Texas House of Worship

by Harriet Feagin

Title

Texas House of Worship

Artist

Harriet Feagin

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The St. Martin Church and Cemetery were established in 1888 and 1889 as a mission of St. John the Baptist Church in Fayetteville. In 1886, a relatively large number of Catholic families were living in and near Warrenton, nine miles west of Fayetteville. The Fayetteville priest organized a congregation and visited on a regular basis saying Mass in private homes until 1888. On March 15, 1888 Frederick & Helen Spies sold one acre of land to the Catholic Bishop for the church and cemetery site. Within the year a large building was erected and the congregation named for Saint Martin.

It flourished for 27 years but by 1915 most of the Catholics had died or moved away. They needed a new school building in Fayetteville and the Catholic Bishop gave them permission to demolish St. Martin's Church and use the lumber to build the school at Fayetteville. There was enough lumber left over to build the small chapel at the original site of St. Martin's Church. The building is 14 foot 3 inches x 18 foot 1 inch and is known as the "Smallest Active Catholic Church in the World." It contains some of the original fixtures including the altar and tabernacle and statues from the original church. It has 12 benches that can hold about 20 people. Mass is held here once a year on All Souls Day. The church and cemetery are open to visitors who leave donations for its care and upkeep.

The church is located on Highway 237 at Warrenton. Kathy Carter, Helen Muras, and Annette Ruckert surveyed this site on May 14, 1990. In October 1997, Norman Krischke resurveyed the site and added names to the list that were taken from the Book of Burials provided by Rev. Ben Mazurkiewicz of the Fayetteville Church.

Uploaded

April 21st, 2021

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