Born: Manciet (Gers), December 16, 1822.
Priestly ordination: December 22, 1849.
Took the habit: Brownsville, February 17, 1855 (N. 385).
Died: Point Isabel, Texas, October 8, 1838.

Hippolyte de Lustrac was born in Manciet, diocese of Auch, France, on December 16, 1822. He was the brother of baron de Lustrac, the lord of Lias. In the Personnel register of 1862, we find written after his name that he was: “a good and virtuous priest who accompanied Bishop Odin to Texas at the same time as our Fathers went there, at the end of 1853. His contacts with our Fathers inspired him with a desire for religious life. After a trial period in Texas, he was admitted to vows…” In fact, he began his novitiate in Brownsville on February 16, 1854 and he took his vows there on February 16, 1855. He had been admitted to vows in the general council meeting of the preceding January 11. The minutes of the council meeting added the words: “During the ten months which have passed since his admission to novitiate, Father de Lustrac has always shown himself to be motivated by the best disposition, a more than ordinary piety, and a perfect exactitude in the observance of his religious duties. It should also be added that his is a joyful disposition, and he is filled with zeal for the salvation of souls. His talents, though not extraordinary, are incontrovertible.”

At the beginning of 1856 he was given the responsibility for “elementary teaching” in the college in Galveston. In July 1858 he became assistant to Father Jean Gaye and treasurer in Matamoros. In the autumn of 1858 he was called to Brownsville to care for the superior, Father Augustin Gaudet, who was ill with yellow fever. On October 2, he set out for Point Isabel, having been called to assist a dying person. He was himself struck down by the disease and he died on October 8, 1858 in the presence of Father Parisot who had been called to his bedside. His first burial place was Point Isabel. Then, in 1869, his body was moved to the Oblate cemetery in Brownsville. On the occasion of his death, Bishop de Mazenod wrote to Father Gaudet, on November 26, 1858: “O cruel mission of Texas, what terrible wounds you inflict on my soul! This is the fifth victim you have swallowed up and what is to become of the sixth victim (Father Gaudet) whom you have struck with such fierce blows? My God forgive me this cry of anguish …”

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.