St. Augustine Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in 1716, Franciscan missionaries held the first Catholic services in this vicinity. Think about that for a moment.

Seventeen sixteen. That's not a town with a church yet. That's a clearing, maybe a fire, a few devoted souls, and the word of God carried on foot through East Texas wilderness.

And then, for many long years, Catholics in San Augustine were without leadership. The faith didn't disappear, mind you. It just waited.

Patient as stone. It waited all the way to 1847, when the Diocese of Galveston finally recognized San Augustine as a mission and sent the Reverend L. C.

M. Chambodut as pastor. Someone was coming.

Someone with a collar and a calling. Now the story starts moving. Then in 1880, a man named M.

C. Tynan deeded the lot right here at this very site for a church. Gave it over.

And that church was completed the very next year. You can almost hear the hammers. A congregation finally with a home.

But buildings, like stories, don't stay still forever. In 1937 a new structure replaced that original building, and somewhere along the way that church came to be called St. James.

Two names, one site, one unbroken thread of faith running back to 1716. Then in 1975, the Diocese of Beaumont stepped in and renamed the church St. Augustine.

Same ground the missionaries stood on all those centuries before. Some places, it turns out, just keep finding their way back to where they started.

What the marker says

In 1716 Franciscan missionaries held the first Catholic services in this vicinity. For many years Catholics in San Augustine were without leadership until 1847 when the Diocese of Galveston recognized it as a mission and sent the Rev. L. C. M. Chambodut as pastor. In 1880 M. C. Tynan deeded the lot at this site for a church which was completed the next year. A new structure replaced that building in 1937 and was later called St. James. In 1975 the Diocese of Beaumont renamed the church St. Augustine. (1982)