Kay Arrington: St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica

Experience more than 500 events a year at six premier city-run venues, plus over 70 festivals and community celebrations. Be art, be music, be entertainment, Belmont Events. Learn more at belmont events.com. From KVLU Public Radio in Belmont, Texas, this is Bayulands, the companion podcast where we're sharing some of our favorite conversations with a wide range of guests that we've interviewed for the KVLU radio docu series, exploring the people and places of Southeast Texas. For this episode, we're sharing Jason Miller's visit to St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica. Volunteer docent Kay Arrington led Jason on a tour of the historic church, which first aired on the Bayulands Radio show in 2021, along with a conversation with Bishop David Tubes, which you can also hear on this podcast. We hope you enjoy. And after my interview with Bishop Tubes, I was able to take a tour of St. Anthony's Cathedral Basilica. My tour guide talks about a lot of the significant symbolism and elements of this beautiful and historic church in Southeast Texas. Kay, we're outside of the St. Anthony's Basilica here in the downtown Beaumont area. And we're outside because these doors are beautiful. And on our tour, I wanted to just kind of start in the entranceway. What people see before they enter this beautiful church? Actually, these three doors are new since renovation. And they are the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious mysteries that we say in the rosary. If you will look, this is sorrowful mysteries as the center door. The cross is condemned. He's crowned with thorns. He's in the garden. He's carrying his cross. He's crucified. The doors also have bishop's staffs as door handles. I know people drive by often if they're in downtown. You can't miss this beautiful building. And the Latin that is written in the front of the building, what does it translate to? Maeteroclesia is Mother Church, and Porticelli is Bill Gates of Heaven. Okay. As we're walking through the main doors here, I wanted to ask you a bit about the history of the church. Just like when it was formed and when it was built. Well, the church was actually built in 1903. In 1901 was when the Lucas Gusher burst forth. And at that point, Beaumont was already a town, and there was a small Catholic church here, and by the name of St. Louis. It was just a wooden structure church that would hold around 300 people. But after the Lucas Gusher came in, people flooded into this area, and they didn't leave. A lot of them didn't leave. In fact, there were 9,000 people in Beaumont in early 1901.

By March of that year, there were 30,000 people here. It was an incredible, incredible influx of people. There was no place to sleep. There was no place to eat. They just... Everywhere, there were people. A lot of those people stayed, and Monsignor decided at that point that he needed to build another church. The Bishop of Galveston had already purchased this land, and they actually moved the little St. Louis Church to this property, and then they started construction. It took them four years to complete it, and the cost of the cathedral initially. was $50,000. It took us four and five years to renovate it and it cost us over $5 million. So inflation. Exactly. $50,000 in the early part of the 20th century is still a lot. A lot of money. It was a lot of money. And a lot of the elements were imported from Italy and elsewhere. In 1937 is when they added all the stained glass windows. They actually were made in Germany. All the ones in the nave of the church were all done in Germany. And then in the transeps, they were made in France. So they look totally different. Their colors are different, but they're all beautiful. Well, the stained glass windows are a tour in themselves. I'll tell you generally that there's the story of... Life of Christ, as well as most of the saints, a lot of the saints are depicted in these wonderful windows. St. Anthony of Padua was a contemporary of St. Francis of the C.C. He lived in Lisbon, Portugal. and he had a cathedral not far from his home where he spent a great deal of his time. This was the time of knights and ladies, and his father was very wealthy, and he expected his son to be a knight. But he had a calling of early age to become a priest. So when he was about 16, 15, 16 years old, he entered seminary, not far from his hometown in Portugal. Well, his friends kept coming to see him and bugging him, so he has to be transferred. And he went up to the northern part of Portugal. And that is where he encountered the Franciscans in St. Francis. There was a group of five Franciscans whose bones were brought back. from somewhere over in Spain, I believe. They were fighting the Moors, and they had gone there, the priest had gone there to try to convert to the Muslims, and they were all killed. So they were martyrs. Well, that's intrigued St. Anthony. He thought that that's what God wanted him to do. So he actually set out for Spain, but his ship was deterred by a huge storm, and he ended up in Italy.

