Bishop John Walter Yanta, the First Catholic Bishop of the 1854 Immigration
Although Bishop Yanta traces his lineage to the early settlers of Panna Maria — his mother’s family came from the region of Upper Silesia in 1854 and his father’s family arrived in 1855, and family lore holds that Bishop Yanta’s paternal grandmother was born under the same oak that had sheltered Father Moczygemba’s Mass of Thanksgiving on Christmas Eve in 1854 — he didn’t rediscover his Polish heritage until the 1970s. In his zeal to learn more, he traveled to Poland, learned Polish, helped found PAPA, the Polish American Priests Association, created the first Texas Chapter of the Polish American Congress, led a groundbreaking trip back to Poland for 54 fellow descendants of the early immigration to Texas from the region of Upper Silesia, and helped coordinate John Paul II’s visit to San Antonio in 1987.
On December 30, 1994, during an outdoor Mass near the famous oak in Panna Maria, he became the first descendant of Panna Maria’s Polish founders to become a bishop. He is now Bishop Emeritus of Amarillo. Today, he is honored as the visionary, organizer, recruiter, and major donor of the Polish Heritage Center at Panna Maria whose mission is to honor the hardworking Polish immigrants, who retained their faith and family values, their traditions and culture, and their identity as Poles and Catholics.