Adventures in the Archives

Photos from
A bright moment in San Antonio history: A saint comes to town
by Robert Aguirre in the San Antonio Express-News

September 8, 2017

We boarded the buses at St. Austin early in the morning of Sunday, September 13, 1987. Our group of St. Austin parishioners joined a caravan of buses on the Interstate all heading to San Antonio. We arrived at our destination at Westover Hills in the late morning with enough time to find a parking space and get settled in the area assigned to us.

It was an hour or so later when Archbishop Patrick Flores asked all the people gathered there to give a “Texas-sized welcome” to Pope John Paul II. This was the first visit of a Pope to Texas and he said Mass in that open air arena before an estimated 350,000 plus people.

Some memories of that day include:

• seeing the state troopers astride horses on the side of the roadway to Mass

• watching the priests in dusty cassocks and tennis shoes distributing Communion to the crowds

• the tired vendor who gave us two free papal flags in exchange for a glass of cold water

• the Red Cross workers running into the crowd taking stretchers to people suffering from the heat

• the family group dressed in Polish dance costumes

• the nun in full habit with a red, flushed face walking determinedly to her bus after the Mass

• the old man in a wheelchair who sat patiently in front of us and the young man who shaded him with an umbrella.

It was a “once in a lifetime day.”

In the fall of 1883, the University of Texas welcomed some 221 young men and women to its Austin campus for its first semester. Records show that there were 13 members of the faculty including instructors.

The property set aside by the State for the University was a tract of land, some 40 acres, known to early settlers as College Hill. It lay between Guadalupe Street on the West, Lampasas (now Speedway) on the East, Orange (now West 24th) on the North, and Elm (now West 21st on the South. In the early days, Native Americans camped on this spot and early settlers saw their campfires at night.

The first building erected, known as the West wing of the Main Building, was not ready for occupancy when the University opened. Class sessions were held for a few months in a building downtown.

In that inaugural fall of 1883, the only Catholic Church in Austin was St. Mary’s, a small church at the corner of Brazos and East Ninth in downtown Austin. There were two priests in residence at St. Mary’s - the pastor and a missionary to cover the outlying districts. The population of Austin was 11,000 and it spread out over a large territory.

It wasn’t until 1908 that St. Austin’s Chapel opened its doors on Guadalupe Street near 21st. The present St. Austin church building was constructed in 1953.

In the fall of 2021, University enrollment numbered 51,991. Catholic students living near campus attend Masses and other liturgies at the University Catholic Center, St. Mary's Cathedral, and St. Austin Church.

~ from the Portal to Texas History

Photographs of a University of Texas Longhorns practice game (top) and UT vs. Kansas City Medics at Clark Field (bottom), circa 1900.