The Alamo San Antonio

On April 16, we drove to San Antonio Texas to see the Alamo. We also toured San Fernando Cathedral, which is adjacent to the Alamo. There lie the remains of Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie, and Colonel Travis. These were the leaders of the battle of the Alamo. Here is some of the history, and pictures of our day: The Alamo

Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. These men and women continued to farm the fields, once the mission's but now their own, and participated in the growing community of San Antonio.

In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers referred to the old mission as the Alamo (the Spanish word for "cottonwood") in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. The post's commander established the first recorded hospital in Texas in the Long Barrack. The Alamo was home to both Revolutionaries and Royalists during Mexico's ten-year struggle for independence. The military — Spanish, Rebel, and then Mexican — continued to occupy the Alamo until the Texas Revolution.

San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of house-to-house fighting, they forced General Martín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo — already fortified prior to the battle by Cós' men — and strengthened its defenses.

On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over — all except one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.

The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory.

While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty. San Fernando Cathedral San Fernando began March 9, 1731 when fifteen families of fifty-five settlers arrived from the Canary Islands at the Presidio of San Antonio and were welcomed by Captain Juan Antonio de Almazan in the name of King Phillip V of Spain. Their arrival was a result of a recommendation of the Council of the Indies that a permanent civil settlement in the remote territory of Texas be established to prevent possible incursion of the French. Thus began "La Villa de San Fernando."

The cornerstone of the church building in the new village was laid in 1738, making it the first parish church in Texas. The patronesses of the church were those of the settlers and soldiers in the area: Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria (Our Lady of Candlemas), a patroness of the Canary Islands, and Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), the patroness of what would later become Mexico. The church was completed in 1749 and the original walls still stand today forming what is now the sanctuary (the area around and behind the altar) of the present church. These walls are the oldest standing structure in the State of Texas. The dome of the original church was the geographic center of the city and the point from which all mileage was calculated to San Antonio. In 1793, the Alamo, Mission San Antonio de Valero, was secularized and closed as a church. Its' people became members of San Fernando. The total population at the time was just over 1,000. The next year the other four missions in the area, San Jose, Concepcion, Espada, and Capistrano were also secularized and their lands divided among the Indians. In 1824 Missions Concepcion, San Jose, and Espada were made a part of the San Fernando parish. Alamo

Zebulon Pike visited San Fernando in 1808 as he was leading the exploration of the lands of the Louisiana Purchase. During the 1810 - 1820 War for Mexican Independence several battles occured in San Antonio and many of the fallen soldiers were buried at the church. In 1822, the pastor of the parish, Father Refugio de la Garza, was sent as a delegate to the first Congress of Mexico. James Bowie married Ursula de Veramendi at San Fernando in 1831. The Battle of the Alamo in 1836 began after Mexican General Santa Ana raised the flag of "no quarter" from the tower of the church. In the back of the cathedral today there is a sarcophagus or marble coffin on which is inscribed a notice that the remains of the defenders of the Alamo are buried there. Colonel Juan Seguin, who took control of San Antonio after Texas won independence, was purported to have buried the remains under the sanctuary railing of the old church. In 1936, during renovation work, a box of charred bones, nails, and shreds of uniforms was unearthed at that spot. Historians have argued since then about the validity of the claim, but the marble coffin with the remains has been visited by thousands of people since that time. Late 1800's The cornerstone of the new addition to San Fernando was laid in 1868. The eastern wall, including the original tower, the front of the church, the choir loft and baptistry were torn down to make room for the French Gothic building which is now the main body of the church. This work was completed in 1873 in preparation for the naming of San Antonio as a diocese by Pope Pius IX in 1874 with San Fernando as its' cathedral. Bishops and Archbishops The first bishop, Anthony Dominic Pellicer, is buried under the head of the main aisle of the church. In 1926 the Church of San Antonio was named an archdiocese with Arthur Jerome Drossaerts as its first archbishop. San Fernando was blessed as a metropolitan cathedral, or the official church of an archbishop. Former archbishop, José H. Gomez, STD, was installed in 2005. Pope visits San Fernando Various church and civic dignitaries have visited the cathedral over its long history. Pope John Paul II prayed and spoke to students in religious formation at San Fernando on September 13, 1987. President Lyndon Johnson visited in 1966. Several Cardinals have presided at liturgy in the church, beginning in 1887 when James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore preached at a solemn High Mass. Since then, presidents, politicians, ambassadors, governors and other leaders have been a part of the history of San Fernando.

San Fernando's living history is its people. Over 5,000 participate at weekend Masses each week of the year. Over 900 baptisms, 100 weddings, 110 funerals, and countless other services are performed each year. Symphonies, concerts, and television specials are but a few of the special events held in the cathedral regularly. Hundreds of people enter the church daily to pray, visit, light a candle, or follow various devotional traditions. Tour Buses arrive constantly. Each person is a part of the story of this magnificent place and a tribute to its enduring presence as the spiritual center of San Antonio.