resident pastor who returned as Bishop of Texas, laid its cornerstone in 1868. The first Mass was celebrated on August 25, 1870, the feast day of the parish's patron, St. Louis.
Why it matters
St. Louis Church embodies the faith and craftsmanship of Castroville's French and Alsatian immigrants, one of the most distinctive European settlements in nineteenth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · Rev. Peter Richard
- · Claude Dubuis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. Louis Day
Castroville, TX
Since at least 1847 the Alsatian Catholic community of Castroville has kept a summer holiday around August 25, the Feast of St. Louis. Early processions escorted the clergy from the priests' house to the church amid clanging anvils and a blaring band, followed by a High Mass, pit-barbecued beef and sausage, homemade sides, and an evening dance. Organized by the St. Louis Society since 1875 and raising funds for the parish since 1889, the celebration still winds from the church to Koenig Park each year.
Alsatians of Texas
Castroville, TX
In 1842 the empresario Henri Castro brought his first colonists to the land west of the Medina River, most of them from the Rhine country and many from Alsace on the French-German border. Two years later he laid out a townsite the settlers named Castroville, which became the heart of Alsatian culture in Texas. They built white-washed, single-story limestone houses in the European manner and carried over farming, winemaking, cuisine, and customs that still flavor the region.
St. Louis Church
Castroville, TX
Built by Alsatian immigrants of Henri Castro's colony in the Republic of Texas, St. Louis Church was dedicated in 1846 by John Odin, the first Catholic bishop of Texas. One of its early pastors, Claude Dubuis, later became a bishop himself. In 1868 the Sisters of Divine Providence opened their first permanent school in Texas here, and Castroville became the order's first mother house in the state.
Dubuis House
Castroville, TX
In 1847, in the newly settled Alsatian colony of Castroville, French priest Father Claude M. Dubuis and Father Chazelle raised the first two rooms of this house; Chazelle soon died of typhus. Dubuis, the colony's first priest, was twice captured by Comanches that same year yet escaped unharmed, and later rose to become Bishop of Texas. The dwelling was the colony's first example of French-Alsatian architecture and was named a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1966.