After the Texas Revolution, the people of Spanish descent from Nacogdoches County settled in the outlying rural areas. Most of them were the descendants of the pioneer who had established the early Catholic missions of East Texas. One of these communities was called El Moral and is located in the southwest part of the county along what was known as the Spanish Bluff Road.

According to church records, the first Catholic Church at Moral was built in 1876 and dedicated on the eighth day of April, 1877 by Reverend James L. Chaland as the Church of the Immaculate Conception. This little church, used only ten years, was built on a site located one and a half miles southeast of the present church. It was from this first church that the devotion of the Spanish people was rewarded when Sister Josephine came to live among them.

On October 28, 1885, Reverend Nicholas Gallagher, Bishop of Galveston, bought a five acre tract of land, and in 1887 a new chapel at Moral was built. This church located where the current church stands was dedicated to the Our Lady of the Pilar. In 1889, Sister Josephine moved to a small bare room at the rear of the new church that became her convent. In 1893, she became gravely ill and went to the St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston where she died on April 27.

Years passed and church records indicate that in the winter of 1911, the men of the parish started to clear the land North of the church for the present day cemetery because the old
Lazarine Cemetery was near capacity. On March 11, 1912, Margarita Luna Pena, the 47 year old wife of Juan Pedro Pena, was the first to be buried in the Moral Cemetery. A new section was later added with a solemn blessing and consecration on Pentecost Sunday, May 29, 1966 by Reverend E.A. Vecchio, M.S., acting as delegate of the Bishop. The new section was dedicated to the Mother of Christ under the title of Our Lady of LaSallette.

The church records indicate that a second church was built and then blessed by the Most Reverend C.E. Byrne, Bishop of Galveston on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942 as the Church of the Immaculate Conception. This little white church served the parish for fifty-nine years, and is the only church that most of the community can remember. On April 5, 2001 under the direction of Monsignor James E. Young, Father Jerzy Dobosz and Father M. Jones Jayaraj, the dream of the parishioners came true when the present day church was built. The new beautiful brick church was dedicated once again during the Easter Vigil on April 5, 2001 by Most Reverend Alvaro Corrado, Bishop of Tyler; Monsignor James E. Young and many more priest and deacons.