St. Mary's Catholic Church

Father Vital Quinon's road to Orange ran through illness. His baptismal record puts his birth in July 1845 at Thizy, France, and he was ordained at Galveston on October 27, 1871. He built St. Patrick's Church in Denison in 1874. After swimming his horse across the Red River he fell ill and spent years recovering in Europe. He returned in 1879 and went to Orange at the urging of railroader Charles A. Burton, standing up to rowdies in a standoff at the Casino Saloon. St. Vital's Church was dedicated on August 22, 1880.

What the plaque says

St. Mary's Catholic Church The earliest recorded Catholic Mass in the area was conducted by the Rev. P. F. Parisot in 1853, five years before the city of Orange was incorporated. In 1879 the Rev. Vital Quinon (d.1894), a native of France, came to Orange at the request of the local railroad superintendent Charles A. Barton, who was concerned about the city's reputation as a rowdy and lawless industrial town. Known as the "Fighting Priest," Father Quinon provided the leadership necessary for the formation of this church. Established as St. Vital's it originally served a parish comprised primarily of German, Austrian, Irish, and Polish immigrants. Significant growth began in 1896 when the Rev. J. M. Moran (1859-1922) of Ireland was assigned as the first resident priest of the parish. The congregational name was changed to St. Mary's in 1912 and a school and cemetery were established in the 1920s. Prominent church leaders have included the Rev. George Berberich (d.1947) of Germany, who came here in 1929, and his brother the Rev. Msgr. Joseph Berberich (d.1980), who joined him in 1937. Through their guidance, St. Mary's Catholic Church developed as a leader in community involvement, in quality education, and in the establishment of area missions. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.4 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 0.8 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• First Christian Church of Orange — steps away
• The Emmett Beuhler House — steps away
• Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church — 0.3 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Orange — 0.3 mi