Happy Birthday Diocese of Beaumont! September 29, 1966!! Bishop Vincent Harris was consecrated as the founding Bishop of the Diocese of Beaumont on September 28, 1966, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Houston. The next day Bishop Harris was installed in St. Anthony Cathedral and the Diocese of Beaumont began. In his homily he said, “I have come to you as one who serves. With your help, with your prayers, this area of East Texas may become a place where we shall live and work in a communion of love.”