DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Santa Teresa Catholic Church in Brazos County. Now settle in, because this one's about a priest with two names, a trailer, and a community that built something lasting out of sheer determination. In 1929, a man named Father Frank D.
Urbanovsky arrived in Bryan. Most folks knew him by another name — Padre Panchito. He came to assist the pastor at St.
Joseph Catholic Church, but Padre Panchito wasn't the kind of man who stayed put. He took to the roads and the river bends, traveling the countryside to minister to the Mexican and Mexican American families spread across Bryan, surrounding towns, and the small rural communities tucked along the Brazos River. These were people working the land, laying track on the railroads, keeping things running at Texas A&M College.
They were everywhere — and they needed someone to come to them. So Padre Panchito came. He came in a trailer chapel.
Let that sink in for a moment. A church on wheels, rolling through the Texas countryside. And all the while, he was watching the baptisms of Mexican children at St.
Joseph grow and grow. By 1934, he'd seen enough to know what the numbers were saying. This community needed a parish of its own.
He organized the worshipers, sought approval from Bishop Rev. C.E. Byrne of the Diocese of Galveston, and set the whole thing in motion.
Six years of work, six years of fundraising, six years of faith — and on November 1, 1940, the church was dedicated. The first church for the Hispanic Catholic community in that area. Now, none of that happens without people digging into their own pockets and their own time.
The men's group, the Santo Nombre Society, and the women's group, the Guadalupanas — they were the engine behind the fundraising. That is a detail worth holding onto. Ordinary people, organized and committed, doing what institutions alone cannot do.
Priests from the Franciscan order followed Padre Panchito into that work. Among them was Father Guillermo Buades, who served for twenty-nine years. Twenty-nine years.
Then Father Tom Frank arrived in 1978 and picked up right where Father Buades had left off, continuing the fundraising push as membership climbed to four hundred. The community had outgrown what they'd built, so they built again. In 1979, a new church building was dedicated to Santa Teresa — standing right across from the original.
Today, Santa Teresa Catholic Church holds mass in Spanish and in English, and organizes choirs, education, youth ministries, bible study groups, and many other ministries. What started with one priest in a trailer chapel, bouncing down the back roads along the Brazos, became something that has never stopped growing. That's what dedication looks like when it takes root.
What the marker says
In 1929, Father Frank D. Urbanovsky, known as Padre Panchito, came to Bryan to assist the pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church. He soon began to travel the countryside and minister to the Mexican and Mexican American population living in Bryan, surrounding towns and small, rural communities along the Brazos River, where they worked in agriculture, railroads and service jobs at Texas A&M College. Father Urbanovsky used a trailer chapel to minister to these settlers and witnessed the growing baptisms of Mexican children at St. Joseph. Realizing the need for a parish in 1934, he organized the worshipers and obtained approval from Bishop Rev. C.E. Byrne of the Diocese of Galveston to build a church, which was dedicated as the first church for the Hispanic catholic community on November 1, 1940. The key fundraisers were the men’s group, Santo Nombre Society, and the women’s group, The Guadalupanas. Other priests from the Franciscan order followed, among them Father Guillermo Buades, who served for 29 years. Father Tom Frank arrived in 1978 and continued the fundraising efforts of Father Buades to build a new church as membership grew to 400. In 1979, the new church building, across from the original church, was dedicated to Santa Teresa. The church holds mass in Spanish and English and organizes choirs, education, youth ministries and bible study groups among many other ministries. Santa Teresa Catholic Church continues to play an important role in the Hispanic community and is an example of the hard work and dedication of the parishioners.