St. Louis Day
Castroville, Medina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Since as early as 1847 residents of Castroville have conducted a community holiday on or about the 25th of August--the Catholic observacne of the Feast of St. Louis. Local tradition recalls that early processions escorted clergy from the priests' house adjacent to St. Louis Church, with clanging of anvils and the blare of the community band. Through the years a picnic became traditional on the church grounds following High Mass. Before the festivities, men smoked sausage and pit-barbecued beef. Women prepared potato salad, cabbage slaw, and desserts. An evening dance in a local establishment ended the day-long celebration. The St. Louis Society, founded in 1875, traditionally organized the event. Since 1889 the celebration has raised funds for the benefit of the Parish church and school. After the 1920s, the picnic and dance were held at Wernette's Garden. That site (4 blocks NNW) was donated to the parish and renamed Koenig Park in 1949. The dance pavilion there was erected in 1953. The celebration is now held annually on the Sunday nearest August 25. The procession begins at the church after Mass, and winds through the city to Koenig Park for the picnic lunch and evening dance. Texas Sesquicentinnial 1836-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
It is one of Texas' oldest continuous community festivals, a living survival of the Alsatian immigrant culture that founded Castroville.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. Louis Catholic Church
Castroville, TX
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.
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.