The Cathedral of San Agustin ( es, Catedral de San Agustín) is the seat of the Catholic Diocese of

Laredo, Texas Laredo ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Laredo has the distinction of flying seven flags (the flag of t ...

. It is located at 201 San Agustin Avenue in the heart of the downtown area in the San Agustin Historical District. The present church building dates from 1872. The bishop is

James Anthony Tamayo James Anthony Tamayo (born October 23, 1949) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Laredo, Diocese of Laredo in Texas since 2000. He previously served as an auxiliar ...

. As of 2000, the cathedral was the mother church for 289,415 Catholics in the diocese.

History

The Villa de San Agustin de Laredo was established in 1755. Its founding residents wanted a Catholic church for a place of worship. The Bishop of Guadalajara, Francisco de San Buena Ventura, ordered the construction of a small mission chapel in 1760 which was the only place of worship until 1778. In 1778, the first stone structure was erected to accommodate more than two hundred families. In 1789, San Agustin was established as a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

by the Bishop of Guadalajara. In 1848 Bishop John M. Odin of the Diocese of Galveston assigned several French priests to this part of his territory. Among them was Allophone Martin Souchon who in 1866 began the construction of the present church. San Agustin Church is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

structure with a five-story- 141 ft (43m) bell /

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

. All the windows have the traditional Gothic shape with

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

located between structural bays of its masonry walls. A French priest, Pierre Yves Keralum, was the designer and architect for this historical monument. The new church was opened on December 12, 1872. From 1989 to 1994 the San Agustin Church Historical Preservation and Restoration Society carried out a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

675,000 restoration project. A new Blessed Sacrament Chapel was installed. The whole church was repaired and restored and a brick plaza was created along the front of the church. In 2000 the Diocese of Laredo was established and the San Agustin Church was made its cathedral by order of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. Today, the San Agustin Cathedral is one of the oldest in the Southwest still standing. It is also the second tallest building in Laredo. The San Agustin de Laredo Historic District is in the National Register of Historical Places.National Register of Historical Places
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References

External links

Official Cathedral Site

Diocese of Laredo Official Site
{{NRHP Agustin, Cathedral of Buildings and structures in Laredo, Texas Clock towers in Texas Roman Catholic churches completed in 1872 Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Historic district contributing properties in Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Webb County, Texas 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

See also

References

External links