where he was very sick when he first got there. And there were people who took care of him and helped him. And then that's when he got involved with the Franciscans. He was much younger than St. Francis, but he was still a contemporary at the same time. What is he the patron saying? The patron saint of lost articles. He's a patron saint of horses. He's the patron saint of amputees. There's a lot of different things that he's a patron saint of. Most people are familiar with lost articles, and he really can help you find things. I'm a testimony to that. The baptismal font is new since renovation. It's made of granite and gold leaf. The cross in the center is a Jerusalem cross. We do infant baptism in the bowl, and then we can do submerged baptism in the larger part of the font. This is the big baptismal candle that stands here when baptisms are being done. It's really unusual for a Catholic church to have submerged baptism, but we've had numerous people. It's interesting because I look and I see the depth in here. Yeah, it's four or five feet deep. The Jerusalem cross is just there to protect. people from falling in yeah because i look down there and i'm like yeah it's deep right now there's no water in it because of the pandemic but soon there will be but did it run before yes it does it has a it's a fountain steadily and the kind of little sound yes uh-huh absolutely it's beautiful we love it This church is called Romanesque, so it was, even though it was built in 1903, they took their cue from San Clemente in Rome. In fact, the entire apps is a copy, not a direct copy, but the whole thing looks like, the apps in St. Clemente in Rome.

Now look straight up at the dome of glory. Everything that's up there that looks like gold is gold. The dove that hangs from the center is a copy of a Bernini dove that hangs in the Vatican. The Balakino that covers the altar also has a beautiful gold and white dove. Within the dome is also all gold leaf. Inside our altar, we have relics of St. Anthony of Padua and of Catherine Drexel. We have a sliver of bone of St. Anthony of Padua and a piece of habit of St. Catherine Drexel. St. Catherine Drexel, if you're not familiar with her, she actually spent time here in Southeast Texas. Her father was a wealthy banker in Philadelphia, but he was a good Christian man, a good Catholic Christian man. At some point, he took his family across the United States by rail. And when they were on that trip, they witnessed the poverty. and they witnessed what was going on with the American Indians. It really touched her heart. So when her father died, he left her about a $20 million fortune. And she decided to do what she could for the Indians in the Southwest. So she started building schools. She built over 50 in her lifetime. the most famous of which is Xavier University in New Orleans. But she spent some time here. She had a mission here, and she had one in Orange. At some point, while she was here, the church had been threatened, not this church, but the earlier church, had been threatened with burning by the Ku Klux Klan. which was very active in some areas. They threatened to tar and feather the priest. So they began to pray for protection. And one night, in the month of May, there was a huge thunderstorm, as we only can have in southeast Texas. And two known Ku Klux Klan members were riding horseback, probably coming to do some damage, and they were both struck by lightning and killed. And one of the buildings of the Klu Klux Klan was also strep by lightning. They had no further problems with the Klu Klux Klan.

So we're on the altar, and we can look down to the church, and we see the choir aloft. And, you know, one of the things is like, I know a lot of churches, they don't use their lofts anymore. They would have the choir in different places. But here at the cathedral, they're still in the original loft that was there? It is. There's 2,500 pipes up there. Wow. And it is a Wix organ. It was donated to the first one. It was no donated to the cathedral. by the Bordash family, and the Bordash family were an early Catholic family that still resides here in this community. Mr. and Mrs. Bordash had nine children, I believe, and all the women became nuns except one, and she's a school teacher, and still alive, and still a member of this parish. And then there were two sons, and they both became priest. And the organ is still used, right? The organ is used every week. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. and here on the show, and Kay, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. It's my pleasure. Thanks to our guest for this episode, Kay Arrington. St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica is located at 700 Jefferson Street in Belmont. In 1980, the Texas Historical Commission named it a recorded Texas Historic Landmark. If you enjoy the conversation shared in Bayulands, please remember to follow wherever you find your podcasts. It really helps. And join us on social media at 91.3 KVLU Public Radio on Facebook and Bayulands on Instagram. Bayulands is produced in the studios of 91.3 KVLU in Belmont, Texas by Shannon Harris and Jason M. Miller. Thanks to the H.H. and Nedna Hausman Charitable Trust for making this program possible since 2016. Additional support is provided by the Mamie McFadden Ward Heritage Foundation, the Hebert Foundation, and the Texas Historical Foundation. You can hear the radio broadcast every 4th Sunday at 5 p.m. Central Standard Time on 91.3 FM and online at KVLU.org. A brand new episode will air Sunday, August 23rd at 5 p.m. Thanks for listening.