The Missions of San Antonio

 We started our day's adventures by visiting one of the oldest cathedrals in the US: The Cathedral of San Fernando. It's also known as the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria y Guadalupe and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also boasts the tomb of the big three at the Alamo: Crockett, Bowie and Travis, as well as being the official center of San Antonio.

Cathedral

Tomb

Official Center of San Antonio

 Later, we visited several of the five Catholic missions in San Antonio. They were established in the 18th Century as an outreach of the Spanish Government and the Catholic Church. The Franciscan Fathers founded each mission to evangelize the regional natives, teach them skills to help them adapt to Spanish ways, and minister to their needs. Additionally, the effort was to make them active citizens of the Spanish province of Tejas. Military forces were often located in the vicinity of each mission to offer protection. Four of the missions (San Jose, San Juan, Concepcion, and Espada) were originally founded in East Texas. As the East Texas missions succumbed to drought, malaria, and French incursions, however, they were relocated to San Antonio. The Alamo is the only one of the five to have originally been in San Antonio. As they exist today, the missions are located in a southern line from the center of downtown San Antonio to the southern edge of the city. 

Four of the five original missions still function as active Catholic parish churches. They serve both a stable population of parish members as well as many visitors who attend worship services. These are Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada. Today the National Park Service operates the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in collaboration with the Archdiocese. The Park Service is responsible for all the secular elements of the four compounds, including buildings, landscape and visitor centers. The Archdiocese continues to care for the church buildings. San Antonio de Valero, known as the Alamo, is owned by the State of Texas and operated by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. It does not function as an active parish church. We visited Conception and San Jose, and had a wonderful lunch at a neighborhood restaurant, Nicha's, on Roosevelt Avenue.

We capped off our day by being treated to dinner with Michael and Sandy Blanton, good friends not seen in many, many years. We had a lovely meal at a restaurant on the River Walk and did lots of catching up. Tomorrow is leaving day and we'll head south to give Jenny back to her mother, then it's on to spend the night with Cousin Liz in Lake Charles, Louisiana. We’ve had fun in San Antonio, although the place we stayed wasn’t very comfortable, and we hope to revisit the city in the future.