Visited Mission Espada Here in San Antonio
A couple weeks ago on the Fourth of July the Nashville guys and I visited another church here in San Antonio while on our summer of Spanish immersion stationed here at the Mexican American Catholic College. On the Fourth we visited another one of the historical Spanish missions of San Antonio.
We visited Mission Concepción last month. This time we checked out Mission Espada for Sunday Mass. According to the National Park Service which maintains an omission, “This was the first mission in Texas, founded in 1690 as San Francisco de los Tejas near present-day Weches, Texas. In 1731, the mission was transferred to the San Antonio River area and renamed Mission San Francisco de la Espada. A friary was built in 1745, and the church was completed in 1756.”
Though the mission and it’s grounds or maintained by the NPS in Texas Mass is still regularly held here with regular parishioners and clergy just like what I saw at Mission Concepción. We went to the Spanish Mass in the morning on this day. Both before and after the Mass we did a little bit of exploring of the ruins of the mission especially of another church building that once stood on the grounds in addition to the one where Mass is held today. And just like every week where we visit a church here are some of the pictures I took.
Here are the remains of another church building that one stood on the grounds as well. Apparently this was a larger building that was built later to accommodate the larger population that came to come here that soon outgrew the original church building, which still stands and is the building where Mass as held today. The first picture is showing what would be a person’s view from the entrance facing the sanctuary, and the second would be what the priest saw when he turned back to face the people during Holy Mass. The two steps at the in background in the first image appear to be the steps at the foot of the altar.
The original church building.
Inside before Mass.
Huge thanks to Mission Espada and the National Parks Service!
This past Sunday (yesterday) we made another adventure here in San Antonio and visited the seat of the archdiocese, the very beautiful and historic San Fernando Cathedral. I will make a post about that later this week.