St. Patrick Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Texas. The cathedral is located at 1118 N. Mesa Street, north of the downtown area. It is the mother church for 668,000 Catholics in the diocese (80.8% of total population; as of the 2006 survey). The cathedral parish operates one of El Paso's Catholic high schools, Cathedral High School, and St. Patrick Elementary School adjacent to the church. The church was designed by Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, an architectural firm from St Louis, Missouri. It was built in the form of a Byzantine basilica, in the Italian Renaissance style. In raising funds for the cathedral's construction, the diocese offered to allow the first group to raise $10,000 for the project to name the new cathedral. A group of Irish Catholic women met the challenge and chose St. Patrick as patron. At the time El Paso was a major center of the mining industry in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, with many of the miners being Irish. The ground was broken on April 8, 1914 and the church and the cornerstone were blessed in a ceremony by Fr Edward Barry on November 12, 1916. The interior of the cathedral is adorned with Roman columns, elaborate frescoes that depict biblical scenes and the Stations of the Cross are carved in bas-relief on the interior walls. The high altar contains a 2.5-meter-tall statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with a large canopy over the altar, topped with a golden eagle. The church seats about 800 people for Mass. In alcoves along the walls there are a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a life-size classical sculpture of St. Patrick. The stained-glass windows depict scenes from the life of Jesus and the Church. More information...
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