Calvary Catholic Cemetery
Laredo, Webb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Laredo experienced substantial growth in the late 1800s and soon the city needed a new cemetery. The process of creating Laredo’s fourth camposanto, however, was not an easy one. Efforts to build the cemetery date to the 1880s, but political considerations, economic transactions and complaints from residents delayed its use until the turn of the 20th century. Special sections in the cemetery include Babyland (for infants), and plots for burials of priests, Marist brothers and four orders of nuns who served Laredo (Ursulines, Divine Providence, Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of the Sacred Heart). Sections named Resurrection Garden, Pavilion Garden and Waterfall Garden serve as the final resting place for many laity. Soldiers, including Civil War veterans, are also interred here. Santos and Refugio Benavides, brothers who gained fame in the Civil War, and Bishop Pedro (Peter) Verdaguer of the Vicariate of Brownsville, 1896-1909, are among the notable individuals buried in the cemetery. With several additions since the first burial in 1901, including a mausoleum in 1960 and a columbarium in 2004, the cemetery continues to be a reminder of Laredo’s rich heritage. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2005
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As Laredo boomed in the late 1800s, the border city needed a fourth camposanto, but politics, money, and neighborhood objections delayed the new Catholic cemetery until 1901. Its grounds hold special sections for infants, for priests, and for the Marist brothers and four orders of nuns who served the city, alongside laity and soldiers. Among the notable dead are Civil War figures Santos and Refugio Benavides and Bishop Pedro Verdaguer of the Vicariate of Brownsville.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a lasting record of Laredo's deeply Catholic, borderland heritage and of the Tejano families whose service, including in the Civil War, shaped South Texas.
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Related people
- · Santos Benavides
- · Refugio Benavides
- · Bishop Pedro Verdaguer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Bishop Peter Verdaguer
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Born in Catalonia and educated in the United States, Peter Verdaguer was ordained in San Francisco in 1862 and served Catholic Indian missions in California before being named to lead the Vicariate of Brownsville. Consecrated a bishop in Barcelona in 1890, he settled in Laredo in 1891 to shepherd some 42,500 Catholics amid deep poverty and the great drought of the 1890s. Traveling by horseback across South Texas to baptize, marry, and confirm ranch families, he oversaw new churches and schools until his death, by which time the flock had grown to 82,000.
Refugio Benavides
Laredo, TX
A descendant of Laredo's 1755 founder Tomás Sánchez, Refugio Benavides was a pillar of one of the border city's leading families. He served as alderman and mayor before the Civil War, then rose to captain in the 3rd Texas Cavalry, commanding a company that defended the Rio Grande frontier and helped keep the valley open as a Confederate cotton-export route. After Reconstruction he returned to the mayor's office for three terms, improving schools, sewers, and the city charter.
City Cemetery
Laredo, TX
Laredo's earliest burial grounds were the Spanish camposantos, or "saints' fields," the first likely beside San Agustín Church. When the city dedicated this four-block cemetery in 1892, it set aside sections for Catholics, a Jewish burial area, a potter's field, and plots for church, civic, and labor groups — including the Mutualistas, mutual-aid societies vital to the Mexican American labor movement. A smallpox epidemic, an African American section, and generations of Día de los Muertos observances all left their mark on its grounds.