“A Big Catholic Day” 1910
“Bishop Shaw arrives by train and confirms 275 persons.”
By Nancy Ehlinger Saathoff, Devine Historical Committee
Sunday, December 11, 1910, was an “extra-ordinary” day in Catholic circles, and in fac, for Devine too, as the Rt. Rev. Bishop J. W. Shaw confirmed 275 persons. Bishop Shaw arrived by train from San Antonio and was met at the train by auto and the Devine Citizens band, and a procession was formed leading to the church and grounds.
“The parochial residence, the convent, the Mexican church and school and the church were all beautifully decorated and everything was carried out in an elaborate way.” After the large confirmation in Devine, Bishop Shaw and St. Joseph’s Rev. Maas went to Bigfoot and Moore for more confirmations. Catholics from all parts of the country, and other local and area citizens who attended, numbered in the several hundred for this special occasion.
Confirmation in the Catholic Church is one of the seven sacraments, and it confers the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon a baptized person of at least seven years old. The students for confirmation studied and went to lessons, often for well over a year, in order to be confirmed. It was a very special occasion and not taken lightly. The importance of it was exemplified in the fact that a Bishop came for the sacrament; but in those early days of limited transportation and poor roads, the Bishop might only come once every several years, so you had to wait until that time to be confirmed.
The picture shows just some of the children who were confirmed, with Bishop Shaw, Rev. Maas, other adults, and a “cool” car! Some of the children were from the Ehlinger, Schmidt, Schott, and Hutzler families, including Willie Ehinger and Theresa Schmidt who married in 1915 in St. Joseph’s Church. (*Willie & Theresa were my grandparents. NES)
*There is an interesting backdrop to this picture and story. This picture came from a family album, with little information about it. A little sleuthing through some other family pics helped identify who might be in the picture, and a general guessing of the date being when they were teenagers, between 1909-1912. Then finding the picture of the Bishop online in Find-a-Grave gave more clues to confirm the bishops name and the years he was in San Antonio. But the final clue came randomly when doing research for another topic in some archives – an article entitled “A Big Catholic Day”! That one article confirmed the date, occasion, and location of that picture, and just confirms that “You never know where you will find history when you are not looking for it!”
**This picture will be posted on the Facebook page for the Devine Historical Committee for people to check out and comment to help name the others in the picture.