100 Years of Carmel in San Antonio

During the 1920s, the area that was to become la Parroquia de Carmel was in the process of becoming San Antonio's first suburb.  The West End Town Company had extended the trolley line to Woodlawn Lake for the convenience of new residents and those who attended Peacock Military Academy, San Antonio Female College, Westmoreland College, St. Mary's University and Trinity University's original campus.  Fire Station #10 dominated the corner of Zarzamora and Culebra. There were homes in the area and shops along Zarzamora, but between the clusters of homes were fields of grass and sunflowers where people could pasture their horses.  Goats and chickens shared the backyards.  Dairy cows grazed in the open fields to the north and west.  The streets were gravel alleyways and nothing more.  Even Culebra did not have a bridge over Alazan creek at that time.

Following the Great World War Americans finally could buy tires and gasoline.  San Antonian, Harral B. Ayres, and a group of influential supporters saw to it that the first transcontinental highway, called the Old Spanish Trail was built from St. Augustine, Florida to San Diego, California.  The section of the trail through San Antonio along Fredericksburg Road was renamed Foch Highway in honor of French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Allied Commander of the forces that brought an end to WWI.

The quarries of San Antonio were a source of jobs for great numbers of foreign immigrants.  Archbishop Arthur Jerome Drossaerts was especially sympathetic to the requests of the pastor of St. Agnes parish at the northwest corner of San Antonio for a "real live earnest assistant who speaks Spanish". The Archbishop kept in touch with the Carmelites in Oklahoma and repeatedly asked for their aid. A decision was made to send left Frs. Brotons, Soler and Brock to the "Alamo City."

Although there was a need for Spanish speaking assistance throughout the whole Archdiocese, the Archdiocesan Consultors of San Antonio, decided to allow the Carmelites to retain their communal lifestyle by giving them parishes of their own rather than scattering them throughout the city.  They were to maintain the missions around Pearsall and Dilly: Moore, Big Foot, Gold Finch and St. Mary's (on Brown's Ranch) and establish a new parish adjacent to St. Ann's and St. Agnes at the northwest corner of San Antonio.

Frs. Edward Soler, Cyril Corbato and Jose Maria Sanchez and Bro. Anthony moved to San Antonio in late March of 1926.  The moment the Carmelites came on the scene, the response was immediate.  Ladies of the area stopped only to find a head scarf before rushing to join others at the fire station for the first Mass.  With the help of the Archdiocese, the Carmelites made arrangements to rent a house on the northwest corner of Kentucky and Zarzamora streets.  After April 4th, subsequent Masses were held in the friars' home until a proper small wooden chapel, dedicated and blessed by Archbishop Drossaerts on Aug. 29th, could be built behind the fire station.  Nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of the people served by the new Carmelite Parish.  Even though they lived in one of the poorest areas of the city the newest parishioners were most generous to the friars.  Parishioners were uncommonly generous, offering fresh milk and eggs, and the best of their crops from gardens and fruit trees.  They were similarly handy with laundry, sewing, landscape and repair skills.

Early parishioners and peers describe the Carmelite Spanish Friars as "giants in the work of evangelization - very holy men who made their presence felt and commanded respect." One of the ways these Carmelites wished to give expression to their spiritual desires was through building a National Shrine in honor of St. Therese.  Fr. Raymond Gomez was the Major Superior of the Discalced Carmelites during the mid-1920s.  He undertook the action of visiting St. Therese's blood sisters in their convent of Carmel de Lisieux, France, to share his dream to honor the Little Flower with a beautiful shrine in the United States.  Therese's sisters were elated about these plans and they promised special prayers for all those who donated to the work.  After receiving the authorization of Pope Pius XI, the Carmelite's applied their expertise to planning for a National Shrine.

A fund raising campaign went on for several years.  Finally sufficient funds were available.  With the blessing of the Holy See; special prayers of the cloistered Carmelite Nuns of Lisieux and the repressed Mexican Catholic community; the financial support of American religious and the general public and the gratitude of the parishioners, construction began on the National Shrine of the Little Flower.  An elaborate groundbreaking ceremony was held on Sun., Oct. 13, 1929.

And so, with the support of many, the dream of a fitting monument to their Patroness of the Missions was to become a reality for these most astute businesslike Carmelite Friars.  In a quiet corner of America's oldest city of sanctuary for missions and missionaries, at the crossroads of the Spanish King's Camino Real and the first American transcontinental highway a monument would be built which would inspire generations of people to a deeper living of religious truth.