About St. Jude · Mercedes, Texas
St. Jude Chapel is a small Catholic mission chapel in the Diocese of Brownsville, located at Mile 13 1/2 North and Mile 4 West in the rural farmland area between Mercedes and Weslaco in Hidalgo County, Texas. It is a mission chapel of San Martín de Porres Parish in Weslaco, serving Spanish-speaking farmworkers and their families in the surrounding colonias. Sunday Mass is celebrated in Spanish at 11:00 AM. Because it is a mission rather than an independent parish, St. Jude Chapel is administered through the diocese's parish-finder network and shares pastoral care with its parent parish.
- Patron
- St. Jude Thaddaeus (Apostle)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Brownsville
Why belong here
St. Jude Chapel offers a small, close-knit Catholic community for the farmworker families of the Mile 13 1/2 North / Mile 4 West area, with Sunday Mass celebrated in Spanish — the language of the surrounding colonia. As a mission of San Martín de Porres Parish in Weslaco, it brings the sacraments and pastoral care of the Diocese of Brownsville directly into a rural part of Hidalgo County where larger parish churches are far away. It is a place where longtime local families gather weekly for prayer, the Eucharist, and the rhythms of the Catholic liturgical year celebrated in their own language and culture.
Mass times at St. Jude
Weekly Mass schedule
St. Jude Chapel — Mission of the Diocese of Brownsville
St. Jude Chapel is a small Catholic mission chapel listed on the Diocese of Brownsville's official parish finder (cdob.org) and on GCatholic as a mission of San Martín de Porres Parish in Weslaco, Texas. It serves the Spanish-speaking Catholic faithful of the Mile 13 1/2 North and Mile 4 West area, a rural farming and colonia community on the Hidalgo County countryside between Mercedes and Weslaco in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Sunday Mass is the chapel's central weekly celebration, and as a mission it shares its pastoral staff and sacramental life with its parent parish.
Parent Parish: San Martín de Porres, Weslaco
Because St. Jude Chapel is a mission rather than a standalone parish, its sacramental and pastoral life is connected to San Martín de Porres Parish in Weslaco. Inquiries about baptisms, weddings, quinceañeras, first Communions, RCIA, and other sacraments — as well as any weekday Mass or confession schedules — are typically directed through the parent parish office in Weslaco, which is administered by the Diocese of Brownsville.
Building & Campus
Diocesan records and Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) filings show a new-construction St. Jude Chapel project registered by the Diocese of Brownsville on August 12, 2016, with construction completed in October 2017. EGV Architects Inc. served as the design firm of record, and the project's estimated value was approximately $1.0 million. The chapel sits in the Pleasant View area at the Mile 13 1/2 North location in Hidalgo County.
- TDLR project registration: August 12, 2016
- Construction completed: October 2017
- Estimated project value: ~$1.0 million
- Architect: EGV Architects Inc.
- Owner/developer: Diocese of Brownsville
Diocese of Brownsville & the Rio Grande Valley
The Diocese of Brownsville covers the Lower Rio Grande Valley of deep South Texas, including Hidalgo, Cameron, Willacy, and Starr counties. Mission chapels like St. Jude play an important role in the diocese's pastoral strategy, bringing the Eucharist and the sacraments to rural and colonia communities where the nearest parish church may be many miles away. St. Jude Chapel is one of several mission churches in the Weslaco-Mercedes deanery attached to San Martín de Porres Parish.
Visiting & Contacting the Chapel
The chapel is located at the rural intersection of Mile 13 1/2 North and Mile 4 West in the Weslaco/Mercedes area of Hidalgo County, TX. Because it is a mission chapel without a separately staffed office, visitors and parishioners are generally directed to contact the Diocese of Brownsville through cdob.org or to reach out to San Martín de Porres Parish in Weslaco for any pastoral needs, sacramental preparation, or records requests.
- Address: Mile 13 1/2 North and Mile 4 West, Weslaco/Mercedes, TX
- Diocese: Brownsville (website: cdob.org)
- Listed under San Martín de Porres Parish, Weslaco