Texas’ Most Important Early Missionary: The Venerable Antonio Margil de Jesús(October 21, 2025)
by Scott Sosebee
As you drive into Nacogdoches from the south and reach the intersection of South and Main streets, right at the courthouse, you will see a mural on the backside of Johnson’s Furniture. The mural displays an eighteenth-century Spanish priest who is “calling forth” water to appear from a barren spring. It is a representation of the actions of Franciscan missionary Antonio Margil de Jesús using prayer and devotion to bring water out of the ground during a drought from a pair of springs now known as Los Osos del Padre Margil, or the “Eyes of Father Margil.” Those springs, and the man who used his devout faith to solve a problem, are a surviving symbol of East Texas’ deep connection to its early Spanish colonial heritage.
Antonio Margil de Jesús was born into a poor family in Valencia, Spain in August 1657. His parents, who eked out a bare living from the land around the city, were a devout couple who instilled in their son a strong belief in God from an early age. He became a favorite of the priests at his family’s church, San Juan del Mercado, who were awed not only by the young man’s piety but also his gentle soul and almost unbelievable humility before God. Almost from the moment he began seeking religious instruction he began to refer to himself as “la Misma Nada,” a phrase that translates to “nothingness itself,” which he used to indicate his insignificance before God. He began to sign all his letters with that phrase, something he continued to do for the remainder of his life.
Margil committed to a life as a priest when he was barely thirteen and he expressed a desire to become a member of the order of St. Frances of Assisi, or the Franciscans. The Franciscans believe in following the life of Jesus Christ in radical simplicity, humility, and poverty with a commitment to serve the poor and a dedication to peace. They would also become the chief missionary impulse in Spanish colonial North America. Margil received the orders habit in Valencia and, by the age of twenty-five, left Spain and sailed to New Spain for a missionary life in 1683.
His order sent Margil to the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro. After some instruction there he first journeyed to the Yucatán, then later to Costa Rica and Guatemala to help found missions and conduct religious instruction among both indigenous peoples and colonial inhabitants. In 1707, he was a founding member of the missionary College of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas. After a brief return to Querétaro, he would embark on what was likely the most enduring missionary work of his life, and at least the most important when it comes to the history of Texas. He traveled to the Spanish northern outpost of San Juan Bautista near the Rìo Grande in 1715 and, in 1716, he was charged with planning the establishment of the Spanish East Texas missions in 1716.
The Spanish had tried to establish missions in East Texas in 1690 at San Francisco de las Tejas near the Neches River in response to a perceived French incursion by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, but the mission had failed within a year. A new initiative began after the French tradesman Louis St. Denis had appeared at San Juan Bautista in response to a Spanish priest’s entreaty to the French authorities in Louisiana to return religious instruction to the Caddo in the Neches-Angelina River region. Margil was to accompany Domingo Ramòn in early spring 1716 on the expedition to establish the Spanish presence, but a severe illness delayed his departure until late July 1716. But, when he did arrive, he became the chief priest-missionary among the five East Texas missions established in 1716-1717, including Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in what would become Nacogdoches and Nuestra Señora de los Dolores near present-day San Augustine.
During the winter, spring and summer of 1717, the East Texas region around the missions were hit with a significant and devastating drought. The crops of both the missions and the Natives were dying and life and death on a frontier a far-distance from any relief hung in the balance. The drought stretched into 1718, which led Margil to spend an entire night praying for relief and deliverance from God. As the sun rose on the morning, Margil had a vision. God, according to his vision, led him to walk to a high west bank on Lanana Creek where he was to strike his staff against a rock. He lifted his pole above his head and brought it forcefully down upon the face of the stone, and immediately two springs of cool, clear water burst forth from the soil in a rush. It ran enough that people from all around were able to fill receptacles and drink. It was a life-saving miracle according to all present.
Margil remained in East Texas until 1719 when the infamous “Chicken War” with the French in Louisiana led him and most of the residents of the missions to retreat to San Antonio. While most of his fellow Spaniards would later return, Margil remained in San Antonio, where he founded in 1720 what would eventually be the most successful of all Spanish missions, San José San Miguel de Aquayo. His order recalled Margil to New Spain in 1722, where he would return to Zacatecas to serve as the guardìan of the college. He returned to missionary work in southern Mexico in 1725, but died in Mexico City in August 1726 at the age of 69.
The formal process for canonization as a Saint in the Catholic Church is a long process, and began for Margil in the late 1700s. Pope Gregory XVI declared Margil “venerable” in 1836, a formal recognition of his heroic virtues and a step in the process towards sainthood. The next step is beatification, and many expect Margil to receive that honor in the near future. It would be only fitting for the man whose humility would likely prevent him from declaring himself what he was—the greatest missionary in early Texas history.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.