DUANE
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Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the Reverend Gustav Gollbach, O.M.I. Now, some men leave a mark on the land itself; not just in the record books, not just in the memories of the people who knew them, but something you can walk up to, lay your hand on, and feel. Gustav Gollbach was that kind of man.
He was born on September 24, 1878, in Germany. Worlds away from the South Texas brush country, from the slow brown bend of the Rio Grande, from the caliche and the heat. But life has a way of carrying a person exactly where they need to be.
On April 21, 1906, Gollbach was ordained a priest in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Order. And not long after that ordination, he made his way to Texas. He didn't settle in one spot and call it done; this was a man who worked.
He served churches in Del Rio, Castroville, Mercedes, San Benito, and Ballinger. Five towns. Five communities.
Each one a chapter. Then, in 1924, he came to Rio Grande City. He took up the pastorship of Immaculate Conception Church, and he would hold that post until 1937.
Thirteen years. But somewhere in the middle of those years, he did something that stopped people in their tracks. Using petrified wood and native stone gathered from the Roma area, he built a replica of the Grotto Shrine at Lourdes, France: right there along the Rio Grande.
Think about that for a moment. A German-born priest, working with stone pulled from the South Texas earth, recreating one of the most sacred sites in all of Christendom. It was dedicated in 1928.
Gustav Gollbach died on December 26, 1955. But that shrine he built with petrified wood and native stone, it's still there. It has become, as the marker says, an important historic site in the Rio Grande Valley.
Some men write their names in water. Gollbach wrote his in stone.
What the marker says
(September 24, 1878-December 26, 1955) A native of Germany, Gustav Gollbach was ordained a priest in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Order on April 21, 1906. He immigrated to Texas soon after his ordination, and served churches in Del Rio, Castroville, Mercedes, San Benito, and Ballinger before coming to Rio Grande City in 1924. Serving as pastor of Immaculate Conception Church until 1937, he built a replica of the Grotto Shrine at Lourdes, France, using petrified wood and native stone from the Roma area. Dedicated in 1928, it has become an important historic site in the Rio Grande Valley. (1992)