Monday 01 April -- 2019 Texas Painted Churches Day 1

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church,
Shiner

For my wife and myself, our pilgrimage actually began on Saturday 30 March, when we traveled to Houston and spent the day with our son, who has since graduating college last year lived and worked in downtown Houston. His apartment is too small to accommodate us as overnight guests, however, so we usually stay in western Houston with Anne's sister and her husband. On Sunday, our son joined us out there for the day, then went back to his place in the evening to prepare for work the next morning. We, of course, would begin our pilgrimage to the Painted Churches then, today, Monday 01 April.

After a leisurely morning with Anne's sister, we headed out of Houston for the short, hour-and-a-half drive to Schulenburg. We saw patches of bluebonnets -- the Texas State Flower -- interspersed with a coral-orangish-color flower in even greater abundance, all along the way. It was quite cool and cloudy through most of the day; we experienced light rain at a couple of points along our drives, but the sun came shortly before we checked in to our hotel late in the afternoon.


Our hotel's check-in could be as early as 15:00; We arrived in Schulenburg considerably before that, about 13:30 or so, and made our way to our first destination -- Anne's choice -- the Kountry Bakery, where had lunch.

Our first stop in Schulenburg -- naturally.

Then, it still being too early to check in, we opted to just drive around a bit. What that turned into was a foray first out south of town, where we found a good patch of the wildflowers that we stopped and photographed close-up ...

... and then into a full-blown excursion about a half-hour south to Shiner -- not to the brewery (which, time allowing, we may try to get in tomorrow afternoon after our guided tour of the Painted Churches around Schulenburg) but rather to a renowned church that will assuredly not be on that itinerary, but that my research had identified as worth seeing.

Along the way, however, we stumbled across something else of interest. Having made a brief and unsuccessful attempt to find Sacred Heart Church in Halletsville without getting too far off the route to Shiner, a couple miles further along the road we spied a sign, "Pecan Grove Apparition Park," and on the spur of the moment whipped in to check it out.

In brief, according to the gentleman caretaker who was puttering around the grounds, who identified himself as one David -- and to a large handpainted narrative affixed to one of the small buildings -- in 1986 a local farmer, Daniel Jares, stuck his tractor in deep mud, prayed to the Virgin Mary for help, and was rewarded with a visitation from her. She told him to get back on the tractor, whence he found it was unstuck. His wife immediately noticed a "glow" about him when he returned to the house. After a subsequent visitation in which he received an answer to his prayers how he could repay the Blessed Mother, the subsequent spring he built the shrine nearby to the apparition site to commemorate the event, and cared for it until he died ca. 2002. His widow was then unable to keep the site up and it fell into disrepair. She prayed for someone to take on the task of keeping the shrine in good condition. Four years later, David Fritz, who is of Czech background living up north (Wisconsin, I believe), was visiting the area and happened upon the shrine. He met the widow, heard her story, and felt called to undertake maintaining -- and expanding the shrine. He had already worked on building a shrine to Our Lady of Fatima up north. Now, he comes down periodically to work on this shrine as well, and has seen it grow in size and number of people coming to pray at it each year. Where the farmer had marked the spot of the apparition with a metal stake driven into the ground, David put a statue of the Virgin (which Anne and I drove a short distance down a nearby side road and viewed from afar). It was, all in all, a very interesting tale. I later checked, and sure enough, if you go to the premier site indexing all known Marian apparitions according to their ecclesiastical status, The Miracle Hunter, specifically http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/unapproved_apparitions/index.html, and scroll down, you can find the following bare notice:

Sept 18, 1986

Hallettsville, TX (USA)

Daniel Jares

No decision

"No decision" is the classification of the vast majority of alleged apparitions of Our Lady through the centuries. It means just that -- no decision has been rendered by the local ordinary (the bishop), who has primary authority, as to whether the apparition is of supernatural origin or not. The faithful are not forbidden to render private devotion based upon it, with the understanding that it is at most a private revelation that cannot contradict the deposit of faith, and may well not be authentic. One should discern these things very carefully, and always subject oneself to the judgment of the Church.

But who am I to say Our Lady did not respond to the fervent prayer of one of her children? [More information can be found at the very bottom of this post.]

Our Lady of San Juan del Valle [LINK]

We did not want to traipse across someone's land without permission.

After spending some time there talking to David (followed by the short trip to the apparition site), we continued on to Shiner, where we found Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church. We spent a fair amount of time walking around first the inside, then the outside. This church, one of the largest of the Painted Churches, seems unusual (but not unique) as a "Painted Church" in that it is a brick church; and although there is some spectacular painting mainly in the apse, sanctuary, and choir, most of the spectacle is a series of brilliant stained glass windows telling the Gospel story from the Annunciation to the Resurrection. It has a rather storied history. The original church on the site was built in 1891 -- and was the very next year moved eleven feet off its foundation by a tornado. A 112-foot tour was destroyed in the process. But the people rallied, straightened, and repaired the structure within the year 1892. By 1921, the old church was too small for an expanding congregation, so the present church was built, in red brick, considerably larger, with cut stone buttresses and grey highlights. A great square tower supports an octagonal spire. According to the church's website, "“The structure is still known as one of the most eye-catching landmarks in South Central Texas with visitors from around the world stopping regularly to photograph and tour the church" [LINK] Unfortunately, our unguided tour of the church included no lighting, so some of the artwork does not come through these photos in their true glory.

A video walk-through of the church.

The dome above the altar contains a 

great mural of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane

Here is a much better image I found online:

[Source: LINK]

ECCE PANIS ANGELORUM

"Behold the Bread of Angels"

Leaving there, we drove back to Schulenburg directly to our hotel, right off the Interstate at the Best Western Plus, where within moments of my entering to check in, another of our party arrived, starting a steady stream over the next hour or so.

Anne and I found our room and rested for a few minutes, then it was time to head out to the 18:00 Mass at St. Rose of Lima Church only a short distance down the street from our hotel. Another couple from our group rode with us; others arrived there separately while we were there; others opted not to attend, having attended Mass at home in Natchitoches or elsewhere earlier in the day. St. Rose is not one of the Painted Churches, and is of very modern construction and decor, but given that is fairly nicely adorned with stained glass.

After Mass, our group assembled in the our hotel's lobby and opted to cross the Interstate to the Oak Ridge Smokehouse restaurant, which had a nice buffet which many of us chose to partake of. I did not; buffets and I do not get along because I find it hard to stop. I ordered a smoked turkey sandwich, which was good. During the meal, I related Anne's and my adventure earlier, telling the story of "Our Lady of Halletsville." As I ended it, "Isn't our Faith great? Protestants don't get anything like this!"

We were back in our hotel room about 20:30. It having been a long day, Anne's already in bed, and now, having created this blog post and put in a good selection of the pictures from the day, I am about to go shower and head for bed myself.

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More information regarding the alleged 1986 apparition outside Hallettsville, Texas:

Erica Rodriguez, " Hallettsville shrine honors apparition of Virgin Mary," Victoria Advocate (13 May 2010) [LINK] -- Note: The Victoria Advocate allows five views then requires subscription.

Youtube: "Hallettsville locals explain apparition of Virgin Mary" (2011) --