Venerable Antonio Margil of Jesus: The Apostle of Texas (Part 1)
Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.
https://www.traditioninaction.org/Margil/AM003_Article2.htmA quarter century before Fr. Junípero Serra began his California adventure, there was an extraordinary Franciscan carrying out a great work of evangelization.
Across Central America, Mexico, and finally, Texas. In his zeal to spread the Catholic faith, he faced inclement weather, hostile animals, forest insects and reptiles, lack of food and water, and cruel treatment from hostile Indian tribes.
More than once he was tortured, beaten, or left for dead. His name, which deserves to be known and his fame spread is Venerable Antonio Margil de Jesus, who titled himself and signed every letter as El Nada Mismo – Nothingness Itself.
In the United States, we do not have the luxury of a great plenitude of saints. In some Catholic Latin American countries, there are saints for almost every city, accounts of miracles and marvels on every corner, the heavens seem a bit closer to earth.
Therefore, when we find a spot where a saint touched the earth here in the United States, we should treasure it and reap the benefits of such gifts from Heaven.
This is our Catholic history, these are our real heroes, these are the saints who shared our soil, who Our Lady wants us to develop a relation with, to call on in our needs because she put them in our pathway. One of these marvels is Fr. Antonio Margil.
The postulator for the Cause of Ven Antonio Margil divided his life into three epochs. The first was from 1657, his birth, until his journey to the New World, 1684.
The second began with the establishment of the Mission College of Querétaro (Mexico) and his first missions in Guatemala in 1685 until 1716, after he had founded two new colleges in Nicaragua and Mexico. The third and last epoch begins with his Texas missions in the year 1716 , and ends with his death in Mexico City in 1726.
Mission to Texas: 1716-1726
What is most interesting about the Texas missions is that one could say that this was the only assignment Fr. Margil chose himself.
All his life, he lived under holy obedience. He wrote that he had “never undertaken any enterprise, not even a step, without permission.”
Often poorly considered orders compelled him to leave his missions when the missionaries were on the very brink of reaping the harvest of their preaching and labors.
But Fr. Margil never hesitated to abandon enterprises and every hope of success, and travel hundreds of miles through the roughest and most dangerous country, to obey the order of his superiors.
In 1714, however, he had been appointed vice-commissary of the missions of New Spain and had been granted an apostolic faculty to give missions wherever he deemed proper and with those companions who seemed to him best qualified for the accomplishment of this work.
He had heard of the plight of the Indians of Texas, ignorant of the true Faith, and living in deplorable and brutish conditions. Now, at almost the age of 60, he was intent upon making the difficult journey there to found missions and convert them.
His five years of work in Texas, only a little over a year in San Antonio, where his name is best remembered, could be itself a lifetime’s work.
But it was just a fraction of all he did in his 43 years of work as a missionary in Central and North America. In a certain way, the years in Texas constituted the crown of the glories and sufferings of his lifetime.
Difficult beginnings
Threatened by French encroachments from Louisiana onto Spanish territories, Spain had stepped up its colonization and the Franciscans had established a mission in Texas in 1690.
But it had lasted only three years. Because the conditions for colonizers were bleak and difficult, the government was not concerned about its colonization and progress.
The friars had to contend with so many difficulties, exorbitant costs, and losses that Fr. Isidro Félix de Espinosa reported in his chronicle, Nuevas Empresas, “The very name of Texas had become odious to the religious.” (1)
1. Eduardo Enrique Rios, Life of Fray Antonio Margil, O.F.M., trans. By Benedict Leutenegger, O.F.M. (Washington D.D.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1959), p. 57.
Other works used in this article include: Ubaldus da Rieti, O.F.M., Life of Venerable Fr. Anthony Margil, Taken from the process for his Beatification and Canonization (Quebec/NY: Franciscan Missionary Printing Press, 1910); Eduardo Enrique Rios, Life of Fray Antonio Margil, O.F.M., trans. by Benedict Leutenegger, O.F.M. (Washington D.D.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1959); Nothingness Itself: Select Writings of Ven Fr. Antonio Margil, O.F.M., (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1976).
Fr. Margil faced a first major obstacle standing in the way of an expedition. A presidio, or military post, had to be established at the entrance to the provinces to afford escorts to the missionaries and render assistance in case of uprisings or attacks.
Funds were needed for this purpose, and the royal treasury was exhausted from wars. As usual, Fr. Margil relied on Providence, which supplied in a remarkable way.
Because of his reputation and popularity among the soldiers, each member of the garrison voluntarily offered him out of his pay $25 a year for life, and with this money he financed the presidio of St. John the Baptist on the Rio Grande.
The way to Texas was opened.
At the beginning of 1716, an expedition party of 25 soldiers with their families set out set out for the 2,000 mile trek from Nicaragua to Texas.
They were accompanied by friars from the Colleges of Querétaro and Zacatecas. Fr. Margil led the party from the Zacatecas College, and Fr. Espinosa was appointed head of the Querétaro College missionaries. Each of the colleges was to establish three missions.
As with many ventures God desires to bless, the beginnings were difficult, and for a while it seemed Fr. Margil would not even make it to Texas.
Weary from the labor of the preparations, he took a fever at the very onset of the expedition and could hardly walk. When they reached the Rio Grande, he barely managed to cross, and received the Last Sacraments.
The rest of the missionary party, mourning, left him to die with only a lay brother to attend him so that they could continue on with the soldiers, who could wait no longer.
But Fr. Margil did not die. He slowly recovered, and in June set out to regain the party. By the time he rejoined them in July, the first of the Zacatecas missions, the Mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Nacogdoches, Texas, had been founded.
In 1717, Fr. Margil established the second, Mission San Miguel, near present-day Robeline. Thus he had the honor to erect the first church building in what is now the State of Louisiana. Shortly afterward, he also established Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores near San Augustine, Texas, halfway between the two, and resided there.
A memorial to one of the miracles he performed during this time still exists at a crossing of Lanana Creek. During a journey from Nacogdoches to an outlying village, his group was exhausted and faint with thirst, with no hope of finding water.
Fr. Margil addressed his companions:
“Fear not, do not be dismayed. Trust in God, for in a short time you shall have water.”
Then striking a rock in the dry creek bed twice with his staff, fresh and clear water gushed forth and continues to flow to this day.
The place was named the Little Eyes of Fr. Antonio Margil.
More troubles and false promises
The most testing problems the missionaries faced in Texas were not the difficult terrain or savage character of the inhabitants.
First and most trying, they had to contend with the false promises and treachery of the Spanish captains, who enriched themselves in Texas while the missions suffered from lack of the most basic food and supplies.
Second, they faced the French soldiers, who were vying with the Spanish for control of the territory.
In fact, with the Texas Indians, the simple weapon Fr. Margil employed was kindness. On every occasion and for every need, he was at hand.
He ploughed and sowed their gardens, procured fruits, nuts and other products for their enjoyment, relieved their fatigue by doing their work.
He liberally gave his services to obtain his end, to harvest a great wealth of souls.
Nonetheless, having won the Indians of that area to hear the preaching of the true Faith, he felt all the more keenly how crucial the provisions were to sustain the missions.
But the promised help did not come. In a report of the missions to the Mexican Viceroy in February 1718, he wrote: “All this will perish if help does not come immediately.”
(End Part 1)