San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Reader seeks to identify priest in photo
Here is a priest’s portrait taken by Ernst Raba of San Antonio. I bought this photo for $1 (recently) in an antique mall outside of Beaumont. This may very likely be a San Antonio-area priest. I am wondering if anyone can identify him.
Ernst Raba (covered here Nov. 30, 2017) was one of the pioneer photographers of this city, taking and preserving pictures of its people and places for half a century. Born in 1874 in Friedland, Austria (now Frydlant, Czech Republic), he came to San Antonio, where he had relatives, in 1891 and soon became “the city’s second photographer when he bought out the first one, owner of the (Asa) Brack Studio,” according to his obituary in the San Antonio Light, May 17, 1951.
Raba was highly involved in his adopted community from his earliest days here. He was an official of the first Battle of Flowers Parade in 1891, the “official photographer for the Rough Riders (Spanish-American War cavalry unit, covered here Jan. 15, 2011) during their stay in San Antonio,” a singer in the Liederkranz choral ensemble (June 14, 2015), an honorary member of the San Antonio Conservation Society and a member of artists’ groups, including the San Antonio Arts Colony associated with painter José Arpa (Aug. 20, 2016) and the Brass Muggers social club (covered here Dec. 29, 2018).
He was also a Catholic, married in St. Joseph’s (mentioned here May 9, 2013), a member of the St. Joseph’s Society of Catholic laymen and buried in the St. Joseph’s Society Cemetery. Raba’s accomplishments were noted in the Southern Messenger, a regional Catholic publication of the early 20th century, where he advertised First Communion photo packages in the March 31, 1921, issue. His son, Ernest A. Raba, graduated from St. Mary’s University and its law school and went on to
become the latter’s dean.
Your photo bears the Raba studio stamp but without an address, which would have narrowed it down further since the photographer had several successive locations. Judging from the haircut and glasses on the young man pictured, it appears to have been taken during the early 20th century.
Consulting with various archivists, we’ve eliminated some possibilities.
The Society of Mary or Marianist Brothers and Priests has a long history in San Antonio, beginning in 1852 with the founding of the boys’ school that grew into St. Mary’s University.
So I checked with the National Archives of the Marianist Province of the United States at 3141 Culebra Road. Lisa Matye Finnie, reference and research archivist, noted that “Marianist priests in San Antonio wore collars similar to the one worn by this man,” with the caution that Marianists “dressed clerically similar to other priests in the area in which they served, and I have located photos of non-Marianist priests with similar apparel during this time.”
Finnie and colleagues searched archival and online material, including annual personnel directories, consulted
with Marianists most familiar with the Society of Mary in San Antonio and compiled a list of 25 San Antonio priests of the late 19th- and early 20th centuries. After searching records to find their photos, Finnie said, “no one recognized him nor the lapel pin,” but the tiny whitelooking button does look like one worn by Father Carmelo Antonio Tranchese in an undated photo.
Tranchese, a Jesuit priest, was pastor of the West Side’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church — a longtime Jesuit parish — from 1932 until 1953. While in San Antonio, he was an effective advocate for sanitary conditions, workers’ rights and public housing.
So I tried the Jesuit Archives and Research Center in St. Louis, where reference archivist Ann Knake checked this image against those of Jesuits who served at Our Lady of Guadalupe, San Antonio, during the earliest years Jesuits ministered at that parish, with no positive matches. However, there are no photos of some of them, she said, so “it is possible this priest was a Jesuit, but I am out of efficient ways to try to find a match.”
The little white button didn’t help. “The lapel pin was not familiar to me,” said Knake. “I agree with the Marianists that it could be similar to the one often worn by Father Tranchese, but I cannot find any clear images of Father Tranchese’s pin to know its significance to him. It is not something I have seen associated with other Jesuits.”
Since you found the photo in Beaumont — not a separate diocese until 1966 — I tried the Archdiocese of GalvestonHouston, where Lisa May, director of archives and research, said they don’t have a photo directory for priests of this period and that she does not recognize the priest pictured.
May suggested checking the Southern Messenger for articles on ordinations of new priests. I searched the collection of issues from 1890 to 1935 at the Portal to Texas History, an online resource of the libraries of the University of North Texas, but didn’t find an article with photos like this one.
It’s also not part of the Raba Collection at the San Antonio Conservation Society Library, said librarian Beth Standifird, who also checked the Archdiocese of San Antonio Diamond Jubilee book, which covers the years 1874-1949, but didn’t see anyone who looked similar.
The priest in your photo could be a diocesan priest rather than one belonging to a religious order. To determine whether this photo is a match to any records kept by the Archdiocese of San Antonio Archives, you may submit a request form online at https:// archsa.org/archives, which states that “emails and phone calls will not be accepted.”
In case it wasn’t a Catholic priest, I reached out to David White, archivist of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. He also did not recognize the photo as that of any Episcopal priest in this area, although as with other archives, his does not include photos of every priest who ever served here.
Anyone who has information about the unknown priest may contact this column. All responses will be forwarded and may be quoted in a future column.