Houston friends of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Spiritans in the U.S. with a Pentecost Vigil Mass and Social, Saturday, June 4, 2022. 

Mass was held on the campus of the University of St. Thomas at the chapel of St. Basil and was followed by a reception to celebrate both the founding of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost Sunday 1703, and the 150th anniversary of Spiritans ministering to the United States.
 

The History of the Spiritans in Houston

The Spiritans have had a presence in Houston since 1970 when then-Bishop John Louis Markovsky invited them to the area. In the ensuing 50+ years, twenty-seven Spiritans ministered to five parishes within the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese, including St. Francis Assisi, Saints Peter and Paul, St. Mary’s, St Peter Neri, and St. Benedict the Abbot.

The Spiritans in Houston Today

Today, Spiritans continue to serve at St. Benedict the Abbot Parish, and minister as chaplains at the Michael E. DeBakey V.A. Medical center, and inmates within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice System

In 1994, Fr. Donald Nesti, C.S.Sp. founded The Center for Faith & Culture at the University of St. Thomas. The Center, which now bears his name, continues under the direction of the Spiritans.

Houston is also home to the Spiritan Mission Development Office, responsible for the implementation of the evangelical priorities of the U.S. Province and to continue its long-standing charism into the future at the service of the poorest and most abandoned peoples it was founded to serve.