Saint Patrick's Catholic Church

The plaque mentions the Sisters of Mercy who came from Indianola; their order taught across South Texas for more than a century. Mother Mary Camillus Lucas and Sister Mary John Berchmans reached Indianola from New Orleans on January 6, 1875. After that September's hurricane wrecked their new school, they moved to Refugio and opened their first permanent convent. Mother Camillus and five sisters then taught at San Patricio before going on to Cuero in 1887 and Smithville in 1897, where she ran a school until her death in 1911. The order's Mercy Hospital in Laredo dates from 1894.

What the plaque says

Saint Patrick's Catholic Church Empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin brought irish catholic immigrant families to Texas about 1829 to form a new colony, San Patricio de Hibernia. Under the direction of the Rev. Henry Doyle, the colonists established Saint Patrick's Catholic Church about 1830. A fire in 1858 destroyed the original frame church building and all church records. The Rt. Rev. Jean Marie Odin, first Bishop of Texas, dedicated a replacement church building about 1859. Local citizens built a two and one half story building for a convent and school on the grounds of Saint Patrick's Church. After an 1875 hurricane destroyed facilities at Indianola, nuns from the order of Sisters of Mercy relocated in San Patricio and operated Saint Joseph's convent and school from 1876 until 1884. After a 1919 hurricane completely demolished the church facilities, the congregation rebuilt in 1922. A need for a larger facility led the congregation to build a fourth structure in 1961. Through the years Saint Patrick's Catholic Church has served the community with sunday mass and the sacraments and missions given by visiting priests.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 2.9 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.7 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• Old Dougherty House — steps away
• Battle of San Patricio — 0.2 mi
• Courthouses of San Patricio County — 0.2 mi
• Josepha Rodriguez — 0.2 mi