San Xavier Mission Church: warning or shelter?

Glancing off to the west from the 19 Freeway outside Tucson, I glimpsed what the San Xavier del Bac mission must have looked like in the 1700s: a gleaming white dome rising above the shrubs and trees like a lighthouse in the desert.

Was it offering shelter to travelers? Or warning of danger? Back when it was constructed, no doubt, the answer depended upon whether you were a traveling European/American or a Native American. As at other Spanish Missions across the Southwest, only Europeans and people from the American Colonies were welcomed as guests.

In the centuries since, things have changed. Today the San Xavier Mission church is surrounded by the large San Xavier Indian reservation. The homes and buildings owned by the San Xavier tribe members are spread out across the reservation and from a distance, they are essentially invisible. Only a small plot of land immediately around the church actually belongs to the Tucson Catholic Diocese.

Tohono O’odham vendors outside the mission

It is interesting to see how the architecture of this church, established in 1701, differed from the oldest California missions founded around 70 years later by Franciscans. The first thing I noticed was that it was grander, more “cathedral-like” than the ones in California that are more like a local parish churches. Much of the interior painting was far more sophisticated than the California mission churches.

I suspect that this difference in architecture and design is due to the fact that the San Xavier Mission was founded by a worldly, intelligent German Jesuit priest, Fr. Kino. Before he became a Jesuit, Kino was known as an reliable cartographer and mathematics professor. He mapped much of the land between Tucson and the Pacific ocean. San Xavier del Bac was his favorite saint, of course.

Saintly statues

This was something I had not seen before…or since. When I asked a church guide about the statue dressed like a priest, above, she told me it is supposed to represent San Xavier. It’s very surprising how much larger it is than the Christ on the Cross.

Who does this statue of a Native American , left, represent I’m not sure, but it was a later addition to the church, no doubt.

The courtyard is a lovely refuge today but was probably a work space back in the 1700s. Because there were so few priests, most of the work was done by Native Americans.

The Mission is now a parish church–albeit a very grand one. Interestingly enough, Father Kino was never the official priest at this church. Kino was in charge of the Mission Dolores (not the one in San Francisco!) which was further south in what is now Mexico and has over the centuries vanished into the desert. So far, the San Xavier del Bac church has been spared that fate, but who knows what future centuries may bring.

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