DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker at this spot tells the story, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, picture this stretch of country in 1757. The Franciscan missionaries have come out here among the Lipan Apache Indians with a mission — and I mean that word in every sense.
They are going to build something. Something lasting. Something holy.
And they've got the money to do it, because a man known as the Count of Regla has reached into his considerable fortune and made it possible. So the mission goes up. Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba, founded right here, and for a little while, it stands.
For a little while. Because in 1758 — just one year later, one single year — the Comanches come. And when they leave, Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba is sacked and left in ruins.
That's the whole arc of this place, from founding to rubble, inside of twelve months. The Texas frontier did not reward hesitation, and it did not always reward courage either. Two men did not leave when the Comanches came.
Padre Alonso Giraldo de Terreros and Padre Jose Santiesteban. They stayed, and they perished here. The marker calls them martyrs to the Christian cause, and it does not dress that word up or soften it.
It just lays it down. A count's fortune, a year of hope, and two names carved into the ground forever. That's what this patch of Texas holds.
What the marker says
Founded among the Lipan Apache Indians by Franciscan Missionaries in 1757 through the financial aid of the Count of Regla. Sacked and left in ruins by the Comanches in 1758. Here perished Padres Alonso Giraldo de Terreros and Jose Santiesteban, martyrs to the Christian cause.