St. Clare 1959In the summer of 1959, Father Eustace Struckhoff, O.F.M., pastor of St. Joseph's of South San Antonio, built a chapel to serve the needs of the people in the southwestern part of his huge parish. The erection of the chapel of St. Clare allowed room for 200 people. Father Juniper Freitag, O.F.M., a Brazilian missionary, was appointed to task of building a parish community. The first collection at two Masses was not even ten dollars. The struggle to build the church here would be a rough one. Since the founding of the parish, the Franciscans from the Sacred Heart province of St. Louis have served the parish.

Catechetical work in the area had begun before the chapel of St. Clare was erected. Around 1957, through the efforts of Archbishop Robert E. Lucey, the Guadalupana Sisters of Saltillo, Mexico, had come to work in the St. Clare area. An old home was refurbished and set up as a convent. Mass was offered during the week in their small chapel. The Sisters had engaged in catechetical work and the social work inspired by their home visitation.

 St. Clare 1968

St. Clare's came of age in 1968. In October of that year the present church and rectory were dedicated and Father Cletus Casey, O.F.M., took up his residence next to the church, instead of commuting from St. Joseph's. The 600-seat church was made possible through donations from the Catholic Church Extension Society and the Franciscan Missionary Union. On November 17, 1968 St. Clare's was officially erected as an independent Parish.

 Also in 1968, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul established the De Paul Family Center within the     Parish. Since there was no public transportation and the nearest clinic was three miles away, the new center     served the real needs of the community. For the first five years the Sisters lived at their convent in Losoya but in     1973 they established a convent in the parish. The parish plant included the church, rectory, convent and CCD      Center to serve the 800 families of the area at that time.

St. Clare 2011