Claude Marie Dubuis of Lyons, France, was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Galveston, Texas in 1862. This diocese included the entire State of Texas. He celebrated his first Mass as bishop in Brownsville during the Civil War. The Union Blockade had prevented him from going to Galveston. Since he brought greetings and news from their motherhouse in Lyons, the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament in Brownsville had special reason to welcome him.

The bishop was in San Antonio in September 1864 when news reached him that yellow fever had broken out in Galveston and Houston. Diphtheria and typhoid were also rampant.

In 1866 Bishop Dubuis set out for his native France to seek help for the people of Texas. In Lyons he asked the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament to send some Sisters to Texas to assist in taking care of the needs of the people there. The Sisters could not fulfill his request since the Order was cloistered and was committed to the ministry of education.

The Bishop then resolved to found a new institute to do hospital work in Texas. He found three young hospital sisters who volunteered to return to Texas with him. The Bishop's plea describes the mission of the Sisters: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, suffering in the persons of a multitude of the sick and infirm of every kind, seeks relief at your hands." Bishop Duibuis applied for the admission of the three young women into the Monastery of the Incarnate Word. They were received into the monastery for the purpose of receiving formation in the spirituality and rule of the Order founded by Jeanne de Matel, with the understanding that a new order was being formed. For a long time, the Lyons community continued to direct and support the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, as the new community came to be known.

On September 25, 1866, after only a few days of preparation at the Incarnate Word monastery, the founding Sisters-Mother M. Blandine Mathelin, Sister M. Joseph Roussin and Sister M. Ange Escude-began their journey to Texas. A few months after their arrival in Galveston the three Sisters opened a 30-bed charity hospital, the first Catholic hospital in Texas. Following a devastating yellow fever epidemic, the Sisters opened an orphanage in Galveston. In 1869 three Sisters set out for San Antonio, Texas, to open a hospital there.

After retirement, Bishop Dubuis spent some years at Incarnate Word Convent in Lyons, later moving to a home for retired priests near Lyons. He died there on May 21, 1895 at age 78.

Today the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, of Houston and San Antonio, minister in throughout Missouri, Texas, Chicago, Louisiana, Utah, California, Oklahoma, Guatemala, El Salvador, Africa, Ireland, Peru, Central America, and Mexico. They work in a variety of ministries such as education, health care, prison work, care of the elderly, retreats, counseling, Third World missions, children in crisis, spiritual direction, and parish ministry.