The church and building sat vacant for several years when it was placed on the market until 1997, when the Missionary Franciscans of the Eucharist took interest.

St. Peter Claver Catholic Church celebrates 25 years in the community this Saturday.

“We started with 14 people,” said Father Luis Larrea, pastor of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, located at 615 W. Cochran Street in Tyler. “Now we have 500 families.”

Larrea has been with the church since it was founded in 1998; however, its history goes back further to 1936, when the Society of St. Joseph began working in Tyler as part of their special ministry to African Americans.

The parish operated briefly as a kindergarten before the Josephites pulled out of the city to work in larger parishes that needed their ministry, Larrea said.

Members of the disbanded church began attending the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception downtown, he said. Over the next three decades, two different preschool programs for underprivileged children operated at the former church, then died out after a number of years.

The church and building sat vacant for several years when it was placed on the market until 1997, when the Missionary Franciscans of the Eucharist took interest.

With approval from his provincial and Bishop Edmond Carmody (of Tyler), Larrea and a group of friars from Los Angeles began renovating the church.

“We came here and… worked so hard to renew the literal church,” he said. “There was nothing there… no office, no hall… just nothing.”

On Sept. 9, 1998, on the Feast of St. Peter Claver, the church reopened and masses began a month later with Larrea overseeing the parish. He was named administrator, then pastor of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church.

According to Larrea, St. Peter was a missionary from Columbia who helped the enslaved black people from Africa, by providing them with the necessary care and then introduction to the Catholic faith.

“There were thousands of thousands of people who were exploited as slaves,” he said. “So the missionary was helping to baptize them and help them in many ways.”

Larrea said the church has been told it helped change North Tyler for the better. He said they renewed not only the church, but also the neighborhood.

By 2004, construction began on a new church, which connected the historic building by a Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

“We made the new shrine, the new church big enough for the capacity of about a thousand people,” Larrea said. “And that was named the shrine of our Lady of Mount Carmel.”

In July 2006, Bishop Alvaro Corrado del Rio S.J. (“Society of Jesus”) from Puerto Rico participated in the celebration of the new church and elevated it into a Diocesan Shrine and several relics were placed beneath the altar. A month later, the bishop issued a decree naming the church ‘the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the parish of St. Peter Claver.’

By October 2006, St. Peter Claver Church was elevated as a Parish with a decree by Bishop Alvaro Corrado del Rio S.J.

Elizabeth Murphy has also been with the church since its inception 25 years ago and wanted to be involved however much as it would get her closer to God.

“I wanted to be a Secular Franciscan in the worst way and the closest one was so far away,” she said.

The Secular Franciscan Order is a vocation, a Way of Life approved by the Church, for men and women, married or single, who are called to take an active part in the mission of Christ to bring “the good news of salvation” to the world. Secular Franciscans commit themselves to a life in Christ calling for a positive effort to promote Gospel attitudes among their contemporaries. The Secular Franciscan Order is considered the Third order, behind, the First Order was for religious men (brothers and priests, called friars) and the Second Order was for cloistered nuns.

“I wanted it so bad and I said to Father that I was going to give him one day,” Murphy said. “The second day, I said, Father, do you think you’re ever gonna have this secular order here? And he said, ‘oh, yes, definitely’ and I thought that was it.”

A month went by when Murphy noticed still no action had been taken. So she asked Larrea again but he told her “Betty, don’t you understand? It has to come from you. You have to do it.”

Murphy began the process of establishing the Secular Franciscan Order at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, including obtaining permission from her husband, and dedicating her life completely to her faith.

“… to me it was a stronger connection with God,” she said. “It was a way for me to do His will.”

Working alongside Larrea for 25 years, Murphy says you can really see how much passion Larrea has for what he does.

“I love his creativity… I love the way he brings people together,” she said. “I love the way he encourages people. I love the way he loves God… the way he loves Jesus because I can see it in what he does.”

Larrea said as he reflects on the church’s anniversary, he is thankful to the community and to God.

“We are just thankful to God,” Larrea said. “He has been so good to us and every action we made and every activity or pastoral care that we made is just because we want to keep people on the right side.”

St. Peter Claver Catholic Church welcomes all, including English- and Spanish-speaking.

The church is celebrating Saturday with a mass set for 6 p.m. then a reception will be held in the parish. Larrea said Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler is expected to preside at the mass and Bishop Alvaro Corda is coming from Puerto Rico to join in the celebration as well.