Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's how the marker at Sacred Heart Catholic Church tells it, straight from the official record. Now, some stories start with a bang: a battle, a flood, a fire. This one starts quieter than that.

It starts with a man named J.J. Callan, and a piece of land he set aside back in 1872. No church on it yet.

Just the intention of one. Just the promise. Roman Catholic worship services were already being held in Menard by that year, which tells you something about the faith that was already alive in this place; because for the next twenty-seven years, those services had to make do.

Visiting priests would come through, and they'd hold services where they could. In people's homes. In the courthouse, if you can picture it (the Lord's Prayer echoing off the same walls where disputes over cattle and land were settled).

That's the kind of devotion that doesn't wait on a building. It just finds a room. But 1899 finally came around, and with it came the Reverend P.

Beaudrillard, who directed the construction of what would become the Sacred Heart Parish building right here on that very lot Callan had set aside nearly three decades before. And they didn't build plain. They built Gothic Revival: native stone pulled from this Texas earth, and lancet windows reaching upward like the whole structure was trying to make a point to the sky.

Twenty-seven years between the land and the church. Some things are worth the wait.

What the marker says

Roman Catholic worship services were held in Menard as early as 1872, when J.J. Callan set aside this lot of land for the construction of a Catholic Church Building. Visiting priests held occasional services in various homes and in the courthouse until 1899, when this building was constructed under the direction of the Rev. P. Beaudrillard for Sacred Heart Parish. The Gothic Revival Building features native stone and lancet windows. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1984