OUR HISTORY
The history of St. Mary Parish dates to 1875 when Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission was established in Marfa in a small building west of the present town limits. During its early history, St. Mary was served by Carmelite, Jesuit, Oblate, and Augustinian priests from Fort Davis, El Paso, and San Antonio. Construction of the current church began in 1889 but since it was difficult to complete the building because of a lack of funds, Catholics rented it as a storage space for wool. While the church was being completed, services were held on the second floor of a blacksmith shop. In 1895, Father Frank Maas, O.C.C. became the pastor and Our Lady of Guadalupe was designated a parish in 1900. In the early 1900s, additional property was purchased until the parish included an entire block.
In 1912, a group of missionary priests and six Sisters of the Incarnate Word arrived from San Antonio to staff the church and open a school. Their arrival signaled the emergence of the parish as the mission center for the Big Bend. Led by Father Richard Vershafelt, these missionary priests included the future Bishop of Corpus Christi, Mariano S. Garriga, and Father Lourdes F. Costa who would go on the build Mt. Cristo Rey. From Marfa, the missionary priests served all of Brewster and Presidio Counties, an area of about 8,000 square miles. Each month, three priests would travel by horseback on a 26-day circuit to serve 8 missions and 23 stations with one priest remaining in Marfa.
In 1913, the rectory, hall, and school were completed, and a sacristy added to the church. Our Lady of Guadalupe was again enlarged and remodeled in 1917. At the same time, a second Catholic church, Sacred Heart, was built at the northwest corner of San Antonio Street and Highland Avenue to accommodate the families of soldiers stationed at Camp Marfa. Both Our Lady of Guadalupe and Sacred Heart Churches had schools. Behind Sacred Heart was an adobe building that was used for the St. Mary School, and on the north side was the convent for the Sisters of the Incarnate Word who opened the school in September 1912 for English-speaking children, while the Guadalupe School served Spanish-speaking children at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. When the two churches were consolidated in 1959, the Catholic schools also were consolidated into the Guadalupe School building and renamed St. Mary School. The Incarnate Word Sisters continued to operate St. Mary School until September 1973 when the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Poor took over the administration until the school’s closing in 1986.
After the creation of the Diocese of El Paso, the Jesuits served the two churches in Marfa. Four exiles who were Mexican Jesuit priests arrived in Marfa in 1917, including Rev. Miguel Kubicya who had survived an attempted hanging during the Mexican Revolution. He escaped death but suffered from asthma the rest of his life from the experience. After the Jesuits, diocesan priests served Our Lady of Guadalupe, followed by the Order of Augustinian Recollects from 1941 to 1966 when diocesan priests returned. In 1945, when Father Henry Zaranton, O.R.S.A. was the pastor, another sacristy and two towers were added, and the name of the church was changed to St. Mary. In 1959, St. Mary and Sacred Heart were consolidated into one parish. The Sacred Heart building and property were sold to the Humble Oil Company, and the proceeds from the sale together with donations from parishioners were used to enlarge and beautify St. Mary Church. The stained-glass windows and adobe bricks from the Sacred Heart building were used in the remodeling process.
Because of changes mandated by the Second Vatican Council, the altar was turned to face the people and the communion rail was removed from the church while Father Robert Bohn was pastor in the late 1960s. In the early 1980s, a reconciliation room was created in what had been the baptistery. In the 1990s, various improvements were made to the church including the installation of new doors at the front of the church.
Since Rev. John Paul Madanu joined the church as Vicar in 2017, and then as administrator, the parish benefited from many renovation projects, including essential maintenance and adaptations to the campus to improve the safety and usability of the church, classrooms, parish hall, offices, and convent.
Today St. Mary Catholic Church has more than a hundred families in its parish community.