St. Mary's Cathedral is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

cathedral church A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

located in

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County, though most of the southern half of the city extends into Randall County, Texas, Randall County ...

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. It has been the seat of the Diocese of Amarillo since 2011.

History

The property that is now St. Mary's Cathedral was originally St. Mary's Academy founded by the

Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word is the name of two Roman Catholic religious institutes based in the U.S. state of Texas. They use the abbreviation C.C.V.I. (). History Houston order The Congregation of the Sisters ...

from

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

. Sacred Heart Cathedral bought the property in 1944. Three years later a chapel from an Air Force base was moved to the school property and became a chapel of convenience for the cathedral parish. St. Mary's Parish was started at the academy property in 1959. A new church was built for the parish in 1981 and it was destroyed in a fire on February 26, 2007. The first to raise the possibility of St. Mary's becoming a cathedral was Bishop John Yanta. Because he was nearing retirement no action was taken. His successor, Bishop Patrick Zurek, made a request of the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

to change the cathedral from St. Laurence Cathedral. The present church was dedicated on September 11, 2010, and it was proclaimed as the third cathedral of the Amarillo Diocese on March 25, 2011.

Architecture

When Sacred Heart Cathedral downtown was being torn down Msgr. Francis Smyer, who was pastor of St. Mary's from 1970 to 2001, collected articles from the old church. Most of these articles have been incorporated into the new St. Mary's Cathedral. The stained glass windows by Conrad Schmidt Studios of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

are from the old cathedral, as is the altar stone, which is actually the three altar stones from Sacred Heart's three altars. Documentation shows that the relics are from

St. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, the foremost Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the Western tradition. A Doctor of the Church, he wa ...

, St. John Vianney and St. Pius X. Two carved wood angels in the Adoration Chapel are from Sacred Heart's side altars, and the altar in the daily Mass chapel is one of the side altars. The

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

behind the

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

contains 25 relics of beatified and canonized saints. Original works of art include the tapestries from

Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...

and a baptismal pool made of copper by an artist from South Texas. The

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

has 1,200 pipes and trumpets valued at $900,000. On the exterior of the cathedral is a

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

in the brick of Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. It was created by a

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

artist.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Cathedral (Amarillo, Texas) Christian organizations established in 1959 Roman Catholic churches completed in 2010 Buildings and structures in Amarillo, Texas Modernist architecture in Texas Mary Amarillo Tourist attractions in Amarillo, Texas 21st-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links