Crucifixion of Christ - St. Anthony du Padua Catholic Church, San Antonio, TX USA - Statues of Religious Figures on Waymarking.com

It is not surprising to see a large Crucifixion of Christ sculpture on Catholic Church property. Nor is it unusual that certain priests and nuns are allowed to be buried on the grounds of a Catholic Church. What is unusual is for the Crucifixion of Christ to be a rather stark, modernistic sculpture that is larger-than-lifesize and formed from polished aluminum and placed at the head of the gravesite of the founder of the Order of priests represented at this church.

The base of the sculpture is of polished black marble with a raised black marble platform in its center, on which is mounted the cross upon which the Christ figure has been nailed. Christ has his head raised to heaven, his arms spread to the end of the cross bar and has his legs bent, with feet nailed as well. The cross and the Christ are made of aluminum, and on sunny days with a clear sky, the sun is reflected off the sharp corners of the cross and of the shoulders, head and hands of the Christ figure.

The sculptor of this work was Charles Umlauf, who has his artwork all over the US. Many of his sculptures are in private collections but many more are on public displays. He worked mostly within Texas, with long lists of sculptures being in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, as well as many other smaller cities. His work is characteristically minimal and yet poignant. The casting of the cross and the Christ was done by the Roman Bronze Works.

The location of this sculpture is on the southeast corner of the church property along the east property line. The official address of the church is 102 Lorenz Rd., San Antonio, TX 78209; BUT, this address really does not help much in finding this Crucifixion of Christ sculpture. At the corner of W. Nottingham Drive and Peter Baque Road there is an entrance onto the Church property where the Padua Place building is found. Its address is listed as 80 Peter Baque Road, San Antonio, TX 78209. This building, at this corner, provides housing for priests. However, if you park on the north side/left side of this Padua Place building and then walk to the back side of this location and keep going away from it, you will eventually see the small gravesite area where a cluster of trees are growing. The Crucifixion of Christ sculpture is in the center of this cluster of trees on the back corner of the church property.

The central focus of this sculpture is the Jesus, who is hanging on the cross and is being executed by the Romans with support from the Jewish religious leadership. The significance of Jesus dying on the cross is that the scriptures tell that Jesus' death paid the price for mankind's sin that separates them from God. Jesus redeemed our souls from damnation/separation from God. The nuances and supporting background for these statements take up volumes of religious and philosophical literature. Hopefully, the following paragraphs borrowed from Wikipedia and used in other supporting submissions for sculptures of religious figures related to Jesus will give enough background of who Jesus is and what his crucifixion did. Please read the following:

"Jesus (c. 4 BC – AD 30 / 33), also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. Most Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah (the Christ) prophesied in the Old Testament.

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically, although the quest for the historical Jesus has yielded some uncertainty on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how closely the Jesus portrayed in the Bible reflects the historical Jesus, as the only records of Jesus' life are contained in the four Gospels. Jesus was a Galilean Jew, who was baptized by John the Baptist and began his own ministry. He preached orally and was often referred to as "rabbi". Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables and gathered followers. He was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, turned over to the Roman government, and crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. After his death, his followers believed he rose from the dead, and the community they formed eventually became the early Church.

Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return. Commonly, Christians believe Jesus enables people to be reconciled to God. The Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity. A small minority of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural. The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually on December 25 as Christmas. His crucifixion is honored on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. The widely used calendar era "AD", from the Latin anno Domini ("year of the Lord"), and the equivalent alternative "CE", are based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus.

Jesus is also revered outside of Christianity. In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets and the Messiah. Muslims believe Jesus was born of a virgin, but was neither God nor a begotten God. The Quran states that Jesus never claimed divinity. Muslims do not believe that he was killed or crucified, but that he was physically raised into Heaven by God. In contrast, Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies, and was neither divine nor resurrected." ~ Wikipedia

Associated Religion(s): Christian, Jewish and Islamic believers have Jesus as a central religious figure Statue Location: On the campus of the St. Anthony du Padua Catholic Church at 80 Peter Baque Rd, San Antonio, TX 78209 Entrance Fee: None Artist: Charles Umlauf Website: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the statue. A waymarker and/or GPSr is not required to be in the image but it doesn't hurt.

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Date Logged Log   02/10/2021 WayBetterFinder visited it