Join us as we explore the oldest parishes in each of the counties of the Archdiocese.
St. Joseph on the Brazos Catholic Church
Brazoria, Brazoria County
Established: 1840
Established: 1840
At St. Joseph on the Brazos Catholic Church in Walker County, witness the legacy of the Catholic faith at the oldest Catholic community in the Archdiocese.
The parish lays a humble claim to this title with its “newer” brick and wood church built in the 1960s. The parish, founded in 1840 by a group of German Catholic immigrants along with their pastor Father Jacob Weiser, has seen its church demolished twice by storms, including the Great Storm of 1900. After generous parishioners donated land to the parish, its newer construction was built to welcome more parishioners.
Today the interior of the church includes a lofty choir space and illuminated beams that stretch upward. Fourteen rows of pews line the sanctuary, each in an attractive dark wood, drawing the eyes towards the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle.
St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica
Galveston, Galveston County
Established: 1848
Established: 1848
Just up the coast from Brazoria, nestled near the heart of Galveston Island’s downtown in Galveston County, sits St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica. Considered the mother church of the Catholic Church in Texas, she too has weathered many storms.
The church was one of the few Galveston landmarks to survive the Great Storm of 1900 that devastated the island, claiming thousands of lives, including several nuns and a priest.
The cathedral, located at 21st and Church Street, survived fires and a terrible 1844 yellow fever epidemic, which killed Father J.M. Paquin, a newly arrived missionary priest. The cathedral, which still stands today and was home to the 175th-anniversary opening Mass celebrated by Daniel Cardinal DiNardo last month, was completed and dedicated in 1848. The Basilica also survived the Civil War, which brought violence to its doorstep: the cathedral was riddled with bullets.
St. Joseph on the Brazos Catholic Church
New Waverly, Walker County
Established: 1869
Established: 1869
If you take Broadway from Galveston to I-45 North and drive all the way into Walker County, you’ll trade palm for pines and pass the famous Sam Houston statue along the way.
But don’t drive to Dallas: Take Exit 102 and pay a visit to St. Joseph Catholic Church, a community with a history deeply connected to the Polish immigrants who came to Texas more than 150 years ago. Established in 1869 by those Polish immigrants and their equally hardy priest, Father Felix Orzechowski, the members later brought construction materials from Poland to build a Gothic-inspired church with Father Thomas Bily, a a Bohemian immigrant, in 1906. The parish welcomes many visitors willing to pull over from I-45 and visit the parish’s restored church and newer chapel.
In 1866, the Waverly Emigration Society sponsored Polish immigrants to come to the area. Further inland from Galveston, these immigrants, or “new Texans,” worked the farms and plantations sprawling along the Texas coast.
