The Basilian Fathers Missions

The priests of the Basilian Fathers Missions are a small group, living and working among the poor of the countries we serve in our ongoing effort to assist them in their struggle for human dignity and self reliance. In cooperation with the local bishops and together with the religious of other missionary communities, we present to the people of Latin America new ways of experiencing more fully the goodness and presence of God in all human activity. In keeping with our tradition, we focus on education and following the express wishes of the Holy Father, we attempt to promote a vigorous vocational pastoral. We solicit and rely on the prayers, sacrifices and alms of our benefactors, our co-missionaries, in promoting native vocations to the priesthood and in continuing our work of evangelization.


Beginning of the Order

The Congregation of St. Basil, commonly called the Basilian Fathers, was officially founded in 1822 when ten diocesan priests at Annonay, France, vowed on November 21 to dedicate their lives to the education of youth and preaching the Word of God. They created a “Basilian spirit” which focused on fostering priestly vocations. 

From the outset, Basilians were familiar with tension, trial and chaos during the dark days of the French Revolution. It was ambitious, courageous, and downright dangerous to promote Christian education in the teeth of the Reign of Terror, but that is exactly what Archbishop D’Aviau did when he first contacted Father Joseph Lapierre in 1797 to ask him to organize a school and take care of the parish of Saint-Symphoriem-de-Mahun. The early years, to 1822, brought one crisis after another for the little group of priest teachers and their associates in the extremely anti-clerical atmosphere. In one police commissioner’s report, written in 1799, we read: “The priests are the only enemies of the government and once extirpated from society there will no longer be terrorism, nor royalism, nor crimes in France.” Divine Providence, working through ordinary people, always found a solution to the most distressing situation and somehow the little community managed to struggle on.


Across the Ocean to the New World

By 1851, Father Patrick Moloney had accompanied Bishop de Charbonnel to the New World. The Bishop of Toronto requested the Basilians to establish a school there which they did in 1852. Later foundations spread across Canada and, in 1866, into the United States. As the congregation spread, they founded universities, colleges, schools, missions and parishes. Today, the Basilian Fathers serve in four Provinces and twenty-two cities in Canada, and seven states and thirty cities in the United States.


The Beginning of the Missions in Texas

Basilians founded St. Basil’s College in Waco, Texas in 1899, St. Thomas High School in Houston, Texas in 1900, St. Mary’s Seminary in La Porte, Texas in 1901, and many parishes in Texas from Navasota to Matagorda, in which the Basilian presence has left a lasting impression and spirit of evangelization. In 1947, the Basilians founded the University of St. Thomas in Houston through which many vocations have come to the Church.

In 1935, the Basilians had been teaching in Texas for many years, and had become aware of the plight of the Mexican people in the communities surrounding Houston. Thousands of Catholics were not receiving the sacraments because of the lack of priests who could speak Spanish. This led to a missionary outreach to these people along the Gulf coast, who were primarily poor, migrant laborers.

Fathers Joseph Dillon and John Collins began their work with only a borrowed car and a Mass kit. Wherever they went, they found the same picture: hunger and sickness, lack of potable water, poor sanitation, illiteracy, discrimination, and a great thirst for the Word of God. In spite of hot spicy food and sleepless nights in dirty shacks, they moved along the muddy roads offering Mass wherever they could: in barns, saloons, abandoned railroad cars and private homes. They people flocked to them and the missionaries began to solicit funds to bring rice, flour, corn and beans to the poverty struck people.

Eventually, they were able to establish a first permanent church and mission center in Rosenberg. In true missionary style, the Basilians began to establish vital parishes with the aim of eventually turning them over to the local diocese. Over 60 existing parishes in the region owe their beginnings to the Basilian missionary zeal. In 1940 the Society for the Propagation of the Faith allowed the Basilians to preach for their missionary efforts in Detroit, Michigan, and later other dioceses included the Basilian missions in their cooperative plans. Today, Basilians preach in dioceses throughout the U.S. and Canada in support of their mission efforts.


The Missions Cross the Border

Pope John XXIII’s special concern for the Latin American people was shared by the Basilians. In the fall of 1961, Fathers Max Murphy and Frank Launtrie moved into Mexico on the outskirts of Mexico City at the invitation of the Archbishop. The work began among the rural people who had migrated to the city and found only poverty, illiteracy, and a lack of religious training instead of the better life they had expected. The work continues at the invitation of other bishops, in some of the poorest areas. Today, the Basilian Fathers Missions have spread down the length of the country with their newest project, a house of formation, in Jalapa, Vera Cruz, on the southeast coast of the country.


A Mission Center is Born

In 1962, in order to raise funds to support the mission work and to coordinate the Basilian mission activities, a business office was opened in Sugar Land. Today, St. Joseph’s Center is the hub for the Basilian Fathers Missions outreach.


Onward to Colombia

In 1986, the Basilian General Council announced plans to open a new mission in Colombia. In 1987, Archbishop Pedro Rubiano Saenz of Cali, now Cardinal of Bogota, welcomed Fathers Frank Amico, Bob Seguin, and Maurice Restivo to Nuestra Senora de Asuncion parish. The three barrios of the parish are plagued by poverty and violence, among the worst in the country. In 1990, Father Amico was kidnapped and held by leftist guerrillas but was released unharmed after five days. In 1992, the community was horrified by the kidnap and murder of one of the faith filled lay catechists of the parish, Aldemar Carvajal. In 1996, the Basilians answered a request of Bishop Dario Monsalve and began working in Medellin and in 1997 a house of studies for seminarians was opened in Bogota. Ordained in 1994, Father Rafael Lopera was the first Colombian vocation from the Basilian missions.



A Garden of Love

Those of you who have ever experienced a garden know that we can not simply scatter some seed and expect a good harvest. The most beautiful flowers grow in a garden tended with love.

By your sacrifice and prayers, you provide the spiritual nourishment that sustains the missionaries in their work. Your alms fall like a gentle rain of love for the tender plants who are the people of our mission areas. 

Our priests and our people thank you for all that you do to help us plant and nurture the seed of faith that grows a living Church in Latin America.