Panna Maria, Texas

Panna Maria
Unincorporated community
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Karnes
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	78144
GNIS feature ID	1364749

Hand-painted welcome sign welcoming visitors to town

Panna Maria (Polish for Virgin Mary) is a small unincorporated community in Karnes County, Texas, United States. It is the oldest Upper Silesian settlement in the United States, which most of whom speak a dialect of the Silesian language known as Texas Silesian.

History

A Franciscan missionary, Father Leopold Moczygemba, started recruiting Upper Silesians in 1852, when Silesia was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. The immigrants began arriving at Indianola in early December 1854. With carts to haul them inland being scarce, the immigrants walked to their land grants near San Antonio and the town was settled on Christmas Eve, 1854.

The town's identity as an insular Polish enclave was sealed by four factors:

1. Bypassed by the railroads
2. Union in sympathy (Settlers were also unionist and were occasionally massacred in Texas during this period)
3. Polish Resurrectionist priests arrived from Europe
4. A sisterhood of Polish teaching nuns was established

The community is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Panna Maria Historic District.

External links

• Official website of Panna Maria, Texas
• "Panna Maria" Handbook of Texas Online.
• Stanley S. (1976). In Quest of a Cultural Identity: An Inquiry for the Polish Community. New York, New York: IUME, Teachers College, Columbia University. ISBN ERIC ED167674.
• Overview in info-poland.buffalo.edu - part 1,Part 2
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Panna Maria