Texas & the Franciscan missionaries!

Texas Bluebonnets!


Snippets from: A Forgotten Glory: The Missions of Old Texas. By James Wakefield Burke. Pages 14 - 15.

THE FRANCISCANS:

"Today the dusty trails on which those saintly men, with their worldly possessions on their backs, plodded their way from Mexico seeking savage people to overt to Christianity, are multiple ribbons of concrete.

"Yesterday these missionaries journeyed through burning hot and dusty deserts.

"They zigzagged through long stretches of thorny mesquite and prickly cactus.

"They endured famine and thirst.

"They dragged themselves along by sheer power of will and the grace of God.

"They finally arrived at their destination, placing the cross of Christ and the royal standard of Spain on the soil of Texas."


BUT THAT'S NOT ALL THE "LITTLE BROTHERS" DID!


"They brought into Texas the horse, the cow, and other domesticated beasts; they brought the honey bee, and even the bluebonnet, which they culled from the hillsides of Jerusalem and planted with the missions on Texas soil.

"Early legend tells us that this grateful flower clung to historic ground, and covered the spots where the blood of heroes was shed.

"Later it was chosen as the Texas state flower.

"The padres bequeathed a most pleasant architecture. they gave their names to rivers and villages; they let a heritage without which the colonizers would not have been able to win Texas independence.

"They brought the cross, and with it a desire for our man to love his fellows without quailing at the color of his skin.

"When Texans shout Remember the Alamo! there is, darkly yet reverently, behind this cry a small prayer which, in truth, must say: Remember the Little Brothers!"