GOD HAS BEEN GOD FOR US In 1929, just at the onset of the Great Depression, San Antonio diocesan priest, Peter Baque, pastor of St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church on North Broadway, found himself unable to meet the needs of a segment of his parish then known as "Cementville." This small village was a company town under the auspices of the Alamo Portland Cement Company whose residents all worked in the cement quarry on the northern edge of Baque's parish. Baque, believing that the people of Cementville would be receptive to the ministry of women religious, decided that this was the time to begin a community of women who would be especially ready to "reach out with a loaf of bread in one hand and the love of Christ in the other." With the help of Eugenie Olivier Edwards, the widowed mother of nine living children who professed her vows as Mother Theresa, Baque began the Missionary Servants of St. Anthony. God Has Been God for Us chronicles the eighty-year history of this religious community. From the depression years until the present day, the Sisters have supported Father Baque's dream to foster devotion to St. Anthony de Padua through the Shrine to St. Anthony which is now an adoration chapel on their property in front of St. Anthony de Padua Parish. Other ministries of the Missionary Servants established during these 80 years include a home for Catholic working girls in downtown San Antonio; a day nursery now celebrating 75 years of service; Padua Place, a home for infirm or aging priests in its 50th year of operation; and a retreat center located at the motherhouse property at 100 Peter Baque Road. Relying solely on the providential care of God, the Missionary Servants of St. Anthony evidence the character of missionaries instilled in them by Father Baque and the humility and simplicity of servitude modeled for them by Mother Theresa. Their story will inspire the reader to say with them "God has been God for me." Sister Diane Langford, CDP, a Sister of Divine Providence for 30 years, writes, gives retreats, and teaches adult Catholics who want to grow in the faith. This is her third book. She has written a manual to be used in teaching adults who are preparing to be Catholics and The Tattered Heart, a historical fiction biography of Mother St. Andrew Feltin, Texas foundress of the Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio, Texas.

Bishop John Shaw was importing priests from Europe when he discerned the need for a seminary for the Diocese of San Antonio, TX. A locally-formed clergy was key to the support of the Catholic faith in the young diocese. Relying on five diocesan priests as faculty, Shaw dedicated St. John's Seminary in 1915. A frontier, make-do attitude energized the first faculty as they taught and guided the seminary's first class who lived and studied in what had been the bishop's residence. In its first century, St. John's ≈ Assumption Seminary has trained nearly 800 priests for service in arch/dioceses across the US and foreign lands. With the guidance of arch/diocesan priests in the first 25 years, the Congregation of the Missions (Vincentians) in the second 25 years, and again directed by archdiocesan priests and a diverse faculty in the last 50 years, St. John's ≈ Assumption has both struggled and thrived. Collaborating with Oblate School of Theology, St. John's ≈ Assumption nationally-known for its pioneering bilingual-bicultural programs, stands on solid ground as it begins its second century. Shepherds in the Image of Christ chronicles 100 years of molding men and boys into priests for the Roman Catholic Church of Texas and beyond.

The towns that the Spaniards of colonial Mexico planted on their northern frontier were organized around the ideal of a close interaction between church, missionary outreach, and military. San Antonio was the most successful realization of this dream in Texas. The pattern of this tripartite approach has continued to shape the rich culture of the city down to the present. With this selection of photos, San Antonio's Churches takes a snapshot visit back through religious development throughout the three centuries of San Antonio's history.