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St. Patrick's Catholic Church Denison, Texas The Denison Herald Sunday morning, July 25, 1972 St. Patrick Began in City's First Year St. Patrick's Catholic Church, founded here in 1873 when Denison was a pioneer city of heterogenus inhabitants and the clamor and chaos of spirited and ambitious colonization of pioneers, is anticipating its centennial next year. And as Denison gaily celebrates its 100th birthday, the church is making plans for its own celebration, according to Father John A. Brennan, present pastor since 1968. Presiding as Catholic Bishop of all Texas in 1873, Bishop Charles Marie Dubuis of Galveston, sent Father Joseph Martiniere to the new Denison mission. And on May 4 of that year the first Mass was offered in the V. Stegmiller Hall on Main street. Mass was continued to be offered there until a small frame church was erected on the southeast corner of what became the St. Xavier Academy campus. This was occupied in July 1873. That being the era when church fairs flourished, the St. Patrick's congregation held such a festival to pay off the church indebtedness. The building campaign reached its climax before Christmas and on the Feast of the Nativity, Masses of thanksgiving were offered by Father Quinon and Thion, Professor LaHacke, later widely known as a composer, played a Mass of his own composition. Parish growth being rapid, a second frame church was erected on the site of the present church rectory, 314 N. Rusk, in 1877. Several early missionaries filled the pastorate until 1889 when Father T.K. Crowley assumed the pastorate, presiding until his sudden death in the sacristry in 1906 while vesting for Christmas dawn Mass. During Father Crowley's tenure the first handsome Gothic edifice was erected and dedicated on December 11, 1898 by Bishop Edward Dunne of Dallas, t hen head of the entire North Texas dioceses. On October 30, 1911 a disastrous fire swept the church at midnight resulting in the loss of one life, young Tim Corcoran, and the total destruction of the edifice and contents. Young Corcoran had rushed unbidden into the flaming adjacent rectory to recover valuable files, when he was trapped. Indomitably, the parish rebuilt St. Patrick's in duplicate. Its ornate interior provided with imported stained glass mosaic windows that are works of art. Linked indelibly with the history of St. Patrick's is Father Bernard J. Deeny, native of Iowa, who was pastor for 30 years beginning at age 35 in 1912 when the destroyed church was being rebuilt. Father Deeney was succeeded after his retirement in 1942 by Msgr. Thomas S. Zachry, now retired, and subsequently by Msgr. Joseph Erbrick, still serving in the Dallas diocese. Father Henry Felderhoff of Muenster died in 1956 during his brief pastorate here. Father Carl Vogel, Dallas native, now at Garland, was pastor from 1963 to 1966 and was succeeded by Rev. James A. Boyle, now pastor at Cleburne. On August 1, 1968, the Rev. John A. Brennan of Waterford, Ireland, assumed the St. Patrick's pastorate. He studied for the priesthood in St. Patrick's College of Carlow and was ordained June 19, 1956. By choice he came to Texas 16 years ago to serve in the Dallas diocese, carrying the role of adopted Texan with delightful Irish enthusiasm while serving churches in Ft. Worth, Dallas and Wichita Falls before assignment here. He is in charge of the Catholic mission church of St. Elizabeth at Bonham and is chaplain at the Veterans Hospital there. He is an instructor in theology and Christian doctrine and conducts weekly classes for adult inquirers into the faith. He also is instructor for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine students who are young people of the parish. The Confraternity replaces the training formerly given at St. Xavier Academy now being rebuilt as a CCD Center known as St. Xavier Educational Center and St. Francis Chapel. Local lay teachers and seminarians from Holy Trinity University, Dallas, join Father Brennan on the teaching staff. St. Patrick's has an adult choir. It has a flourishing Woman's Altar Society and Catholic Daughters of America and Knights of Columbus. Its women are banded under the National Council of Catholic Women. Men's organizations are affiliated with the National Council of Catholic Men. It has a Boy Scout and Camp Fire Girls program. St. Patrick's has its own burial grounds, Calvary Cemetery, since 1893, located on Hwy. 75 2 miles north of the city. Attendance at Sunday Masses is increased 25 per cent in summer by Texoma tourists. St. Patrick's Church has 3 years seniority over the pioneer St. Xavier Academy 1876 - 1971, dismantled last year for erection of a modern Confraternity center. Father Frances Derue of Galveston, one of St. Patrick's earliest pastors, negotiated with the Sisters of St. Mary of Namar, Belgium, to establish St. Xavier's Academy, boarding and day school for girls here in 1876. The Sisters wrote a long and illustrious record into educational annals of Denison covering nearly a hundred years. They still maintain schools and college at several points of the state and in New York and California. They are on the staff of The University of Dallas and maintain the St. Mary's House of Study at Irving.  St. Patrick's Catholic Church History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |