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In 1854, Matej (Matthias) Novak (1818-1896), his four children and brother Anton Novak moved to the area and settled along Mulberry Creek in what was then a frontier area known as Hottentot. Other Czech Catholic families began to move to the area and, by 1864, Father Victor Gury from Frelsburg came through periodically to attend to their spiritual needs followed by Father Joseph J. Martiniere. After the Civil War, the parishioners built a small stone chapel, sometimes called a hut and another small cabin for visiting priests one-half mile east of the current site. Father Joseph Bittkowski delivered the first mass at midnight on Christmas Eve 1865 and became the new parish's first resident priest. With the high influx of Czech Catholic families, attracted to the Fayette County area, the little chapel became the first predominately Czech Catholic church in Texas and soon could not accommodate the growing congregation. In 1866-67, a new wood structure was built closer to the town center, now renamed Praha. Thirty years later, in 1895, the current structure with hand cut, locally quarried stone was erected with much of the labor donated by parishioners. Painted frescoes on the vaulted wooden ceilings reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican were masterfully created by Swiss artist Gottfried Flury. The parish's first Catholic school opened in 1896 in a two-story building administered by the Sisters of the Divine Providence and then the Sisters of the Incarnate Word. The parish and its church have stood for more than 150 years not only as a source of hope, strength and faith for the local community, but also as an outward physical symbol of the pride Czech immigrants and their descendants have for their religion, culture and heritage. (2016) |
