About St. Michael · Burlington, Texas
St. Michael Catholic Church is a Roman-Latin rite mission parish in the small community of Burlington, Milam County, Texas, in the Diocese of Austin. It is the spiritual home of a faith community with deep roots in the area's earliest Irish Catholic settlers, who began arriving in the 1870s. The parish is identified as a mission (served from neighboring St. Ann, Rosebud) and continues to celebrate weekly Mass in a church built by eight founding families in 1885 and dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.
- Established
- 1885
- Patron
- St. Michael the Archangel
- Diocese
- Diocese of Austin
Why belong here
St. Michael offers a quiet, small-town Catholic home in Burlington with weekly Sunday Mass and weekday Mass on Thursdays, plus the opportunity to be part of a community whose roots go back to the area's first Irish Catholic settlers in the 1870s. Parishioners worship in a church built by eight founding families in 1885 and tend a historic cemetery that links the parish to generations of Burlington's founders. It is a place to belong to a mission community with a long memory, where one's family may literally rest in consecrated ground adjacent to the church.
Mass times at St. Michael
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Sunday: 7:30 AM – 7:50 AM
Parish Identity & Patron
St. Michael Catholic Church in Burlington, Texas, is a Roman-Latin rite mission parish in the Diocese of Austin, dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel. The parish's feast day is September 29, the universal feast of St. Michael. Its official website is Stmichaels.cc, and the parish shares its Catholic identity and pastoral care with nearby St. Ann Catholic Church in Rosebud.
- Patron: St. Michael the Archangel
- Feast Day: September 29
- Rite: Roman-Latin
- Diocese: Austin
- Status: Mission
History of St. Michael Parish
Irish Catholic settlers first arrived in the Burlington area in 1875, in a community originally called Irish Settlement. Visiting priests began ministering to these scattered Catholic families in 1879. In 1885, eight families united to build a church and dedicated it to St. Michael — the founding of the parish. The early congregation was predominantly Irish and was gradually joined by German-American Catholics and other families of Czech and Hispanic heritage who settled the surrounding Milam County farmland.
- 1875 – First Irish Catholic settlers arrive in the area (then 'Irish Settlement')
- 1876 – Brothers John and Michael Jones purchase land from Francis Zelner
- 1878 – Michael Jones dies and is buried on the property (first burial in what becomes the parish cemetery)
- 1879 – Visiting priests begin ministering to local Catholic families
- 1885 – Eight families build a church and dedicate it to St. Michael
- 1891 – Parochial school opens, taught by nuns of various religious orders
- 1956 – Parochial school closes
St. Michael's Cemetery
St. Michael's Cemetery, located about 0.7 miles east of the church, is the physical link between today's parish and its 19th-century founders. The cemetery was begun in 1878 with the burial of Michael Jones. In 1897, the Jones family deeded the property to the Catholic Diocese of Galveston for use as the parish cemetery. Many of Burlington's founders and pioneers rest there, along with veterans of American military conflicts dating from the Civil War. A 2004 Texas Historical Marker at the site, placed by the Milam County Historical Commission, notes the matching monuments on the Jones Brothers' graves and the crucifix placed at the cemetery's center.
- Burials dating from 1878
- Deeded to the Catholic Diocese of Galveston in 1897
- Includes graves of Burlington founders and Civil War-era veterans
- Reflects German, Czech, Irish, Hispanic and other cultural heritages
- Texas Historical Marker erected in 2004
Visit, Contact & Location
St. Michael Catholic Church sits at 85 Church Avenue in Burlington, Texas, in northern Milam County along FM 1963 amid sharp bends in the road. The parish mailing address is PO Box 85, Burlington, TX 76519-0085, and the office can be reached by phone at (254) 869-2169. The parish website is Stmichaels.cc.
- Address: 85 Church Avenue, Burlington, TX 76519
- Mailing: PO Box 85, Burlington, TX 76519-0085
- Phone: (254) 869-2169
- Website: Stmichaels.cc
- Located along FM 1963 in Burlington, Milam County, Texas
Diocese & Parish Family
St. Michael is part of the Diocese of Austin, which was established in 1974 from the former Diocese of Galveston–Houston. As a mission, St. Michael shares pastoral care and sacramental life with nearby St. Ann Catholic Church in Rosebud, and the parish is listed in the Diocese of Austin's Parish Finder as St. Michael Mission, Burlington.
- Diocese of Austin
- Mission status, partnered with St. Ann Catholic Church, Rosebud
- Listed in the Diocese of Austin Parish Finder