Community celebrates priest's 88th birthday

The Rev. Armand Mathew turns 88 today, and he’ll be celebrating in style.

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College is throwing a big bash to mark the day and to commemorate the work he has done for the institution.

He has worked there since 2001, first as director of the Center for Civic Engagement and executive director of Kids Voting USA–Brownsville, and now as a staff member for both programs.

To him, the day is just another day on the calendar. Charismatic and sprightly, the man known by all as Father Armand promises that age will not slow him down.

"I am mobile," he says. "I keep going. My life is very rich."

His schedule shows his vitality. He begins nearly every weekday at 5:30 a.m. with a cup of coffee, breakfast and a read of the daily newspaper.

He leaves in time to host an 8:30 Mass at the Mother of Perpetual Help nursing home and then heads to one of his two offices, either on the UTB-TSC campus or at the historic Queto building downtown.

At UTB-TSC, he assists with service projects and activities of the civic center; meets with professors, students and administration; or plans and attends events for Kids Voting, the local affiliate of a nationwide program that prepares young people to become educated, engaged voters.

As a priest, his days are also filled with pastoral duties – visiting hospitals and sick homes or presiding at baptisms, weddings, funerals and the occasional quinceanera.

What keeps him young, he believes, are his busy days.

"Every day I wake up and ask myself, ‘Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing here?’" he says. "If I answer all those questions I get out of bed. Fortunately, I have been able to answer all those questions every day."

Having lived through the Great Depression, he has worked hard all of his life. Originally from Indiana, Mathew was born in the rural town of Wolcott.

He and his family lived on a ranch, and though his father was not "Rockefeller wealthy," he said they were well off (their farm had electricity before anyone else in their area).

But after the stock market crash in 1929, his father lost everything and moved the family to Chicago, where Mathew and his seven older siblings took turns working odd jobs.

Chicago was the place where Mathew learned of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

A recruiter from the religious order visited the Jesuit school he attended. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate arrived in Brownsville in 1849 from France, and their missionaries trekked on horseback throughout the Rio Grande Valley along the Oblate Trail, now known as Military Highway, establishing churches and missions along the way.

Mathew completed seminary in San Antonio and another year of religious studies at La Olmita, a historic site and at that time a mission maintained by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was ordained in 1949 at age 26 and uses the initials OMI with his name.

He has served as a priest for more than 61 years and in that time helped form the Center of Civic Engagement, a community service of UTB-TSC. Donations received during his birthday celebration will go to Kids Voting.

He stepped down from his executive positions in 2004 due to a heart condition, but he says he is still going strong.

"It has been an enchanted life," he said. "I am very happy and very grateful to God for it."